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Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
In The Secret of the Shadow bestselling author Debbie Ford shows us how to rediscover our true essence, which is hidden in the shadows of our own dramatic life stories. In her blockbuster The Dark Side of the Light Chasers Ford introduced us to our "shadow." Now she uncovers our "Story", the collection of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that prevent us from having all the love, happiness, and success we desire. She guides us to understand that bidden in the shadow of our stories is our magnificence, and our unique gift. The Secret of the Shadow shows that the stories we tell ourselves about our lives do not define who we truly are. In fact, they prevent us from grasping our purpose and potential. When we live in these stories we engage in noisy internal dialogues, self-defeating habits, and abusive behaviors. But once they are understood and processed, our traumas and failures, our pain and our discontent, will take us deep inside and return us to our Divine essence. Our personal dramas contain important information and wisdom that can help us discover our essential selves and true purpose in life. The process of making peace with our stories requires us to identify, understand, accept, and embrace everything in our past that has caused us pain. In order for us to heal, we must stop chasing what Ford calls "the feel-good moments" and embark on the extraordinary journey of loving and embracing all that we are. The process outlined in this book offers us a way out of the never-ending cycle of pain and discontent. Whether we suffer from depression, ill health, a sense of unworthiness, arrogance, or low self-esteem, the road to heating is the same. This clear process (including action steps and contemplations in each chapter) will help you to discover your unique purpose and realize the fulfillment of your deepest desires. As we make the inner journey of embracing our story and all its ingredients, we begin to see the life that lies ahead of us, a life that will give us the gift of our eternal selves.
The past is more than prologue, says bestselling author and Chopra Center for Well Being counselor Debbie Ford. The Secret of the Shadow urges readers to create a fresh meaning about their formative experiences, especially the painful ones, and use them to plan a more purposeful and authentic life. Ford believes that each person is born with unique gifts and a divine purpose, which are lost when we create a "story"--a collection of beliefs--that manufactures a false self and casts a shadow to hide our uniqueness and prevent us from success in work and love. As she explains, "the key is to stop chasing the feel-good moments and make peace with our stories so we can understand, accept and embrace everything in the past that has caused us pain." Once we stop trying to change the painful parts of our story, we will discover the divine plan for our lives. Writing in the voice of the wounded healer, Ford tells her own story of embracing the wisdom and direction she found in facing family and addiction problems. She skillfully offers examples from participants in her workshops at the Chopra center who have leveraged the lessons of a painful past into a purposeful life. She invites readers to "own their whole story" by asking: What is the secret [about you] that your story conceals? What wisdom can you contribute to the world that you couldn't if the events in your life hadn't happened?" At times, Ford's approach seems derivative of 12-step programs and ersatz Buddhism. And she mixes metaphors of shadows and light with those of a recipe and ingredients. Readers also know that self-reflection, acceptance of life's mixed blessings, and making lemonade from lemons are not new ideas. Yet Ford's passion and persuasiveness make a fresh case for daring to be yourself, learning from experience, and discovering the divine spark that is beyond our understanding. --Barbara Mackoff
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| Deeply disturbing |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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This book is about people who had 'horrible' experiences at young ages which have been detrimental to the rest of their lives.
One HORRIBLE experience summarized: I was three. Everyone outside was running around looking in bushes and talking because someone had robbed a store in the neighborhood. They thought the man could be hiding in the neighborhood. Everyone was looking around and I was alone and separated from the crowd. No one noticed me. No one cared about me. I made a critical decision that day that no one cared about me and I wasn't important.
There were many more HORRIBLE stories such as this one. I guess I just didn't get this book.
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| The Secret of the Shadow |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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She talks about the stories we create about ourselves when we are children and how they cause us to not be who we really are and so we then do things that we wouldn't otherwise do. She helps you to figure out the stories that you have come to believe are true. I love this book, I think that everyone can benefit from this book, because I think that we all create stories about who we are and come to believe them when we are children and then we carry those stories out throughout the rest of our lives and this is what causes us unhappiness, they also cause us to do things that we don't want to do and if we change the stories then we can change the parts of us that we don't like. I think that this book is for everyone. Very interesting read.
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| Life changing |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This book spoke to me on so many different levels. I found answers I didn't even know I was looking for. I read the book all the way through first then went back and did the end of the chapter work. I was reading the last chapter of the book, sitting on a cold, cloudy beach just feeling so inspired and enlightened about myself. The very last section of the last chapter I felt a weight being lifted, I read it through my tears and just knew I was on the right path. The sun came out from behind the clouds and was radiating on me as proof. That last section changed me. Truly a book every single person on the planet should read.
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| Remembering your uniqueness |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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This book was required reading for my Reiki Master class. Ms. Ford provides excellent tools for personal growth and acceptance. I also included this book on my resouce list for my clients.
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| Step out of story. |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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For someone who's been around the self-help block several times, "The Secret of the Shadow" offers information and tools that are useful and make sense. The idea that much of what I tell myself and others about the events and incidents of my life is not necessarily true, but instead is just a "story" has been powerful in my life. With this new perspective I've learned to step out of the limitations of my story at will, along with the excuses, and rationalizations I've made up to justify any circumstances I don't like. I now have the ability to instantly shift the way that I feel about and respond to situations, by simply choosing to interpret them in a different way. That's what I call useful!
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