Outskirts Press, INC.

Though pain and life challenges enter our lives in different ways, many of us do our best to avoid them until our quality of life is compromised. Whether your suffering is physical, emotional, mental or spiritual, it will be affected by and affect all those other parts of yourself. Research has shown that writing about painful or traumatic events can improve the immune system and healing can come to us in many surprising ways.



Author Susan Derozier guides you on a journey of self-discovery. She tells us that each one of us is our own best expert and invites us to tap into that wisdom residing within. Using anecdotes and experiences from her own life and those of her students, she offers examples of how to reframe your life situation and create your own therapy or plan for change.



You don’t have to be an experienced writer to begin this journey. All that is needed is an open mind and a willingness to explore new ways of viewing your self and your life. Sometimes we tend to be our own worst critics or we take on the identities reflected on us by others. Because of this, we all have periods of forgetting who we really are. Take this time to remember and to make a conscious integration of all those parts of your life to uncover and discover your authentic self.

Chapter 1 - A Place To Begin

There are events that happen in our lives, after which nothing is the same. Everything changes. We change. Our views about those things we believed in change as our truths dissolve. Our present and future appear unfamiliar and foreign. Even our memories of the past quiver with uncertainty. Bewilderment mutes us and we struggle to make sense of our situation to return our lives to some order that can be understood.



Chapter 3 - Your Story

Who are you? What has happened, is happening, is anticipated to happen in your life that defines you? Let me tell you something about yourself that I already know. You are an incredibly complex, beautiful, brilliant and bewitching gift. Only you know your true story. I am guessing that you may have forgotten much of your own tale. Most of us do, unless some life experience stops us in our tracks and demands we pay attention to ourselves.



Chapter 4 - Dis-ease

Hard as it may be to believe, sometimes disease comes as a friend. It may not be just an affliction but also a messenger. Though not by conscious decision, it may step forward to facilitate a wish you have for change. It may become a teacher, pointing out ways you can better care for yourself and grow. It may become a “drama queen” stomping its foot to get your attention.



Chapter 8 - Addiction

Many of you know. In that deepest, most authentically truthful place inside of you, you know. You are POWERLESS. You are an addict. If there is a word more painful, I have not spoken it or heard it. If there is a life experience more devastating, I have not lived it. I, too, am a survivor of addiction.



Chapter 10-Dreams

People from many of our ancient cultures believed that the gods visited them during their sleep to guide and direct them. The Hebrews believed that every soul was a piece of God and that at night 59/60 of each soul went back to God, to return to the body in the morning when waking. They would pray when they awoke, thanking God for returning the soul to their body for another day.



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