Navigating Shitstorms: How to Find Your True Path When Life Gets Rough

by Liz Long

A guide to finding peace, love, freedom, and joy

Shit happens, and when it does, the voice in our heads that we choose to listen to—and believe—determines whether we’ll land in Victimtown or Freedomville. In Navigating Shitstorms, Liz Long shares her challenges and successes in battling the destructive Victimtown voices that control through fear and invites you to amplify your heart voice, your own source of innate wisdom, to guide you to Freedomville.

Having spent more than fifty years stuck in Victimtown as a result of her close family member’s disappearance in 1968, a case that continues to be one of Canada’s longest unsolved murder investigations, Liz knows the terrain as well as any local. Touring Victimtown’s most popular attractions—such as the Guilt & Shame Café, the Control Factory, the Denial Trails, and more—Liz demonstrates that while short visits offer life lessons and healing, extended stays lead to all kinds of problems. This groundbreaking framework to understanding the voices in your head will enable you to

• open healing conversations with yourself and others by equipping you with an accessible language to discuss mental health,
• reframe your shitty inner dialogues by embracing a new awareness, and
• discover your own route to Freedomville by learning to love yourself without limits or conditions.

Written in Liz’s fresh and relatable voice and interspersed with her funny-not-funny memories, Navigating Shitstorms will take you on a personal journey to make sense of how you got to where you are now and find your true life course.

264 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2023

About the author

Liz Long spent over fifty years stuck in Victimtown. After a close family member, Lynda White, went missing, six-year-old Liz was forced into a shitstorm of epic proportions. Five years later, Lynda’s body was found, and her case remains one of Canada’s longest unsolved murders. Having found her own path to healing, including inpatient treatment at a recovery center, Liz is now dedicated to mental health advocacy and inspiring others by sharing her story.

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Greenleaf Book Group for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

I needed to read this book. Not because I have to fill some non-fiction quota this month in my reads but rather because I have been navigating a shitstorm of my own these nineteen months. That's a fact. I am not looking for pity. This book resonated deeply and I don't think I was quite finished with the book before the deep sobs and tear-stained face started. Liz, I don't want to stay in victim town or in the anger parking lot but it's a struggle when the grief is so deep.

Liz Long shares her own personal story and weaves in how that experience has made her reflect. It is not preachy or condescending. There's a validation to our own feelings while Liz also encourages us that we do need to find our way to the other side. The writing almost feels like we are sitting on a park bench, sipping coffees and she is speaking quietly to me while I dry my tears. So yeah, future readers can expect to find a lot of raw emotion within the walls of this book.

The chapters are easy to follow and the sections are broken up for when a reader needs to take a break and gather their emotions.

I know this one is not out until August but I want to create some buzz for a book that I believe could help a lot of people.

#NavigatingShitstorms #NetGalley
Expected Publication 01/08/23
Goodreads Review 26/06/23

[Caitlin Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book ongoing and feel so connected to Liz Long -she's been through it and has come out the other end. The observations are at once profound and hilarious, in my opinion, the zenith of writing when you can pull that off.

I don't want to finish this book, I want to keep reading it. I'm getting a copy for my sister and another friend as a gift. It's easy to read and I don't want to whip through it too quickly. It's a perfect book to read a chapter, mull over it and put it down, then pick it up for later. Lots of 'Aha!'s.

Kudos, Liz!

[ashley and the never ending TBR · Rating 5 out of 5]

*** Thank you to Netgalley, Liz Long, and Greenleaf Book Group for the ARC***
Release Date: 08.01.2023

We all have shit happen in our lives. Some of us handle it better than other. I handle every bad thing that comes my way horribly – I internalize it all and eventually blow up. I used to go to therapy to discuss my issues but I never got down to the reason why it was happening – just talking in real time about said issues. Therapy helped but I never learned anything about myself. I started Navigating Shitstorms as a way to hopefully do some reflection and see if that would help in addition to talking about my feelings.
Childhood: the start of everyone’s trauma. Liz starts by going into her own childhood before throwing psychology at you. I assumed my childhood was well, but I, as a millennial went through so many devastating world events starting with 9/11 at 8 years old and boy, the trauma just kept rolling after that – not only globally but also within my own family. I too, like Liz, took the approach of learning how to not rely on anyone for anything.
Victimtown: (with a great picture / info graph) – Everyone is a victim to something at some time. It just depends on how you handle the situation. As Liz said, and this will probably stick with me forever, “All victims are not created equal”. There are some who want to remain a victim forever and thrive on that attention. There are others who want to get past this stressor and move on with their life. There is no right or wrong, but learning about Victimtown, it is important to realize the vast ways many handle being the victim. The rest of the book breaks down all the “landmarks” of Victim town. And how to get yourself to Freedomtown.
Liz, I am sorry for all that has happened to you in your life. Every passing chapter I felt my eyes getting wider and wider and I am impressed with how much you have overcome. Taking all that you have bestowed on myself in this book, I think I can now make more conscious decisions on handling the stressors in my life before letting them snowball and become a giant freaking problem.

[Millie Blackwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have NO idea how "Navigating Shitstorms" has only 12 reviews so far here on Goodreads, and only six on Amazon. This book, as tragic as Liz's personal story is within, has helped me heal in ways no other self-help guru has managed to in the decade I've spent trying to find ways to love myself.

Liz isn't a psychologist. She isn't a life coach or anthropologist or guru, or anything like that. She's just like you and me, a regular-everyday person taking life each day at a time, strapped with an emotional backpack of pain, anger, control issues, and everything else accumulated over the years we now struggle to leave behind, as much as we would love to.

In the book, Liz commands a relatable and easy-to-visualize approach to breaking free from a victimhood mentality by translating the very concept into the analogy of a "Victimtown" that is home to a number of varied tourist traps (The Control Factory, The Guilt and Shame Cafe -- The Denial Trails, etc.)

Exploring Victimtown and all it has to offer takes up most of the book, interspersed with snippets of Liz's own personal story of childhood tragedy and how it defined her in adulthood, keeping her trapped in Victimtown for many years. The latter section explores "Freedomville", a utopia of self acceptance and letting go, and how to get there, navigated by what Liz dubs the "Heart-Voice".

"Navigating Shitstorms" is just as much our story as it is Liz's story, and when I say this book changed my life, I mean it. This isn't a sales pitch.

This book is a powerful tool to be used in the realms of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Self Accountability. If you decide to take the plunge, I encourage you to treat this book more as a work book than any other self-help book. Really taking Liz's writings to heart, and implementing the different perspectives and concepts she introduces on the daily, has helped me heal and shift my way of thinking in ways I never imagined.

Liz, if you're reading this, thanks a ton for sharing your vulnerability and story with the world. Your book entered my life by happenstance. It was clearly meant to be, and I hope your work gets the recognition it deserves.

[C.R. Comacchio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am grateful to NetGalley and Greenleaf Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Liz Long deserves much credit for her honesty in laying bare the ‘shitstorm’ that her life has been for nearly twenty years—not one big storm, which remarkably doesn’t kill you however much the suffering, but a series in short order that leave you no time to pull yourself together in between. Even if the details differ in what readers have endured compared to her lot, much of what she reveals is relatable. If you live long enough, you get to pass through things big and small that you hope never to confront again. While Long tells a very intimate and personal tale, including the unbelievable
story of her sister’s murder that resulted in the longest court case ever in Canada, readers will find that it resonates. She describes victimization and recovery as two ‘towns’ that we all visit, how to cope with what goes on there, and, most important, how to make your way out with enough ‘you’ left to get better. And all in very readable, understandable terms. Most of us need a book like this.

[Jennifer MacAulay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very heart-felt and honest depiction of dealing with addictions, and family trauma. The approach was quite unique but I found it effective. The history of the author is quite harrowing but she seems to have found a way to deal with her past and move forward. She is very forthright and blunt and some may not be comfortable with some of the language. I thought her use of the various spaces an intriguing way of compartmentalizing the different aspects of recovery. It is not a straight line, or smooth process. This book could be beneficial for someone dealing with past trauma and trying to break free of an addiction. It also gives a window into the mind of someone of someone in those circumstances, and suggests how to be more compassionate, if you are not suffering from theses issues yourself.

[Lizz Axnick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a self help book I plan to buy. Liz Long writes a very relatable, very visual story about her journey with depression and learning to unpack her baggage at "The Place." When I was reading the book I was imagining my own version of Victimtown and what kinds of places would be in it. I appreciated the humor of the names of places and the metaphors such as filling up at the anger fueling station and the Resentment parking lot.

I want to explore this book more deeply and will be purchasing it when it is published.

My thanks to Greenleaf Book Group Press and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Vikki Bullock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shit happens to us all, at some point in our lives, often more than once or twice. It’s how we learn to deal with life that determines how we live.
This book is someone’s journey, someone’s guide and perhaps, someone’s way forward, to navigate through the shit!
A well written, honest account of responding to emotional distress, considering how we process our thoughts and actions and also understanding other’s approach to dealing with what life throws at them.

Thanks so much to the publisher, NetGalley and the very brave author for the opportunity to read this book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Lulu333 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not my usual read but I found it really helpful and well worth reading. I received this book from NetGalley, for which I am very grateful. I do not have an addiction nor do I have anyone close to me who has struggled with addiction and this book opened a safe window for me to experience someone’s journey through it. It gave me insight and more empathy towards people who are struggling.

I think we need this book to help reduce the stigma associated with addiction.

I recommend this book!

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had a nice balance between an interesting memoir style of writing and more practical implementable information. It was very well organized and easy to read. I liked that it was broken down into parts and within the parts there were short chapters with even shorter sections. I found it easy to keep reading knowing that I wasn't committing to a big long section each time I chose to keep going.

[Danielle Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was quite surprised by the honesty and realness Liz provides. She creates a unique way to help us explore ourselves, and to see where we may be hiding out at. I feel blessed that I came across Navigating Shitstorms and feel as if I have a worded friend to encourage me along the way.

[Lauren Hathaway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Navigating Shitstorms is a compelling and insightful self-help book that addresses the inevitable challenges life throws our way. Drawing from her personal experiences, Liz Long skillfully navigates the complex terrain of the mind, offering a unique perspective on the battle between the destructive voices that lead to Victimtown and the empowering heart voice that guides towards Freedomville.

Her fresh and relatable voice makes the book engaging and authentic. This book is a valuable resource for those seeking to overcome challenges, fostering healing conversations with themselves and others. It serves as a roadmap to rediscover one's true life course, encouraging readers to embrace awareness, self-love, and ultimately find their way to Freedomville.

[Lisa P · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** Thank you to Netgalley, Liz Long, and Greenleaf Book Group for the ARC***
Release Date: 08.01.2023

As someone who has lived with depression all my life, I was immediately drawn to this book; by title alone. I am always looking for more ways to cope, to preserver and knowledge to share.

This book is great at breaking down the many stages/feelings that accompany depression, grief, etc. I loved that it’s in layman’s terms, and the “laugh out loud” experiences Liz has encountered.

Thank you again for a wonderful book, that I will be recommending to friends and family!!

[D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked the raw emotion coming from Liz and how she navigated through the struggles. She was honest that helped you keep your eyes open and aware of what is happening. Within her writing of her personal story, she provides skills and advice that helped her. It was a good book