What do you think?
Rate this book
EVERYDAY SOUL DANCES: A Guide to Soulful Living in the Midst of Uncertain Times
EVERYDAY SOUL DANCES is a book for people interested in attaining a deeper sense of spirituality and psychological strengths. Pathways from yogic traditions, evocative words from the Divine Mother, and psychological practices help the reader explore issues that each of us faces on a daily basis.
Contemplations, meditations, and other time-honored ways encourage readers to wonder, explore, and expand so that we can live from a calm center no matter what is going on around us. Then, despite the challenges we face in our lives, new ways open to us to live with greater creativity, enhanced possibilities, expansive joy. Then our love for ourselves and others flourishes and the world around us changes.
Contemplations, meditations, and other time-honored ways encourage readers to wonder, explore, and expand so that we can live from a calm center no matter what is going on around us. Then, despite the challenges we face in our lives, new ways open to us to live with greater creativity, enhanced possibilities, expansive joy. Then our love for ourselves and others flourishes and the world around us changes.
287 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 27, 2019
1 person is currently reading
5 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 27, 2023
In the preface, the book starts off with the line: “I never intended to write a book.” But despite the statement, here it is, and it is a very good book indeed! It is said to be inspired by (while also being dedicated to) the Divine mother, a type of spiritual goddess (with a rather exuberantly pronounced emphasis and accent on her femininity and feminine aspects and attributes) that is said to reside within each of us regardless of gender, belief, or ideology. In fact, some of this book itself is apparently written in "her divine voice" while all the other passages are attributed to the author herself.
Yet if we can disregard or look past this minor qualm and blemish, there is a lot to admire in this book. For starters, we can sense, detect, and feel decades of psychotherapeutic experience speaking through the lines as well as a curiosity-drenched drive and desire for spiritual and emotional fulfillment and satisfaction. It may not always come together in a coherent and satisfying fashion, but we get fascinating glimpses and insights into the spiritual world with a self-help and growth-oriented outlook and perspective.
Most of what is said here is true and admirable in a spiritual sense and it is supported with effective psychological pillars and premises. There is a trauma-informed look at how our childhood tends to shape our personality in the present and how that is for better or worse (but if done and lived unconsciously and mindlessly it tends to bend and point towards worse!) and how it is then projected onto all of our relationships, be it as a friend, lover, parent or even the most intimate and most lasting of relationships, the one we have with ourselves.
Elaine sheds light onto the recesses, our dark shadows and sisters and brothers, and it is refreshing to read this in the current age swayed, influenced, and hoodwinked by black-and-white thinking, which fails to take life’s complexities and many-colored beauties into account, lest acknowledge its very existence. Incidentally, the trauma can come not only from intergenerational sources and ancestors but also from past lives.
As a matter of fact, one of the most inspiring and eye-opening statements is the fact that we should not judge others including those who do evil because, at some point in time, we ourselves have been accuser and accused, perpetrator and victim through this karmic dance of myriad lives and lifetimes lived. It does not mean that we should not speak up against wrong nor refrain from fighting for what is right but to keep in mind that no one is blameless especially when we consider all our lives and life cycles. We are more connected to each other than we may think or assume.
I was also impressed with Elaine’s insight into personal relationships and that there is certain karma that we cannot learn from, deal with, or clear unless we are in a relationship with a partner. We often may have to go through various partners and learn from and through many painful but necessary lessons and experiences, but these partners serve as mirrors the same way we are mirrors to them, their needs, their longing, and desires, and we could ideally and combine forces towards growth and transcendence. Seen in this light and with various tips and suggestions thrown in for good measure, EveryDay Soul Dances is a very practical and insightful book that pertains to our daily life.
Yet if we can disregard or look past this minor qualm and blemish, there is a lot to admire in this book. For starters, we can sense, detect, and feel decades of psychotherapeutic experience speaking through the lines as well as a curiosity-drenched drive and desire for spiritual and emotional fulfillment and satisfaction. It may not always come together in a coherent and satisfying fashion, but we get fascinating glimpses and insights into the spiritual world with a self-help and growth-oriented outlook and perspective.
Most of what is said here is true and admirable in a spiritual sense and it is supported with effective psychological pillars and premises. There is a trauma-informed look at how our childhood tends to shape our personality in the present and how that is for better or worse (but if done and lived unconsciously and mindlessly it tends to bend and point towards worse!) and how it is then projected onto all of our relationships, be it as a friend, lover, parent or even the most intimate and most lasting of relationships, the one we have with ourselves.
Elaine sheds light onto the recesses, our dark shadows and sisters and brothers, and it is refreshing to read this in the current age swayed, influenced, and hoodwinked by black-and-white thinking, which fails to take life’s complexities and many-colored beauties into account, lest acknowledge its very existence. Incidentally, the trauma can come not only from intergenerational sources and ancestors but also from past lives.
As a matter of fact, one of the most inspiring and eye-opening statements is the fact that we should not judge others including those who do evil because, at some point in time, we ourselves have been accuser and accused, perpetrator and victim through this karmic dance of myriad lives and lifetimes lived. It does not mean that we should not speak up against wrong nor refrain from fighting for what is right but to keep in mind that no one is blameless especially when we consider all our lives and life cycles. We are more connected to each other than we may think or assume.
I was also impressed with Elaine’s insight into personal relationships and that there is certain karma that we cannot learn from, deal with, or clear unless we are in a relationship with a partner. We often may have to go through various partners and learn from and through many painful but necessary lessons and experiences, but these partners serve as mirrors the same way we are mirrors to them, their needs, their longing, and desires, and we could ideally and combine forces towards growth and transcendence. Seen in this light and with various tips and suggestions thrown in for good measure, EveryDay Soul Dances is a very practical and insightful book that pertains to our daily life.
June 6, 2023
Great book for anyone who wants to work on creating calm in their lives.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews