The Pinwheel Girl's Book of Simple Wisdom - eBook Review

Kendra Kett recently asked me to read her new ebook The Pinwheel Girl's Book of Simple Wisdom and to write a book review for her. I gladly accepted the invitation. I have been reading Kendra's blog Pinwheel Girls, helping women be true to themselves for over a year now. Her blog and ebook are both very uplifting and encouraging when I am on a low point in my journey to healing.  The link to Kendra's blog is

http://pinwheelgirls.com/


The Pinwheel Girl's Book of Simple Wisdom, as well as encouraging and uplifting, makes me smile and nod my head, "Yes!" over and over again as I read the pages. The pages are full of words of "simple wisdom" to use Kendra's description and has wonderful pictures to accompany her words.  To borrow Kendra's own words from her blog title, her ebook does the same as her blog when it is "helping women be true to themselves." Being true to ourselves is very important and something that survivors of childhood abuse often have to learn how to do. Kendra's ebook is a book of affirmations that will help others to do just that - be true to themselves.

Some of the topics offered in Kendra's ebook are as follows:
Loving yourself unconditionally
Having compassion for yourself and others
Having self-approval rather than other-approval
Pushing through feelings to heal
You are stronger than you know
Learning to express yourself
Being empowered
The key to self-empowerment
Overcoming your fears
Being a self-advocate
Allowing your own transformation
You are more than just good enough
True authenticity means being yourself
Letting go of toxic people and relationships
Don't listen to negative talk whether it is from self or others
You will get there

You won't find the topics listed the way that I listed them above. The listing of subjects are in my own words. These messages are powerful for anyone, but especially so if you are a survivor. These are not all of the topics. These are just my favorites that I will read over and over again as I need them to remind me of some of the issues that I may still need to do work on to heal.

Kendra also has written a book called The Pinwheel Girl Takes Flight: Every Woman's Journey Through Seven Stages of Transformation. I have read and loved it too. You can find the book and ebook both on Kendra's website Pinwheel Girls. You can click on the link below to go to her wonderfully delightful website:

http://pinwheelgirls.com/

Patricia

Child Abuse Prevention And Awareness Month

April is Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month. It is also Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Every month, for everyone, should be dedicated to child abuse and sexual assault awareness and prevention. The stats that I read tell me that women and children (male and female) are not given much value in our current or past societies.  Hopefully blogs like mine can help to change those values for future children and women.

I found a blog called AAUW Dialog that has an article called "10 Ways to Participate in Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Here is the link:

http://blog-aauw.org/2012/04/04/sexual-assault-awareness-2/



Here is a link that provides resources and 3 videos about being a voice for children who have no voice of their own.

http://www.beavoiceforchildren.com/


I just found a website called Project Unbreakable, the beginning of healing through art, hosted by Grace Brown, photographer. Please check out her project which gives a link to a video explaining what she does and why.

http://projectunbreakable.tumblr.com/post/21003577135/i-dont-think-so-i-thought-you-werent


With this article, I now have 349 posts on my blog with 102,737 views of my blog page over the past 4+ years. My blog will celebrate its fifth anniversary on June 1, 2010. I want to just take a minute to say Thank You to all of those who are supportive of my blog and me and actually take the time to read my articles as I publish them.

Daniel and I are off playing Civil War reenactor for the weekend in Pleasant Hill, Louisiana. Going to spend part of that time visiting with family too, while we are in north Louisiana. Have a glorious weekend.
Namaste. (means the Christ in me greets the Christ in you or something along those lines) Sending love and (((Hugs))) to you all.
Patricia

Resources For An Incest Survivor And Adult Children Of Dysfunctional Families

All of the books listed here are books that I have used in my own healing process over the years.  Some of the first ones listed are the very first books that I found and read back in the 1990's. I checked each of them on Amazon to see if they were still available for purchase and they are. I hope that you find them as useful as I did in my healing.  They are not listed in alphabetical order. The books are listed in the order that I remember using them myself over the years.

Affirmations for the Inner Child, by Rokelle Lerner, Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL, 1990, 2010.

Believing In Myself: Self Esteem Daily Meditations, by Earnie Larsen, Simon & Schuster, Inc./Fireside, New York, NY, 1991.

Learning to Love Yourself: Finding Your Self-worth, by Sharon Wegscheider-Cruse, Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL, 1987, 2010.

Compassion and Self Hate: An Alternate to Despair, by Theodore I. Rubin, Touchstone, Rockefeller Center, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 1975, 1998. (Touchstone is part of Simon & Schuster)

Healing the Shame that Binds You (Recovery Classics), by John Bradshaw, Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL, 1988.

Healing The Child Within: Discovery and Recovery for Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families, by Charles L. Whitfield, M. D., Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL, 1989, 2006.

Boundaries and Relationships: Knowing, Protecting and Enjoying the Self, by Charles Whitfield, Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL, 1993, 2010.

Codependant No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring For Yourself, by Melody Beattie, Hazelden, Center City, Minnesota, 1986, 1992.

Beyond Codependency: And Getting Better All the Time, by Melody Beattie, Hazelden, Center City, Minnesota, 1989.

The Language of Letting Go (Hazelden Meditation Series), by Melody Beattie, Hazelden, Center City, Minnesota, June 1990.

Facing Codependence: What It Is, Where It Comes from, How It Sabotages Our Lives, by Pia Mellody, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY, 1989.

Breaking Free: A Recovery Workbook for Facing Codependence, by Pia Mellody, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY, 1989.

I Never Told Anyone: Writings by Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, by Ellen Bass, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY, 1991.

The Courage To Heal: A Guide For Women Survivors Of Child Sexual Abuse, 3rd Edition by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis, Harper & Row, Publishers, 1988; HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY, 2008.

The Courage To Heal Workbook: A Guide for Women and Men Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, by Laura Davis, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY, 1990.

A Gift to Myself: A Personal Workbook and Guide to "Healing the Child Within", by Charles L. Whitfield, Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL, 1990.

Secret Survivors: Uncovering Incest and Its Aftereffects in Women, by E. Sue Blume, Ballantine Books, a Division of Random House, Inc., New York, NY, 1990.

Allies in Healing: When the Person You Love Was Sexually Abused as a Child, by Laura Davis, Harper Perennial, a Division of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY, 1991.

These are a few of the resources that I used in the beginning of my healing journey from incest and being an Adult Child of an Alcoholic.  For me, the alcoholism and the incest were intertwined in my life. That is why you will find so many of these books are about codependence and working with the inner child. The inner child is the one who experienced the childhood abuse and allowed us to survive into adulthood. I will do a second list of resources soon. I hope that I haven't overwhelmed you with all of these but I had so many good resources at my fingertips in the 1990's that I didn't have in the early 1980's when I first told my husband and my sister that I was an incest survivor.  I didn't immediately start working on my incest issues or reading books about it until after I had done some work on healing from codependence and being an Adult Child of an Alcoholic because my marriage was at risk. The 12-Step programs of Adult Children of Alcoholics and Al-Anon helped me to heal enough to finally start working on my incest issues.  Let me know if you have any favorites that helped you that I don't have included here.
Patricia