Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Advocate Suzanne Ludlum Provides Inspiring Message of Hope and Healing.

As an author and yoga therapist, Suzanne Ludlum shares her compelling story of struggling with mental illness and suicide attempts to help others suffering in silence know they are not alone and to never give up.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and as an advocate for mental health awareness and suicide prevention, author Suzanne Ludlum has a message to send:  Hope.

Ludlum’s recently released book, An Imperfect Pilgrim – Trauma and Healing on This Side of the Rainbow, is a compelling memoir which chronicles her harrowing experiences with trauma and severe depression to navigating her struggles and finding a pathway to healing and overcoming her demons.

Suzanne Ludlum allows readers into the most intimate and tragic moments of her life while she finds hope in the pathways that were the key to helping her reclaim her lost life. After suffering multiple losses and subsequent abuse at the hands of those very people who were supposed to help her, Ludlum suffered intense mental decline and fell into a darkness that seemed unrecoverable.  After years of psychiatric hospitals and various therapists, she began her long climb out. She is now active in spreading her message of hope and healing to those who may still be suffering, teaching them that they are not alone and that help truly is available.

As a yoga therapist and owner of Trinity Yoga Therapy, Ludlum is also involved in her local chapter of Mental Health America. Her inspiring messages and therapeutic practices are helping those who suffer from trauma and mental health issues such as PTSD.

“Suzanne offers us ways we can discover and nourish resources within ourselves that enable us to feel in control, even when life is out of control. Here, she shows us that we don’t have to be defined by our circumstances. We truly can be the master of our own destiny,” said Richard Miller, PhD, founder of the Integrative Restoration Institute and author of The iRest Program for Healing PTSD.

An Imperfect Pilgrim – Trauma and Healing on This Side of the Rainbow By Suzanne Ludlum

About Suzanne Ludlum:

Author Suzanne Ludlum is a Certified Yoga Therapist and holds the highest credentials in her field, including a Master of Science degree in Yoga Therapy from Maryland University of Integrative Health, certification through the International Association of Yoga Therapists, and ERYT-500 designation (experienced yoga teacher at the highest level) from Yoga Alliance. She also presents at international conferences to audiences of mental health professionals and other yoga therapists. Ludlum resides in Fredericksburg, Virginia with her husband and daughter.

To learn more please visit www.animperfectpilgrim.com and www.trinityyogatherapy.com.

A brave new book – Unafraid: Living with Courage and Hope in Uncertain Times by Adam Hamilton

My Review:

Packed with statistics, social studies, and Biblical truth, Adam Hamilton confronts fear and its causes in American during these postmodern times.

He discusses politics, parenting, church efforts and failures…also loneliness, significance, FOMO, finances, and illness.

There’s not really any new information in the book, but it is very attractively packaged into 5 parts, each with 4 chapters. Footnotes provide extra information about sources of info. The appendix includes 31 Days of Scripture Reading on Fear.

Hamilton is unafraid to mention what many of us are feeling in this scary social media-induced dystopia.

We are feeding our fears instead of facing them.

I have liked Hamilton’s other books, and this book is no different. Well-written, including relevant personal stories, facts and statistics for the intellectual in me…It shows fear as the evil it is and how we can still be courageous in spite of fear.

About the Book:

One of the most repeated instructions in the Bible is “Don’t be afraid.” This phrase, in one form or another, appears 140 times in Scripture. It reminds us that ordinary women and men from ancient times struggled with fear. But Scripture also shows us that faith—and paradoxically, a healthy “fear of the Lord”—can be pivotal to overcoming fear and finding peace in uncertain times.

We can hardly overstate the extent to which fear permeates our lives. Most of us have known times when it has robbed us of the life we wanted. Our fears, in the form of insecurity, often wreak havoc on our lives and personal relationships. At times, fear has led us to make bad decisions. At others, it has kept us from taking risks or doing things that would have brought great meaning, fulfillment, and joy to our lives.

But it does not have to control us, says Adam Hamilton in UNAFRAID: LIVING WITH COURAGE AND HOPE IN UNCERTAIN TIMES (Convergent; hardcover; 3/13/18; $24.00).

Hamilton, who was recently interviewed by David Brooks at the Aspen Ideas Festival, has seen the climate of fear up close as the senior pastor of a diverse and dynamic 20,000-member congregation planted squarely in Middle America, the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. He has spent the last thirty years shepherding congregants, and in the process, becoming deeply involved with their struggles with fear. He’s walked them through economic downturns, three wars, terrorist attacks, countless personal tragedies, and, most recently, the current political divide, a topic he spoke about earlier this year with Robert Siegel of NPR’s All Things Considered.

In doing research for a sermon series, Hamilton conducted a survey of his congregation to gain deeper insight into this emotion. Of the 2,400 people who participated, eighty percent reported living with moderate or significant levels of fear. He then analyzed the latest national polls to see what people across the country rank as their top fears, and delved deeper into that research.

UNAFRAID combines thorough research, powerful stories from people Hamilton has pastored, and timeless wisdom from the Scriptures. He helps readers understand some of the most common fears we wrestle with, differentiate between those things we should fear and false or exaggerated fears, and find ways to cope with our fears that lead us to live with hope. The book also helps readers identify and counter their fears in key areas of threat: crime, race, terrorism, politics, failure, disappointing others, insignificance, loneliness, change, and finances, and the perennial fears of growing old and death.

To these near-universal fears, Hamilton brings insights in critical areas, including:

• why you will never fully eliminate fear from your life (and why that’s a good thing)
• the search for meaning as a fundamental need
• how people from time immemorial have addressed their fears
• spiritual practices that can bring real peace
• cognitive restructuring to identify faulty assumptions and replace them with positive thinking
• how appropriate fear plays an important role in our lives

Hamilton draws upon insights from psychology, sociology, and the Scriptures to offer inspiration and help for addressing the most common sources of fear, worry, and anxiety and guides the reader in how to live “unafraid, with courage and hope.”

About the Author:

Adam J. Hamilton, a leading voice for reconciliation and church renewal in mainstream Christianity, is the senior pastor of the 20,000-member Church of the Resurrection, Kansas City, the largest and most influential United Methodist congregation in the United States. He is the author of twenty-five books; his most recent trade release is Making Sense of the Bible.

You are the Beloved.

The truth of your life is that God our Father sees you as a precious one. He welcomes you to exist. God celebrates your existence. Know that you are infinitely loved. There is no burden on you to prove you are worthy of being loved, of being heard, of being respected, honored, and given dignity. Your life is an unceasing “yes” to the truth that you are beloved because of God’s great love. In him you deserve to be valued. On you his favor rests.

Your spirit connection with your Father matters. True legitimacy comes from the One who chose you with everlasting love. Hear the kind voice of your Father speaking to you in the core of your essence, “You are my beloved. You are accepted in my Beloved Son” (Eph. 1:6 NKJV). You are chosen. I called you by name from the very beginning. You belong to me, and I know you as my own, and I am yours. I carved you in the palms of my Son. I hold you in my embrace. You have my infinite tenderness, and I care for you intimately. I have counted every hair on your head, and wherever you go, I go with you. Wherever you are, I am. Wherever you rest, I keep watch. I will never hide my face from you. Nothing will ever separate us. Live your life as my redeemed beloved. You can find true inner freedom ever more fully.”

Say “Yes” to your belovedness, your significance, your worth, and your belonging. His “Yes” is engraved on your heart. Rise up in Christ to your full stature and discover how to fulfill your deepest essence of who you are, beloved in God your Father and kept in his Son by his Holy Spirit. The Father’s Business

You Are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living by Henri J.M. Nouwen is a wonderful addition to my devotional library.

The defining moment in Jesus’ public ministry was when He was baptized in the Jordan and heard the public affirmation, “You are my beloved Son, on whom my favor rests.” Henri Nouwen believed Jesus’ “whole life was continually claiming that identity in the midst of everything.”

The book is divided into months January to December with a reading passage for every day. This collection of 365 meditations by a Catholic priest offers simple daily devotions for everyone. It focuses on our identity as the beloved of God.  Some of the writings have never been published!

The kindness and gentleness of Henri J.M. Nouwen is refreshing and helpful for dark times and encouraging for all time. The brief daily readings are profound and moving. They are thought-provoking and convicting in such a simple way, without harshness.

I jumped right in when I received the book last month, and have been reading it daily. It is a great way to start the day with peace. I expect to discover new insights in each daily reading over the years.

Important Themes:

• You are not what you do.
• You are not what you have.
• You are not what people say you are.
• You are beloved sons and daughters of God.

One of my favorites:

“When we love God with all our heart, mind, strength, and soul, we cannot do other than love our neighbor, and our very selves.”

About Henri J.M. Nouwen:

Henri Nouwen was born in Holland in 1932 and ordained a Catholic priest in 1957. He obtained his doctorandus in psychology from Nijmegen University in The Netherlands and taught at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard. He experienced the monastic life with Trappist monks at the Abbey of the Genesee, lived among the poor in Latin America with the Maryknoll missioners, and was interested and active in numerous causes related to social justice. After a lifetime of seeking, Henri Nouwen finally found his home in Canada, as pastor of L’Arche Daybreak – where people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers live together in community.

Henri Nouwen wrote over 40 books on spirituality and the spiritual life that have sold millions of copies and been translated into dozens of languages. His vision of spirituality was broad and inclusive, and his compassion embraced all of humankind. He died in 1996. His work and his spirit live on. Henri Nouwen pronounced his name “Henry Now-en.” For more information on his life and work, please visit www.henrinouwen.org.

About Gabrielle Earnshaw:

Gabrielle Earnshaw is the founding archivist of the Henri J M. Nouwen Archives and Research Collection in Toronto, Canada. She has been the adviser to the Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust for sixteen years and is consulted throughout the world on Nouwen and his literary legacy. The coeditor of Turning the Wheel: Henri Nouwen and Our Search for God and editor of Love, Henri: Letters on the Spiritual Life, she compiled and edited the recently published book, You Are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living, a collection of 365 insights by Henri Nouwen, the Catholic priest, professor and pastor who gained international renown as the author of 39 books. Nouwen’s books have sold upward of seven million copies worldwide, resonating with people across the religious, spiritual, cultural, and political spectrum.

You are the Beloved by Henri Nouwen would make a great present for any occasion and recipient!

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Almost There: Searching for Home in a Life on the Move by Bekah DiFelice is a great book about nomadic life.

My Review

I can relate to Bekah DiFelice in her book Almost Home. Humorous anecdotes about military life and discovering the meaning of “home.”

As a military wife, I’ve moved five times.

Five times packing up memories, clothes, toys, books, kitchen items. Clearing out pantries and freezers. Having yard sales and donating items we can’t take with us.

It’s stressful living a nomadic life. It’s sometimes depressing feeling homeless.

We arrive at a new location and wonder, “What’s the point of even hanging pictures on the walls or buying curtains for this rental house when we’re leaving soon?”

We crave new friendships only to say goodbye.

As a military family, we learn to cling to each other through deployments and PCSes and other stressors than civilians don’t understand. Movies and books can only give a glimpse. This is our life.

We can find home anywhere. It isn’t necessarily our home of record or where our parents and siblings live. It isn’t where we went to high school.

I feel most at home walking along the cold beaches of Normandy, France, sitting in a café in Paris, eating moules frites in Bruges, gazing at the sunset in Greece.

My four children will most likely grow up scattered to the winds and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Then I can travel and visit and find new ideas for home.

Home is truly where the heart is.

About the Book

On the move . . . again? Wondering when you will “arrive”?

Sometimes God leads people out of familiar territory so he can tell them who they are. That moment you depart, you experience reinvention, renewal, and freedom. You get a redo on the adjectives associated with your name.

Almost There is for those on the move and those who feel restless right where they are. It’s for those who struggle with not belonging, with feeling unsettled, with believing that home is out of their reach, at least for the moment. And Almost There is for those who find themselves in a transient lifestyle they didn’t expect―say, moving across the country for a new job or the military or an opportunity to begin again.

With imaginative storytelling and witty, relatable prose, Bekah DiFelice offers wisdom for those struggling to belong in a world where home is constantly shifting. When our hope of home is rooted in an unchangeable God, we are not uprooted, lost, or made homeless by change. We become found ones on the move.

About the Author

Bekah DiFelice loves strong coffee, her home state of Colorado, and turning strangers into friends. She’s a wife, mom, and writer. You can find her at BekahDiFelice.com, where she shares her story of discovering pieces of home in the most unlikely places.

Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I understand borrowed houses.

As a military wife, I’ve lived in my share of borrowed houses.

Every house is a new beginning.

We work hard to make the house a home.

We’ve thankfully never lived anywhere dangerous, and certainly nowhere during a war.

We have lived in some unique locales where we had to adapt to the culture, try to blend in for safety and comfort, and sometimes, we just long for the next move.

I’ve lived in houses with broken floor tiles, wonky kitchen cabinets, unreliable electricity that would pop the fuse if I ran the oven and a countertop appliance at the same time. We’ve lived in homes with large backyards and no yards at all.

We’ve never lived near family, so it’s important to try to make friends with everyone we meet.

We do have to bloom where we are planted.

I love how real Frances Fuller is in telling her story of this house.

Her faith is inspiring because she shares her thoughts and doubts. She shares her failings. She recalls arguments with her husband.

She exudes love and grace and mercy despite all the negativity surrounding her.

In spite of the war raging about her, there are heartwarming stories of people coming together to celebrate, live life together, share food, and love. So much love.

When she mentions her friends, I find myself wondering about them when I lie in bed late at night. Where are they now? Are they safe?

There are a few unanswered questions in the book, just like there isn’t always closure in life.

Frances Fuller has an incredible testimony and it is convicting to me that I have ever complained or will continue to complain…when I am so, so blessed with comfort and safety.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book In Borrowed Houses: A true story of love and faith amidst war in Lebanon by Frances Fuller.

Purchase now:

In Borrowed Houses: A true story of love and faith amidst war in Lebanon by Frances Fuller

My middle daughter loves rocks. She’s said she wants to be a geologist for as long as I can remember

Geology Lab for Kids: 52 Projects to Explore Rocks, Gems, Geodes, Crystals, Fossils, and Other Wonders of the Earth’s Surface by Garret Romaine is an amazing book with fun projects to learn about geology!

Geology Lab for Kids is a great introduction to all things geology!

The book includes twelve units with an introduction, a section on Identifying Rocks and Minerals, and a Resource List. At the beginning of each unit, there are jokes, stories, and information about the topic. Each unit has between three and six labs to reinforce the learning topic.

About the Book

Geology Lab for Kids offers 52 simple, inexpensive, and fun experiments that explore the earth’s surface, structure, and processes. Learn about the wonders of geology: the formation of crystals and fossils, the layers of the earth’s crust, and the eruption of geysers and volcanoes. Readers will learn about how crystals form; how insects are trapped and preserved in amber; how water shapes mountains, valleys, and canyons; how a volcano forms and erupts; how a geyser uses heat beneath the earth’s surface; and more.

About the Author

Garret Romaine is an award-winning journalist and technical writer hailing from Portland, Oregon. His grandfather, Harold Banta, was an attorney in Baker, Oregon specializing in mining law, and his grandmother Floy ran a rock shop in Baker. As a boy, Garret visited many collecting areas, mines, and ghost towns in the Baker area, and was hooked for life on field work. He earned a geology degree from the University of Oregon, studying under stalwarts such as Dr. Ewart Baldwin, Dr. William Orr, and Dr. Allan Kays, and followed that up with a master’s degree in geography at the University of Washington and an MBA from Portland State.

Garret has written for multiple publications in the Portland area, and has managed technical writing teams for several technology companies. He has taught technical writing at Portland State since 1997, and serves on the board of directors for the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals and the North America Research Group, devoted to fossil hunting.

Garret authored a regular column entitled “Mining the Internet” for the Gold Prospectors Association of America (GPAA). He has written features, product reviews, personal interviews, field reports, and research compilations for many locales across the west. He wrote Gem Trails of Washington, updated Gem Trails of Oregon, and wrote Rockhounding Idaho. He has also written a series of rock & gem identification books, plus handbooks for rockhounds and prospectors. He has written gold panning guides for the Pacific Northwest and California, and is working on Colorado next.

Our Review

We looked through the book and found a couple fun projects to try.

Most of the ingredients are household items. Color photos illustrate the project and the geology term it represents.

Tori had her heart set on making crystal geodes and we attempted that, after trying to remember three different times to buy superglue! It’s at least a two-day project, so we’ll see if crystals form in a couple days.

We made lava cakes for dessert.

Those were a big hit!

We learned about lava flow and brittle crust.

We love the simple but information labs to learn about geology. This will be a book in our science repertoire for years to come!

The Seven Money Types: Discover How God Wired You To Handle Money By Tommy Brown, published by Zondervan, is a great tool to learn about how to make money work for you!

My Review

I first took the quiz to find out my money type, then had my husband and teen daughter take the quiz.

Here are our results:

My money types are Isaac and Moses. My strengths are discipline and endurance. My shadow sides are fear and impatience.

My husband is tied with Abraham and Jacob. His strengths are hospitality and beauty. His shadow sides are self-sufficiency and indulgence.

My daughter’s money types are Jacob and Abraham. Her strengths are beauty and hospitality. Her shadow sides are indulgence and self-sufficiency.

Jacob types represent a mix of Abraham and Isaac types.

And now I understand our arguments about money!

I like how each money type has a virtue but also a shadow side that is an opportunity to mature related to money.

Each chapter explains the money type using scripture with great real life examples to illustrate that type.

At the end of each chapter is a blessing, scriptures, and reflection questions.

The book concludes with The Way to Financial Well-Being – an overview of the seven money types.

There are also Prompts for Group Discussion. This would be a great group study!

Book Description

True financial well-being involves more than getting out of debt and accumulating wealth. It’s about discovering how you’re wired by God, and how that wiring influences the way you think about, feel toward, and handle money.

Discovering your money type – whether you are an Abraham (hospitality), an Isaac (discipline), a Jacob (beauty), a Joseph (connection), a Moses (endurance), an Aaron (humility), or a David (leadership) – will bring greater self-awareness, reduce internal financial tension, help you resolve financial conflict with others, and help you grow financially from a faith-based perspective. As you walk with Pastor Brown through the Scriptures you’ll find holistic financial pathways that lead you to a place of increased awareness and confidence related to money.

In The Seven Money Types, Pastor Tommy Brown leads you on a journey of personal discovery as he reveals the seven money types found in Scripture, helps you identify the type that best fits you by means of a 35-question assessment, and coaches you on understanding, affirming, developing, and enjoying your unique approach to money.

About the Author

Tommy Brown is a writer, speaker, and develops strategies that support financial development. He and his wife Elizabeth live in Winston-Salem, NC along with their children Seri and Seth. He served in leadership at two churches as an ordained minister from 2001-2014, leading congregations into financial wellbeing and a holistic approach to integrating faith and finances. Tommy has a B.A. in Pastoral Ministry and Masters degrees in Divinity and Management. His entrepreneurial endeavors over the years have extended into real estate development and church consulting on stewardship matters.