Lorna Smithers (Contributor of Pagan Planet)

Lorna Smithers rated a book it was amazing Winds of Spirit: Ancient Wisdom Tools for Navigating Relationships, Health, and the Divine by Renee Baribeau (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Winds of Spirit is an inspired and inspirational book by Renee Baribeau. It provides a framework for working shamanically with the winds in order to navigate better through our lives and be of service to the spirits and others. As far as I know, this ...more
Jul 24, 2026 05:35AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Winds of Spirit by Renee Baribeau. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Winds of Spirit by Renee Baribeau <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Lorna Smithers rated a book it was amazing Making Friends With Yourself: A Practical Guide on How Meditation Can Take You From Overwhelm to an Inner Calm by Sarah Presley	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sarah Presley is a meditation teacher and author based in Bristol. Her book, Making Friends With Yourself: A Practical Guide on How Meditation Can Take You From Overwhelm to An Inner Calm, is part memoir and part practical guide. Presley shares her j ...more
Jun 08, 2026 03:33AM · like · see review
Lorna Smithers rated a book it was amazing Being Jake: Growing Up Autistic in a World That Didn't Understand Me by Jake ogden	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jake Ogden is a local autistic person and autism ambassador based near me in Leyland. Over the past few years, he has been raising awareness about autism through public speaking, interviews and his book, Being Jake. In this short book, Jake shares hi ...more
May 19, 2026 02:37AM · like · see review
Lorna Smithers rated a book it was amazing Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery by Mallary Tenore Tarpley (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Slip: Life in the Middle of the Eating Disorder Recovery by Mallary Tenore Tarpley is an important book. As far as I know it’s the first book that highlights the complex and ambiguous nature of the term ‘full recovery’ within eating disorder treatmen ...more
May 04, 2026 03:25AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Slip by Mallary Tenore Tarpley. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Slip by Mallary Tenore Tarpley <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

Lorna Smithers rated a book it was amazing

Winds of Spirit: Ancient Wisdom Tools for Navigating Relationships, Health, and the Divine
by Renee Baribeau (Goodreads Author)

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Winds of Spirit is an inspired and inspirational book by Renee Baribeau. It provides a framework for working shamanically with the winds in order to navigate better through our lives and be of service to the spirits and others.

As far as I know, this Winds of Spirit is an inspired and inspirational book by Renee Baribeau. It provides a framework for working shamanically with the winds in order to navigate better through our lives and be of service to the spirits and others.

As far as I know, this book is unique, as it is the first to focus solely on working with the winds and to provide a modern wind-based divinatory system. This is based on a combination of historical and cultural research and phenomenological evidence based on personal and group experiences.

Baribeau speaks candidly about her spiritual awakening from drug and alcohol addiction and how this led to her training in shamanism in the Native American, Chilean, Mexican and Peruvian traditions. Whilst working as a shamanic healer, she received the name ‘the practical shaman’ on the basis of her talent for helping people to find the tools to improve their everyday lives.

It’s no surprise, then, that this book is very practical and accessible. The idea at its centre is ‘using the body as a compass for navigating through life.’ This is simple, intuitive, but something we too often neglect in our digital world. Thus, embodied presence in the here-and-now, provides the ground.

Baribeau echoes the wisdom of worldwide religious traditions, emphasising the importance of establishing a prayer and meditation practice and also practicing surrender, acceptance, devotion and mindfulness. Only when we have this grounding can we begin to work with the ungrounding forces of the winds.

Baribeau’s system is based around the cardinal winds of the four directions, which she associates with the cycles of life (‘birth, expansion, death and decay’) and to which she assigns the following resonances: East - mind, south - emotions, west - body, north - spirituality and community.

She goes on to describe both inner and outer winds and their different types. I particularly related to the section where she speaks of how tailwinds can drive you forward, headwinds can blow against you or be used for uplift, and crosswinds can blow you off course or bring detours that result in gifts. I found myself nodding along as I recognised these types of wind in my life.

Baribeau shares a variety of practices for working with the winds, such as wind baths, wind knots and the weather vane process. She also talks about taking a wind walk as a way of finding clarity and insight. Finally, she lists 29 winds from world-wide cultures and their meaning when they arrive in the four quadrants and the blessings they can bring when called in.

I live in Lancashire, in an area usually dominated by a strong, damp, west wind that blows in from the sea and up the Ribble estuary and is one I often find myself fighting against when I’m cycling in a westward direction. Less often, we experience a drier and airier wind from the east, a warmer wind from the south, or a bitterly cold wind from the north or from the north-west.

This book has inspired me to listen to them better, to think of my body as a compass, to tune in to what they’re saying and how they relate to my inner winds.

Overall, it is well-researched and contains an excellent blend of ancient and modern wisdom. It is remarkably accessible in its grounding in our shared experience, in the breath we share, in our inner winds, in the outer winds that blow across our lands and appear with different names in different cultures. I would recommend it to those on a shamanic or nature-based path and to all who seek understanding and communion with the winds in their lives and localities. ...more

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Making Friends With Yourself by Sarah Presley

Making Friends With Yourself: A Practical Guide on How Meditation Can Take You From Overwhelm to an Inner Calm
by Sarah Presley

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Sarah Presley is a meditation teacher and author based in Bristol. Her book, Making Friends With Yourself: A Practical Guide on How Meditation Can Take You From Overwhelm to An Inner Calm, is part memoir and part practical guide.

Presley shares her j Sarah Presley is a meditation teacher and author based in Bristol. Her book, Making Friends With Yourself: A Practical Guide on How Meditation Can Take You From Overwhelm to An Inner Calm, is part memoir and part practical guide.

Presley shares her journey ‘from illness to wellness’. She speaks of how she came to suffer from ME and resulting anxiety and depression due to a high pressure job. She then goes on the describe her discovery of meditation and how this enabled her to establish a sense of calm and formed the ground for her recovery, leading to a successful career as a holistic practitioner and meditation teacher and to co-running the British School of Meditation.

Presley provides an account of why she meditates and how meditation can help others, including the science. She then shares some of the foundational forms of meditation along with her favourites, documents how they have helped her, and shares guided meditations for the audience to read and listen to (there are audio links to her website included). The forms of meditation include: breath awareness, mantra, body scan, guided visualisation, mindful movement, loving-kindness and gratitude.

In her introduction to meditation, Presley talks about how she was initially resisted it because of her preconceived idea it meant silencing the mind and only calm people can do it (this is very common). Once she gave it a go she discovered: ‘we are not attempting to silence the inner dialogue. We are instead offering the mind something on which to focus which allows us to be in the present moment. This could be your breath, your body, a word, a phrase, an image, a movement, or an object.’ Distractions are normal. Noticing and returning to the focus is ‘the art of meditation.’

Later in the book, she talks of thoughts as our ‘friends’ and shares ways of recognising, labelling and coming to gain a witness perspective on them. Throughout, a non-judgemental attitude to thoughts and emotions is advocated.

As an autistic person who struggles with anxiety, I related strongly to Presley’s words on this subject. She speaks of how naming and fearing her anxiety perpetuated her panic and of how meditation gave her the space to be able to view her anxiety and its effects on her mind and body from an observer’s perspective. This led her to changing its name to ‘Mavis’, giving it less power.

‘Giving anxiety a new name now meant I could view the part of myself which was feeling anxious and scared. I would be more aware of when Mavis was arriving and be able to engage the rational part of my brain to ask if the situation I was in required a visit from her. Or even if she had already stormed in, I was able to ride out her visit knowing she would be leaving soon after. After all, she was just doing her best job to protect me from what she perceived as danger. I realised the overwhelming feeling of panic wasn’t attempting to trip me up but instead was giving me something I could use to learn and grow. Most importantly, I accepted and made peace with Mavis being in my life.’

As a shamanic practitioner, I understand how dis-identifying from anxiety, viewing it as a part of oneself with a distinctive and unique personality with a function and needs, and accepting it as part of one’s life can be helpful.

Presley goes on to share how mantra has been a big help in dealing with anxiety. When she first came across meditation and the mantra ‘Om’, she experienced a ‘a huge amount of resistance to repeating’ it due to cliched media portrayals. Instead, she chose the words ‘happy, healthy and strong’.

Presley describes how ‘mantra’, from man ‘mind’ and ‘tra’ vehicle is a ‘mind vehicle’ ‘you use to replace your thoughts’. Likewise, I have sometimes found, when I’m hyper-stimulated, anxious, or overwhelmed, more focused meditation doesn’t work and the only thing that can cut through the racing traffic of my thoughts is a single juggernaut-like thought or word - mantra.

Presley also deals with worry and anger. For worry she recommends guided visualisation (or guided experiencing) and provides a lovely meditation where ‘worry’ is written on a pebble and then discarded on a beach. For anger, which can often be locked in the body in the form of myofascial knots (I am oh so familiar with these!), she prescribes mindful movement. She also explains how loving-kindness helps alter our neural pathways and heals the heart.

This is a very lovely, personable and practical book that teaches all a new-comer needs to know about meditation and provides some interesting facts and personal anecdotes that will be valuable to experienced meditators too. Its strengths lie in the knowledgeable and compassionate approach taken to using meditation to help deal with difficult emotions - a territory Presley charts well. I would recommend it to all people who are interested in or already practice meditation and to those who are struggling with similar issues. ...more

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Being Jake: Growing Up Autistic in a World That Didn't Understand Me
by Jake ogden

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Jake Ogden is a local autistic person and autism ambassador based near me in Leyland. Over the past few years, he has been raising awareness about autism through public speaking, interviews and his book, Being Jake.

In this short book, Jake shares hi Jake Ogden is a local autistic person and autism ambassador based near me in Leyland. Over the past few years, he has been raising awareness about autism through public speaking, interviews and his book, Being Jake.

In this short book, Jake shares his experiences of growing up in a world that didn’t understand him. He speaks with frankness and humour of ‘the cost of missing rules’, the exhausting effort of ‘translating what others take for granted’ and bridging the gap ‘between what’s assumed and what’s actually explained.’

This comes across most memorably in a couple of examples. ‘When I was about six, I stared at a glass of orange juice because the label said concentrate. When my nan told me to “hop off the bus,” I hopped down the aisle on one leg.’ As a fellow autistic person who also takes things literally these stories resonated with me.

The book covers a wide range of topics from why time pursuing interests and routine and predictability are essential to self-regulation and how relationships with friends and family need to be built on trust and reciprocity. It also addresses masking and its costs in terms of effort and how acting out can lead to making the wrong connections (I have done this!).

I particularly related to the chapter on ‘anxiety, overload and losing control’. Jake’s description of anxiety was very familiar: ‘Anxiety isn’t something that comes and goes for me. It’s something I live with. It’s common among autistic people, and it doesn’t always look like panic or fear. Often, it’s persistent, invasive, and without an off-switch. It settles into the background and waits… Anxiety brings decision paralysis, mental looping, and an inability to shift focus once my attention has locked in place.’

He speaks of his recognition of how learning to cope with anxiety is not a cure and of his mixed experiences with CBT. ‘It treated anxiety as a thinking error instead of a system overload. That meant the responsibility stayed with me to tolerate environments that were actively dysregulating’ and critiques its failure to take into account ‘how autistic overwhelm works’.

This fits with my own experience of anxiety that stems from system overload. CBT can be useful for addressing unhelpful thoughts and worries but it’s limited to the cognitive faculties only and doesn’t take into consideration the differences in sensory gating, information processing, or nervous system response in autistic people.

Jake also mentions issues around food, which is something many autistic people struggle with. I related to needing to eat the same foods at the same times and to finding that learning the facts behind nutrition and a structured approach to diet have been the best way of maintaining a healthy weight.

This book provides a personal, open, honest, no nonsense account of what it is like growing up and living with autism in a neurotypical world. I would recommend it to autistic people, those who suspect they might be autistic and those who are curious about learning about autism from an autistic viewpoint. ...more

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Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery
by Mallary Tenore Tarpley (Goodreads Author)

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Slip: Life in the Middle of the Eating Disorder Recovery by Mallary Tenore Tarpley is an important book. As far as I know it’s the first book that highlights the complex and ambiguous nature of the term ‘full recovery’ within eating disorder treatmen Slip: Life in the Middle of the Eating Disorder Recovery by Mallary Tenore Tarpley is an important book. As far as I know it’s the first book that highlights the complex and ambiguous nature of the term ‘full recovery’ within eating disorder treatment and proposes the possibility of a middle ground.

Each chapter combines memoir with journalistic work. Tarpley tells the story of her struggles of anorexia from when it was triggered by grief at losing her mother when she was eleven years old through sickness, hospitalisation and perceived recovery to a further relapse at college and a lapse following pregnancy.

Each section of memories is followed by reflections on an aspect of the eating disorder from her present-day perspective combined with interviews and research. Subjects covered include: the relationship between eating disorders and grief, the problems of lack of eating disorder awareness in the medical professions and misdiagnosis particularly for BIPOC and those in larger bodies, and how the egosyntonic nature of restrictive eating disorders is supported by thin ideals and fat phobia in contemporary society.

At its core lies Tarpley’s concept of ‘the middle place’. She defines this in the introduction to the book as ‘the liminal space that many of us inhabit as we work our way toward wellness.’ She notes that the term ‘full recovery’ is complicated and inadequately defined. ‘The middle place provides a framework that is more inclusive of people who don’t see themselves as fully recovered… (who)… meet all the BMI and body-weight criteria’ but ‘still have distorted thoughts that dictate their choices regarding food and exercise.’

In ‘Chapter Six: The Possibility of Recovery’ she dives deeper. She speaks of how she felt eating disorder recovery was unavailable to her because some of her ‘treatment providers described it as the absence of the eating disorder and all the distorted thoughts that came with it… if I didn’t have anorexia would I still be me?’

In contrast to this approach she says, ‘It’s less about the eradication of the disorder but the elucidation of it’. Getting to know the ‘eating disorder self’, what triggers it, what messages it brings, so it can then be accepted and integrated with the ‘healthy self’ and the latter can be strengthened. She also speaks of onboarding the strengths associated with the eating disorder.

This was incredibly illuminating and reassuring for me. I’ve had an eating disorder since I was six years old. This began with binge eating then developed predominantly into restricting and over-exercising combined with binge drinking. Only recently, aged 44, whilst at a lowish normal weight but still struggling psychologically, have I had a clinical diagnosis. Having read Jenni Schaefer’s books, Life Without Ed and Goodbye Ed, Hello Me, and come across other anecdotes of full recovery that involve ditching weighing and calculating in favour of intuitive eating and leaving behind all weight-related and distorted thoughts, it felt impossible.

I’m autistic and my eating disorder is so bound up with my restrictive and repetitive behaviours that I don’t know where it ends and I begin. The best I’ve been able to do is harness my need for routine and fascination with science and need for calculation to create a healthier diet and exercise regime. Being able to weigh and measure is the only thing that stops me restricting or over-exercising out of panic that I might be in a surplus and gain weight. Thus, the eating disorder and I are currently at a point of uneasy allegiance.

When Tarpley was in the full hold of her eating disorder, she described it as: ’an invisible sea monster that had slowly wrapped itself around my body without my even realizing it’ tightening its grip to the point she ‘couldn’t break free.’ I’ve also seen my eating disorder as a serpent wrapped around me and a Siamese twin and felt that if we completely separated it would kill me.

This has helped me to accept where I’m at now better, whilst maintaining hope of improvement. Importantly, Tarpley states: ‘Living in the middle place isn’t about giving up on full recovery, it’s about viewing recovery as an ongoing process rather than a final destination.’

This book has been helpful for me both as a person with lived experience of an eating disorder and as a shamanic practitioner. I’m hoping that the insights within will help me to be more compassionate towards myself at the place I’m at in eating disorder recovery and to have a better understanding of clients who present with food and body image related issues. ...more

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