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Handbook for the Heartbroken: A Woman's Path from Devastation to Rebirth
In a heartbreak-illiterate world, Handbook for the Heartbroken offers solace and support through losses of all kinds.
After experiencing serial heartbreaks over a span of five years, Sara Avant Stover felt deeply impacted by our culture’s dysfunctional relationship with loss―especially for women. We’re encouraged at every turn to hurry up and get on with it. But by trying to power through these messier seasons of life, we’re denying ourselves the very answers to our healing and growth.
Handbook for the Heartbroken shares the grounded guidance Sara discovered during her own season of turmoil. Blending her expertise in Internal Family Systems and various wisdom traditions, she examines the three main phases of devastation, transformation, and rebirth. With each phase, she offers gentle lessons and supportive practices for anyone experiencing falls from grace, both past and present―the end of a relationship or job, the death of a loved one, infertility or abortion, a financial crisis, or any other form of loss.
“Heartbreak is an inevitable part of everyone’s life journey,” writes Sara. “It’s by returning to our essential qualities like patience, openheartedness, and trust that we can truly heal.” Handbook for the Heartbroken weaves together personal stories, anecdotes from students and clients, spiritual teachings, practices, and journaling prompts―giving us the tools to fully embrace the harder seasons of life and “become fully wise, mature, integrated human beings.”
After experiencing serial heartbreaks over a span of five years, Sara Avant Stover felt deeply impacted by our culture’s dysfunctional relationship with loss―especially for women. We’re encouraged at every turn to hurry up and get on with it. But by trying to power through these messier seasons of life, we’re denying ourselves the very answers to our healing and growth.
Handbook for the Heartbroken shares the grounded guidance Sara discovered during her own season of turmoil. Blending her expertise in Internal Family Systems and various wisdom traditions, she examines the three main phases of devastation, transformation, and rebirth. With each phase, she offers gentle lessons and supportive practices for anyone experiencing falls from grace, both past and present―the end of a relationship or job, the death of a loved one, infertility or abortion, a financial crisis, or any other form of loss.
“Heartbreak is an inevitable part of everyone’s life journey,” writes Sara. “It’s by returning to our essential qualities like patience, openheartedness, and trust that we can truly heal.” Handbook for the Heartbroken weaves together personal stories, anecdotes from students and clients, spiritual teachings, practices, and journaling prompts―giving us the tools to fully embrace the harder seasons of life and “become fully wise, mature, integrated human beings.”
288 pages, Paperback
Published May 7, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 21, 2024
🤚📕 Won in a giveaway 💔❤️
This is mostly a memior and self help book. I liked how the author shared her own experiences dealing with loss and grief. I know I am never alone with my own losses or grief but it can feel like it sometimes. Reading or hearing about someone else going through something somewhat similar doesn't make me necessarily happy but feel more relatable to others. The first chapter immediately pulled me in. When she talks about hearing devastating news from a significant other. Saying how she was telling herself it (the situation) wasn't real. That was so incredibly relatable to how I have felt in awful situations as well. My heart broke for her. I knew this was a book for me. I like how she talks about the ways she pulled herself out. I like how she talked about getting outside and walking, even when you don't want to. Especially when you don't want to. It actually encouraged me to take a walk the other morning. Her words "Especially when you don't want to" rang in my head. I got up and went. I like books that inspire like that. While this book is targeted toward women, I'd recommend to anyone interested in this topic. I enjoyed it. Thank you to the author, Sara Avant Stover, Sounds True & Goodreads for my free copy. Happy reading!! 💖💞💝
This is mostly a memior and self help book. I liked how the author shared her own experiences dealing with loss and grief. I know I am never alone with my own losses or grief but it can feel like it sometimes. Reading or hearing about someone else going through something somewhat similar doesn't make me necessarily happy but feel more relatable to others. The first chapter immediately pulled me in. When she talks about hearing devastating news from a significant other. Saying how she was telling herself it (the situation) wasn't real. That was so incredibly relatable to how I have felt in awful situations as well. My heart broke for her. I knew this was a book for me. I like how she talks about the ways she pulled herself out. I like how she talked about getting outside and walking, even when you don't want to. Especially when you don't want to. It actually encouraged me to take a walk the other morning. Her words "Especially when you don't want to" rang in my head. I got up and went. I like books that inspire like that. While this book is targeted toward women, I'd recommend to anyone interested in this topic. I enjoyed it. Thank you to the author, Sara Avant Stover, Sounds True & Goodreads for my free copy. Happy reading!! 💖💞💝
March 21, 2024
Sarah Avant Stover’s handbook points out that there are many diverse paths to healing after heartbreak. Many people have experienced suffering during and following COVID, and she had added burdens, including health issues, unemployment and betrayal(s) to navigate around the same time. Her insights, acquired through making meaning out of her own suffering, and insights gained with her therapeutic work as an Internal Family Systems counselor, are immensely helpful. Her openness to unconventional practices, mixed with more traditional 12-step based higher power beliefs, were intriguing. Her openness to trying diverse paths should help many find what works for them as they emerge from the fog of hopelessness.. She shows the way toward forgiving others by first forgiving herself. If you have a broken heart, and are searching for ways to be whole once more, this is an inspiring and compassionate guide out of the darkness into wisdom and light. Her simple suggestion “ask for help” can be the beginning of a new life.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews