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Follow Your Light: A Guided Journal to Recover from Anything; 52 Mindfulness Activities to Explore, Heal, and Grow
This first-of-its-kind guided journal from critically acclaimed author Beverly Conyers shows us how the practice of mindfulness can be a transformational addition to recovery from anything and everything .
Throughout our recovery journey, we sometimes feel stuck. At times, we wonder, How do we create the breakthroughs we want? With this practical follow-up to her book Find Your Practicing Mindfulness to Recover from Anything, Conyers has crafted fifty-two activities to engage readers on their path to wellness, healing, and wholeness.
Organized into eight distinct topics, each exploring themes that are key to an effective mindfulness practice, the exercises, meditations, and reflections in this action-oriented mindfulness book were carefully and beautifully designed to set us on a path forward. Work at your own pace, or spend time each week with this journal. Whether we follow the Twelve Steps or not, these practices can help recoveries from unhealthy relationships, addictions of all types, compulsive habits, anxiety and stress, workaholism, disordered eating, or mental health and emotional challenges.
Discover why Beverly Conyers’ books have been a mainstay for support groups the world over and why so many have turned to her insights on family roles in addiction, healing shame, building healthy relationships, establishing boundaries, releasing trauma, focusing on emotional sobriety, as well as acknowledging self-sabotaging behaviors, addictive tendencies, and substance use patterns. As the author of the recovery classic Addict in the Family, she has inspired hope and healing in a way few others have managed to match.
Throughout our recovery journey, we sometimes feel stuck. At times, we wonder, How do we create the breakthroughs we want? With this practical follow-up to her book Find Your Practicing Mindfulness to Recover from Anything, Conyers has crafted fifty-two activities to engage readers on their path to wellness, healing, and wholeness.
Organized into eight distinct topics, each exploring themes that are key to an effective mindfulness practice, the exercises, meditations, and reflections in this action-oriented mindfulness book were carefully and beautifully designed to set us on a path forward. Work at your own pace, or spend time each week with this journal. Whether we follow the Twelve Steps or not, these practices can help recoveries from unhealthy relationships, addictions of all types, compulsive habits, anxiety and stress, workaholism, disordered eating, or mental health and emotional challenges.
Discover why Beverly Conyers’ books have been a mainstay for support groups the world over and why so many have turned to her insights on family roles in addiction, healing shame, building healthy relationships, establishing boundaries, releasing trauma, focusing on emotional sobriety, as well as acknowledging self-sabotaging behaviors, addictive tendencies, and substance use patterns. As the author of the recovery classic Addict in the Family, she has inspired hope and healing in a way few others have managed to match.
168 pages, Paperback
Published August 25, 2020
7 people want to read
About the author
Beverly Conyers
7 books12 followersI began writing about addiction in 2003 after discovering that my younger daughter had become addicted to heroin. I wanted to learn everything I could about the disease and also to help others who were struggling to cope with a loved one’s addiction.
Over the years, I grew increasingly interested in the process of recovery, which led me to confront the destructive role that alcohol has played in my own life. I’ve come to believe that most addictions (including compulsive behaviors and self-defeating thought patterns) are an attempt to escape the pain of simply being who we are (or who we think we are). My fourth book, FIND YOUR LIGHT: PRACTICING MINDFULNESS TO RECOVER FROM ANYTHING, explores how mindfulness can support recovery by gently guiding us toward self-knowledge, self-acceptance, self-compassion, and self-love.
Q & A with Beverly Conyers
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE ADDICTION?
Addiction is rampant in our society and takes many forms, including substance use, disordered eating, gambling, compulsive Internet use, hoarding, video game addiction, porn or sex addiction, and self-defeating thought patterns. These problematic patterns of thinking and behaving enter the realm of addiction when they create persistent, serious problems in our life. These can include fractured relationships, workplace problems, and compromised mental and physical health.
WHAT'S BEHIND ALL THESE ADDICTIVE BEHAVIORS?
Most people with addictions live with deep feelings of shame and inadequacy – the belief that we’re just not “good enough” as we are. These painful feelings of being fundamentally unacceptable – which often operate at a subconscious level -- help fuel addiction and undermine recovery. We’re constantly looking for distractions and escape because we find it so hard to be alone with our thoughts – most of which are based on deeply ingrained but ultimately false ideas about ourselves and our world.
HOW CAN MINDFULNESS HELP WITH RECOVERY?
Addiction is about escape. Mindfulness is about awareness. It opens our eyes to new ways of understanding ourselves and our world. It helps us recognize the false beliefs and damaging thoughts that prevent us from finding happiness and peace of mind. It teaches us to value all living things, including ourselves, and allows us to see ourselves as part of a greater whole. As awareness grows, we begin to awaken our innate talents, strengths, and moral goodness. And by learning to let go of the automatic thoughts that consume so much of our mental energy, we free ourselves to discover who we really are. We find out what really matters to us and develop the values, sense of purpose, and self-discipline that lay the foundation for genuine happiness.
Over the years, I grew increasingly interested in the process of recovery, which led me to confront the destructive role that alcohol has played in my own life. I’ve come to believe that most addictions (including compulsive behaviors and self-defeating thought patterns) are an attempt to escape the pain of simply being who we are (or who we think we are). My fourth book, FIND YOUR LIGHT: PRACTICING MINDFULNESS TO RECOVER FROM ANYTHING, explores how mindfulness can support recovery by gently guiding us toward self-knowledge, self-acceptance, self-compassion, and self-love.
Q & A with Beverly Conyers
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE ADDICTION?
Addiction is rampant in our society and takes many forms, including substance use, disordered eating, gambling, compulsive Internet use, hoarding, video game addiction, porn or sex addiction, and self-defeating thought patterns. These problematic patterns of thinking and behaving enter the realm of addiction when they create persistent, serious problems in our life. These can include fractured relationships, workplace problems, and compromised mental and physical health.
WHAT'S BEHIND ALL THESE ADDICTIVE BEHAVIORS?
Most people with addictions live with deep feelings of shame and inadequacy – the belief that we’re just not “good enough” as we are. These painful feelings of being fundamentally unacceptable – which often operate at a subconscious level -- help fuel addiction and undermine recovery. We’re constantly looking for distractions and escape because we find it so hard to be alone with our thoughts – most of which are based on deeply ingrained but ultimately false ideas about ourselves and our world.
HOW CAN MINDFULNESS HELP WITH RECOVERY?
Addiction is about escape. Mindfulness is about awareness. It opens our eyes to new ways of understanding ourselves and our world. It helps us recognize the false beliefs and damaging thoughts that prevent us from finding happiness and peace of mind. It teaches us to value all living things, including ourselves, and allows us to see ourselves as part of a greater whole. As awareness grows, we begin to awaken our innate talents, strengths, and moral goodness. And by learning to let go of the automatic thoughts that consume so much of our mental energy, we free ourselves to discover who we really are. We find out what really matters to us and develop the values, sense of purpose, and self-discipline that lay the foundation for genuine happiness.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 20, 2021
I am a mental health therapist and I purchased this book thinking it may be a good resource for clients aiming to know themselves better or start a journaling habit. Of course, before recommending it I need to make sure it's something I believe in, so I've been working through the exercises slowly. I am stopping at page 53 and will not be recommending it for clients.
The issues I have with it:
The prompts are vague, but not in a way that promotes a lot of thought, rather they are vague in an unhelpful manner.
The cover says it's a book to help recover from anything, but the only thing mentioned is addiction, and it's drug and alcohol addiction at that - therefore this is not a good book to help recover from something like trauma.
The prompts make it seem like the person has never done any sort of self-exploration. It's babyish, something I would expect for kids.
I struggle to think of how these prompts will encourage more healing or recovery if any amount of therapy or healing has already taken place.
The issues I have with it:
The prompts are vague, but not in a way that promotes a lot of thought, rather they are vague in an unhelpful manner.
The cover says it's a book to help recover from anything, but the only thing mentioned is addiction, and it's drug and alcohol addiction at that - therefore this is not a good book to help recover from something like trauma.
The prompts make it seem like the person has never done any sort of self-exploration. It's babyish, something I would expect for kids.
I struggle to think of how these prompts will encourage more healing or recovery if any amount of therapy or healing has already taken place.
Displaying 1 of 1 review