Book Promo ~ The Inner Matrix

Leveraging the Art & Science of Personal
Mastery to Create Real Life Results

Struggling to get the results you’re striving for?
Discover a powerful mind-science fusion to smash your goals
and skyrocket your lifestyle.

Do you feel as if you’ve professionally or personally plateaued? Are you plagued by stress or anxiety? Are you searching for greater meaning and purpose?

For more than 20 years, author and Inner Matrix Systems founder Joey Klein has studied a range of healing modalities, from psychology and neuroscience to martial arts and mediation. He synthesized effective elements from multiple disciplines into a single approach that he says can help others train their thoughts and feelings to discontinue destructive patterns, engage their formidable internal resources and create powerful visions for their lives.

“Each of us has our own Inner Matrix, which consists of our emotions, thought strategies and nervous system, that drives our actions, behavior, and ultimately creates our experience of life,” Klein said.

He shares his techniques and practical exercises in his new book, The Inner Matrix: Leveraging the Art & Science of Personal Mastery to Create Real Life Results.

Aimed primarily at high level executives, entrepreneurs and business leaders, The Inner Matrix contains insights of value to anyone looking to make positive changes in their lives, including:  

– A simple, practical approach to managing your emotions, thought strategies and nervous system to channel success;

– Ways to develop fulfillment, peace and inspiration;

– How to create the neurological alignment needed to achieve any desired outcome;

– Methods for designing a rich and meaningful life;

– Case studies, scientific references, expert insights;

– And much more.

Ultimately, The Inner Matrix is a comprehensive guide for realigning your emotional, mental and physical states to support the achievement of your most important personal and professional goals.

“When you master your internal state, you master your world,” Klein said. “It is just that simple.”

About the Author

Joey Klein is the founder and CEO of Inner Matrix Systems, a personal mastery training system for high achievers. He has been interviewed by Self Magazine, INC.com, Yahoo Finance and NBC. Klein has coached leaders from some of the world’s top companies, including IBM, Coca Cola and the World Health Organization.

For more information, please visit https://innermatrixsystems.com, or connect with Klein on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/joeykleinfreedom/photos.

The Inner Matrix:
Leveraging The Art & Science of Personal
Mastery to Create Real Life Results

ISBN-10: ‎ 1737215705
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1737215707

Available from Amazon.com

Book Promo ~ Eddie’s Boy by Robert Schwab

 Chief Medical Officer Examines
Dichotomy of Doctors as Patients

A Timely Medical Fiction Story Amid a Global Pandemic

Dr. Robert Schwab, chief medical officer for a hospital in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex, announces the release of his third book, Eddie’s Boy (Paperback, $18.95), February 2021. The book tells the story of a physician who faces life after an accident that leaves him with debilitating injuries. In an instant, the doctor becomes the patient, and while the journey throughout Eddie’s Boy reflects on illness and suffering, the healing and love that transpires is a lesson for all.

In the time it takes him to drive through a stoplight at the Four Corners of Law, Dr. Landon Ratliff––distracted by the finest birthday present he’s ever received and won’t remember––has his midlife crisis delivered to him in an instant. When his father, with whom he has never been close, is diagnosed with a terminal condition, Landon goes home to be with family.

The reader is carried through Dr. Ratliff’s resulting journey of illness, injury, suffering, healing, love and redemption. His experiences take him to places he’s visited before, but never thought he’d be. In the midst of a global pandemic, the reader is reminded of themes and emotions that surfaced in 2020.

Written with ease and eloquence, Eddie’s Boy explores the things we take for granted, and the things we never knew we had. In the end, healing and love overcome suffering and loss, providing readers a hopeful final message as we begin a new year.

“Doctors identify themselves as healers. When a doctor becomes objectively sick, with COVID-19 or otherwise, they’re thrust into the role of patient. It’s a profound experience for which they’re incredibly ill-prepared,” says Schwab. “Just as Landon ultimately realizes in Eddie’s Boy, I hope readers walk away with the sense that you’re never truly alone in life––you need other people, no matter who you are.”

ABOUT ROBERT SCHWAB

Robert Schwab is a physician executive with an interest in the roles that stories play in illness and healing, and how the humanities can improve medical education. In addition to writing and speaking on these topics, he teaches an undergraduate seminar at The University of Texas at Dallas. He has published poems, stories and essays, and writes and performs songs about healthcare. His first novel, Holy Water, explored the impact of the French Quarter on a young physician’s professional development. Back Side of a Hurricane, his second novel, is about fathers and their children, and the wisdom of sitting still when chaos swirls around you. He lives in Dallas. Learn more at RobertSchwab.com  or on Facebook @RobertSchwabAuthor.

Amazon Review

“A poignant story of redemption that addresses

the depth of love and what it takes to make amends.

A sweet and hopeful novel that is beautifully written.”

-Lynne Hinton The Beekeeper’s Wife

 

Eddie’s Boy
Publisher: Warren Publishing, Inc.
Release Date: February 2, 2021
ISBN-10: 1735860018
ISBN-13: 978-1735860015

Available from AMAZON

Book Promo: Feeling Great

The Revolutionary New Treatment for
Depression and Anxiety

Numerous recent surveys indicate that depression and anxiety have doubled or tripled since the corona pandemic. In fact, according to the CDC, more than 40 percent of the population are experiencing “adverse mental conditions . . . associated with . . . Covid-19.” Top that with the realities of the pandemic—including fear of death, separation from loved ones, loss of employment, and intense political battles that trigger even more emotional vulnerability and despair. Now, world-renowned psychiatrist, Dr. David D. Burns, brings us a radical new approach to healing in his No. 1 Amazon bestselling book, Feeling Great: The Revolutionary New Treatment for Depression and Anxiety (PESI, Inc., ISBN: 9781683732884; $26.99, Hardcover). Selling more than 29,000 copies in the first two weeks since its release, Feeling Great reveals innovative techniques that make rapid change possible, even without drugs or therapy.

Feeling Great emerged from 40 years of research and more than 40,000 hours treating individuals with severe depression and anxiety. This research revealed that negative feelings do not result in what’s WRONG WITH YOU—like a chemical imbalance in your brain or a “mental disorder”—but from what‘s RIGHT WITH YOU. And the moment you realize this, recovery will be just a stone’s throw away.

Dr. Burns’ Feeling Good and Feeling Good Handbook have sold more than 5 million copies and have made cognitive therapy the most popular and most extensively researched form of therapy in the world. More than 50 percent of depressed people who read Feeling Good recover of improve dramatically in four weeks with no other treatment. The techniques in Feeling Great are even more powerful.

In Feeling Great you will:

1. Learn how to change the way you think and feel;
2. Pinpoint and eliminate the powerful forces that keep you stuck;
3. Discover why depression and anxiety are the world’s oldest cons;
4. Crush the 10 types of distorted thoughts that rob you of happiness and self-esteem.

Editorial Reviews:

Nothing short of amazing! Dr. David Burns is an absolute genius, and with his work and this book, he has advanced psychotherapy by lightyears. He is arguably one of the best therapists in the world, and using this book is as close to having personal therapy with Dr. Burns as one can possibly get; it’s like having him right there in the room with you. This book actually achieves the ambitious goal of making extremely powerful and effective therapy available, accessible and usable to the general public more than any resource I’ve seen. Feeling Great provides the reader with a powerful and effective framework for rapidly, effectively and dramatically alleviating depression and anxiety. It is filled with practical tools and techniques and will help anyone suffering from depression or anxiety, whether used by an individual seeking relief, or in conjunction with a therapist. Given the amazing results I’ve personally had using Dr. Burns TEAM framework, both in terms of my own anxiety and depression, as well as with my patients, I will be recommending this book to anyone who suffers from these conditions. Rapid, effective, drug-free treatment has never been so accessible as it is now in Feeling Great. This was the first time I’ve ever cried tears of joy while reading a book!
—Michael D. Greenwald, PhD, Licensed Clinical Psychologist

About David D. Burns:

David D. Burns, MD, is a renowned psychiatrist, award-winning researcher, and author. Dr. Burns was a pioneer in the development of cognitive therapy, and is the founder and creator of the new TEAM-CBT, which makes ultra-rapid recovery from depression and anxiety possible.

He has received numerous awards, including the A. E. Bennett Award for his research on brain chemistry, the Distinguished Contribution to Psychology through the Media Award, and the Outstanding Contributions Award from the National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists. He has been named Teacher of the Year three times from the class of graduating residents at Stanford University School of Medicine and feels especially proud of this award.

David D. Burns, M.D., is an Adjunct Clinical Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine. His Feeling Good and Feeling Good Handbook have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. His weekly Feeling Good Podcasts are approaching three million download, and more than 50,000 mental health professionals have attended his workshops throughout the United States and Canada. Dr. Burns lives in the San Francisco Bay area. To learn more, visit www.feelinggood.com and www.FeelingGreattheBook.com.

 

 

Book Promo: There Is Nothing to Fix

Experience the Freedom of Radical Self-Acceptance
with Transformative Healing Method

There Is Nothing to Fix:
Becoming Whole Through
Radical Self-Acceptance

Do you constantly wonder what you’re saying, doing or thinking that’s causing you to feel “less than”? Are you always looking for ways to fix something about yourself? You’re not alone—far from it, in fact—and the good news is that you have the power to find your way back to the person you know you are deep down. It’s been inside you all along.

There Is Nothing to Fix: Becoming Whole through Radical Self-Acceptance from Suzanne Jones may be the last self-help book you will ever need. Jones has helped thousands of participants with her life-changing somatic healing program, and in her book she leads you on a journey back to your authentic self by guiding you through a personal exploration of recovery, growth and resilience. There Is Nothing to Fix is The Power of Now meets Brené Brown meets the #MeToo movement. Interspersed with case studies and stories of real people—stories you can connect with—the book illustrates the power of Jones’s approach to create innate healing and hope.

Jones begins where most teachings on self-compassion, emotional regulation and healthy relationships end, by going to the source of lasting change—the body. This book provides a practical lens through which readers can understand their responses and emotions while offering step-by-step guidance for changing these responses, all with an emphasis on compassion and empowerment. Through this revolutionary approach you will be able to experience true freedom from the constant urge to fix yourself from the outside. Jones teaches you everyday tools to build self-confidence, self-compassion and most important, self-acceptance—tools that have been within you all along.

In today’s struggle to feel connection and approval in our chaotic and critical world, There Is Nothing to Fix teaches us how to suspend judgment, become curious and find emotional freedom from within.

Suzanne Jones is an expert in the field of trauma recovery through somatic methods. She has presented workshops and talks at Omega Institute, Kripalu, mental and behavioral health facilities in the greater Boston area, and national conferences. She has been profiled on CNN and in Yoga Journal, the New York Times, Shape and Whole Living, and she’s been interviewed by author Rick Hanson for his Foundations of Well-Being online course. Jones founded the TIMBo Collective (formerly called yogaHOPE) in 2006 and developed the TIMBo program for transforming trauma in 2009. Since its launch, her program has been delivered to over 4,000 women in the U.S., Haiti, Kenya and Iran, and helped transform client care at organizations in Massachusetts; Washington, DC; and Georgia, serving women overcoming homelessness, addiction and domestic violence. Jones also writes a blog for the TIMBo Collective and Elephant Journal.

There Is Nothing to Fix is her first book and has won a silver medal from the Nonfiction Author’s Association book awards, a bronze medal from the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, was a finalist in the International Book Awards and has been nominated for a 2020 Readers’ Choice award.

For more information, please visit www.suejonesempowerment.com, or connect with the author on Instagram: @thereisnothingtofix; or on Facebook: There is Nothing to Fix.

There Is Nothing to Fix: Becoming Whole
through Radical Self-Acceptance
Publisher: LAKE Publications
ISBN-10: 1734083506
ISBN-13: 978-1734083507
Available from
Amazon.com, Audible.com, BarnesandNoble.com and Target.com

Why Did She Jump? by Joan Childs

Turning Personal Tragedy Into Inspiration For
Others To Learn How To Find Healing And Peace

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported the incidence of suicide is up by 24% since 1999.

A mother of five and grandmother to nine, married and divorced four times, and a clinical social worker in private practice for nearly forty years, Joan Childs thought she had experienced or seen it all. But nothing could have prepared her for the death of her beautiful daughter, Pam.  A brilliant psychotherapist, Pam battled constantly with Bipolar Disorder until one fateful summer day in 1998 when her demons overwhelmed her, she plunged to her death from a 15th floor balcony. Even with their combined credentials and medical knowledge, Pam still could not be saved. She became the driving force behind Joan Childs’ latest book, Why Did She Jump? (HCI Books), and brings hope to anyone struggling with grief from the loss of a child or loved one to mental illness, that there is hope for better tomorrows.

Fierce and tender, Joan’s compelling storytelling gives us an insightful yet sensitive look at her daughter’s life dealing with Bipolar Disorder. Peeling back the layers of pain and despair, Joan takes readers through the dark days of grief and guilt she felt both as a mother and as a frustrated professional who doesn’t understand why more hasn’t been done about this disease. With brutal honesty, Joan recalls how the lives of her entire family became entwined with her daughter’s illness as they watched her sink deeper into a place where no one could reach her. It is a powerful story of courage, hope, acceptance, and finally, forgiveness. Now, Joan reflects on her daughter’s many accomplishments, in spite of her illness, and sees them as Pam’s legacy to the world.

In an earlier book, The Myth of the Maiden: On Being a Woman, the author looks at the evolution of women from helpless maidens to dragon-slayers. Both books are excellent resources for personal growth and development after life changes and loss. In spite of many personal losses, Joan ‘walks the talk;’ she lives life to its fullest and maintains a level of energy and passion at age 76 that would put a 40-year-old to shame! A strikingly beautiful woman and energetic and inspiring speaker, Joan ignites the passion in others to find their own path to courage, healing and hope after the heartbreak and struggle of losing a loved one/child to suicide or any other cause of death.

Joan’s television series, Solutions, was dedicated to the memory of her daughter Pamela, and offered information and resources for anyone suffering from mental and mood disorders.  She provides lectures, workshops and seminars dedicated to her profession of mental health and women’s issues and is a spokesperson for bipolar disorder and suicide.

About the Author:

Joan E. Childs, LCSW, has been in private practice since 1978. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker specializing in couples therapy, known as Encounter-Centered Couples Therapy. An expert in Codependency, Inner Child Work, Original Pain Work, and Second Stage Recovery, she is certified in many modalities including a master practitioner in NLP, (neuro-linguistic programming), a master practitioner in EMDR, (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), Supervision, Hypnosis, PAIRS, (Practical Applications for Intimate Relationship Skills), and is a Certified Grief Counselor. She was the first affiliate of the John Bradshaw Center in the United States and has made appearances on national TV shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Mark Wahlberg Show, Maury Povich, The Montel Williams Show, and many more.

For more information on this remarkable woman and her work, please visit the website:  www.joanechilds.com.

Available at all online outlets and Amazon
Why Did She Jump?
My Daughter’s Battle with Bipolar Disorder
By Joan E. Childs, LCSW
Publisher: HCI Books
ISBN-13: 978-07573-1697-5 (Paperback)
ISBN-10: 07573-1697-2 (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-07573-1698-2 (ePub)
ISBN-10: 07573-1698-0 (ePub)

###

Excerpts from five-star reviews on Amazon.com:

“… I lost my 23 year old daughter Kaitlyn to suicide… she was just starting her 3rd year of medical school… I have come to know (Joan’s) daughter through her eyes and memories and she was a beautiful person and was so loved. Her book has truly touched my heart.”

“… A true story of how Pamela, a young, beautiful psychotherapist, lived with a chronic debilitating mental illness and how her family got caught up in the whirlwind. It is also a story of how the mental health system continually failed her in not being able to provide her with any kind of useful assistance… This is a book for anyone who is contemplating a career in the health care field to make them aware of the challenges ahead.”

“This book should be read by anyone who’s lost a loved one due to mental illness and/or suicide. As a mother, I can’t imagine the pain Joan must have felt after losing her beautiful daughter. Her strength is inspiring.”

“Readers will learn more about Bipolar I Disorder, which thankfully, not every family has to deal with, but also about the grieving process, which we do all deal with. Despite being a heart-breaking story about illness, death and grief, Joan skillfully leaves you feeling better and actually hopeful at the end.”

Bartlett’s Rule ~ still relevant 7 years later

Wow, it is so hard to believe how fast the years have flown by! My highly acclaimed novel, Bartlett’s Rule, was published 7 years ago this month.

Bartlett’s Rule was named one of Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s Top Ten Reads for 2009 on MyShelf.com

(from a review) “Ms. Cordero skillfully tackles this topic as she poignantly tells the story of their journey to heal and develop a relationship based on strong reliance.”

(originally posted on VHP Book Tours)

Happy Anniversary, Chelle Cordero!

Bartlett’s Rule by Chelle Cordero is the first Chelle Cordero novel published by Vanilla Heart Publishing and we are celebrating the anniversary! A top selling novel across the globe since launch day, Bartlett’s Rule continues to delight readers, and we couldn’t be happier to have Chelle in the VHP fold! Bartlett’s Rule was named one of Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s Top Ten Reads for 2009, and remains popular with book clubs and individual readers alike.

(read more)

Bartlett’s Rule
by Chelle Cordero
Book Club Extras

        FREE

 

Goals for 2015

5 Tips for New Year’s Resolutions in 2015
Doctor Tells You How to Beat the Odds

If you’re one of the millions of Americans who will make a promise to improve yourself this New Year, there’s bad news: You’re 92 percent likely to fail in sticking to your resolutions, says a recent study from the University of Scranton’s Journal of Clinical Psychology.

About 45 percent of Americans make resolutions. Ranking at the top is losing weight, and staying fit and healthy ranks No. 5.

“Of course, those statistics represent the average – you don’t have to be average!” says Dr. Virender Sodhi, founder of the Ayurvedic and Naturopathic Medical Clinic, (ayurvedicscience.com), which provides complementary and alternative medicine.

“There are plenty of things individuals can do to improve their odds of success if they resolve to become healthier and fitter.”

Dr. Sodhi, author of the new guide, “Ayurvedic Herbs: The Comprehensive Resource for Ayurvedic Healing Solutions,” (www.ayush.com) believes we can move much closer to a world of disease-free societies by following the laws of Mother Nature. Individual commitment to health via New Year’s resolutions is one path to take us there. Dr. Sodhi offers five tips for staying true to your goals.

•  Get away from the instant-gratification mentality and avoid unrealistic goals. Don’t expect to go from zero to 60 – 60 being your ideal body image – in just a few months, especially if you have little background in training. Unfortunately, most who have resolutions like losing plenty of weight and quitting smoking are used to easy snack foods and quick rewards. Health is a long-term labor of love; commit to the love and wait for results.

•  Establish good habits! People make resolutions because they know they’re important, but they’re hard. With each passing week, more people drop their promises for self-improvement. You’ll want to set the right goals; if you want to lose 100 pounds, focus on the first 10, and then the next. Make sure to establish new and good habits – it takes about 28 days to stick. Once you train your mind with good habits, achieving your goals becomes much easier.

•  What you should expect from your “labor of love.” Frequency, intensity and time – these are the three investments you’ll need for losing weight or gaining muscle. As a general rule, exercise at least 30 minutes three to four times a week. Make sure to start with the appropriate intensity for your health; too little intensity and you’ll see little if any results, but too much and you’ll be prone to quit. Don’t think that it’s always better to exercise for a longer duration. What matters is quality. Increase time and intensity once you comfortably meet goals.

•  Solidify the gains with persistent positive reinforcement. Learn to reward yourself in a new way by paying attention to the gains in your body. Notice the improvement in stress levels, breathing, energy, sex life, mood and overall strength. While these improvements are wide-ranging and palpable, they increase over time and can be subtle. Don’t let these improvements occur without a personal recognition of your accomplishments.

•  Embrace supplemental support. Of course, all health efforts are connected to your overall well-being. When you make the investment to eat more vegetables, you’re reinforcing your commitment to exercise. Consider practices such as yoga and meditation, which will feed your health kick and provide unexpected benefits. Additionally, supplements such as kelp, green tea extract, Commiphora mukul (Guggul) and Bauhinia variegata (Kachnar) can yield even more health benefits. And, spices such as garlic, onion, black pepper, ginger, cinnamon, long pepper, and cayenne pepper all have important thermogenic properties, which stimulates metabolism.

About Virender Sodhi, M.D., N.D.

Dr. Virender Sodhi was the first Ayurvedic and Naturopathic physician in the United States. He is the author of “Ayurvedic Herbs: The Comprehensive Resource for Ayurvedic Healing Solutions,” (www.ayush.com) and founder of the Ayurvedic and Naturopathic Medical Clinic, (ayurvedicscience.com). Dr. Sodhi earned his M.D. (Ayurved) in 1980 from the Dayanand Ayurvedic Medical College in Jalandar, India. He served as a college professor in India until 1986, when the Indian government selected him to share Ayurveda with Western society as part of a cultural exchange program. He finished his fellowship in Integrative Oncology with Dr. Mark Rosenberg in 2012. Dr. Sodhi is a visiting professor at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Scottsdale, Ariz., at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy, and at Des Moines University in Iowa.

Book Promo: Healing through writing

Can Trauma Spur Creativity?
After His Devastating Loss, a Man Finds Healing
Through Writing

Can an emotional trauma flip a switch in the creative brain? Does profound loss offer a new perspective from which to peer into one’s soul?

For LeRoy Flemming, author of the “Timelightenment” series (www.timelightenment.biz/) and volume one of “Soulsplitting,” the answer is a resounding yes! And, there’s psychological research supporting this idea.

Timelightenment (Volume 1)

In role-playing, veterans who’ve endured trauma resulting in PTSD “were better able to represent the boundary between reality and the role-playing, to immerse themselves in the scene, to enact identifiable characters consistent with their setting, and produce complex and interactive scenes that told a coherent story,” compared to non-PTSD vets, according to researchers Robert Miller and David Johnson.

The non-PTSD group created more stereotyped, and unimaginative scenes, despite a higher education level and greater role-playing experience, the two wrote.

“I was never diagnosed with PTSD, but I know profound emotional trauma can trip all kinds of coping mechanisms in the brain and soul, including creativity,” Flemming says. “When I suddenly lost my mother, it was a profound, life-altering shock. She was fine when I saw her last – Dec. 25, 1999 and she died on Jan. 1. That’s what started me writing.”

His mother was, by far, the most stabilizing and inspiring person in his life, he says, and losing her rocked him to his core. Rather than seeming abstract, the larger questions in life became the most important, and that’s when he knew he had to write.

“I didn’t have much of a background in writing,” he says. “But since her passing, I’ve been in close contact with a part of my soul that has spawned several books, all of which have helped me heal.”

The creativity caused by pain is a cycle, “because the creative process has significantly healed me,” he says. “I’m not surprised that creativity increases within those who’ve suffered; it makes sense.”

How does a grieving individual make something good out of a heart-wrenching loss? Flemming offers perspective.

•  Don’t force it. One of the last things a grieving person needs is an assignment they don’t want. Grief is a process that entails a host of negative emotions: denial, confusion, anger and more. Prescribing creative therapy to oneself or another before one is ready for it can backfire.

•  Let it flow naturally. We are all unique individuals and, though we know in the backs of our minds that we’ll someday face the loss of a loved one, we can’t predict how we’ll handle it.

“Grieving and creativity actually share some traits,” Flemming says. “Both are processes, and both prompt individuals to express feelings in their own terms. When creativity can be used in conjunction with the grieving process, the catharsis can be profound.”

•  You have many options. When a person is desperate for an outlet, he or she will often gravitate toward what he knows. A onetime aspiring painter, for instance, may return to that familiar and comforting form of self-expression.

“But the mind can be unpredictable; it may be that gardening is the process that is most therapeutic for a grieving person, even though she never pulled a weed or planted a seed in her life,” Flemming says. “In other words, be open to where your intuition guides you. As most grieving people understand, life doesn’t always work out as planned. Be open to helpful new possibilities.”

About LeRoy Flemming

Leroy Flemming is a graduate of Alabama State University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Montgomery, Ala. He always wanted to show people that with spiritual guidance you can make things happen. Through his determination and inspiration from his Creator, he completed his five-part series of novels, “Timelightenment,” (www.timelightenment.biz/), in hopes of demonstrating to the children of this world that they can dream big, and accomplish those dreams. Though inspired by many people, his biggest influence comes from his mother, who said shortly before she passed away, “Son, I may give out, but I never give up!” Flemming recently completed volume one of his new series, “Soulsplitting.”

Healing Through Writing

Can Trauma Spur Creativity?
After His Devastating Loss, a Man Finds Healing
Through Writing

Can an emotional trauma flip a switch in the creative brain? Does profound loss offer a new perspective from which to peer into one’s soul?

For LeRoy Flemming, author of the “Timelightenment” series (www.timelightenment.biz/) and volume one of “Soulsplitting,” the answer is a resounding yes! And, there’s psychological research supporting this idea.

In role-playing, veterans who’ve endured trauma resulting in PTSD “were better able to represent the boundary between reality and the role-playing, to immerse themselves in the scene, to enact identifiable characters consistent with their setting, and produce complex and interactive scenes that told a coherent story,” compared to non-PTSD vets, according to researchers Robert Miller and David Johnson.

The non-PTSD group created more stereotyped, and unimaginative scenes, despite a higher education level and greater role-playing experience, the two wrote.

“I was never diagnosed with PTSD, but I know profound emotional trauma can trip all kinds of coping mechanisms in the brain and soul, including creativity,” Flemming says. “When I suddenly lost my mother, it was a profound, life-altering shock. She was fine when I saw her last – Dec. 25, 1999 and she died on Jan. 1. That’s what started me writing.”

His mother was, by far, the most stabilizing and inspiring person in his life, he says, and losing her rocked him to his core. Rather than seeming abstract, the larger questions in life became the most important, and that’s when he knew he had to write.

“I didn’t have much of a background in writing,” he says. “But since her passing, I’ve been in close contact with a part of my soul that has spawned several books, all of which have helped me heal.”

The creativity caused by pain is a cycle, “because the creative process has significantly healed me,” he says. “I’m not surprised that creativity increases within those who’ve suffered; it makes sense.”

How does a grieving individual make something good out of a heart-wrenching loss? Flemming offers perspective.

•  Don’t force it. One of the last things a grieving person needs is an assignment they don’t want. Grief is a process that entails a host of negative emotions: denial, confusion, anger and more. Prescribing creative therapy to oneself or another before one is ready for it can backfire.

•  Let it flow naturally. We are all unique individuals and, though we know in the backs of our minds that we’ll someday face the loss of a loved one, we can’t predict how we’ll handle it.

“Grieving and creativity actually share some traits,” Flemming says. “Both are processes, and both prompt individuals to express feelings in their own terms. When creativity can be used in conjunction with the grieving process, the catharsis can be profound.”

•  You have many options. When a person is desperate for an outlet, he or she will often gravitate toward what he knows. A onetime aspiring painter, for instance, may return to that familiar and comforting form of self-expression.

“But the mind can be unpredictable; it may be that gardening is the process that is most therapeutic for a grieving person, even though she never pulled a weed or planted a seed in her life,” Flemming says. “In other words, be open to where your intuition guides you. As most grieving people understand, life doesn’t always work out as planned. Be open to helpful new possibilities.”

About LeRoy Flemming

Leroy Flemming is a graduate of Alabama State University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Montgomery, Ala. He always wanted to show people that with spiritual guidance you can make things happen. Through his determination and inspiration from his Creator, he completed his five-part series of novels, “Timelightenment,” (www.timelightenment.biz/), in hopes of demonstrating to the children of this world that they can dream big, and accomplish those dreams. Though inspired by many people, his biggest influence comes from his mother, who said shortly before she passed away, “Son, I may give out, but I never give up!” Flemming recently completed volume one of his new series, “Soulsplitting.”