Read Spirit Junkie A Radical Road to SelfLove and Miracles Gabrielle Bernstein 9780307887429 Books

Product details Paperback 288 pages Publisher Harmony; Reprint edition (September 18, 2012) Language English ISBN-10 0307887421

Spirit Junkie A Radical Road to SelfLove and Miracles Gabrielle Bernstein 9780307887429 Books Reviews

• In the most respectful way, I think some of these negative reviews missed the point of this book. Some reviews touch on the fact that how she overcame her addiction by shifting her mindset does not honor that addiction is a medical hereditary disease and its just not that easy. I agree its not easy, but what do you think the 12 steps are? A shift in mindset and people swear by it. As someone who has been in outpatient treatment before for alcohol, I personally found her guidence to be useful for not just my alcohol use but anything you’re addicted to, be it coffee or gambling. It enables you to draw happiness from the internal rather than the external. People often use to feel better, which is why its comorbid with depression. If you feel great, you have no reason to reach for external things to make you happy. Other reviews touch on her privilege and that its ignorant to expect people to just be happy when there is instituational racism and real trauma. If you care about her privilege, then you miss the point of her book because your ego is making her privilege special. Its just a fact and doesnt make the message less relevent. Who cares? If it was a rags to riches story that would make it less relatable. She doesn’t deny institutions of oppression, but those with privilege are still miserable. So if people are miserable with and without institutions of oppression, doesn’t that point to something else as a bigger hinderence to true happiness? (This is in no way a defense of oppression btw). There are people with very little and that give away the little they have and are incredibly happy... how? Because its not about the external. That is the point. This book has given me a profound sense of comfort and peace and I can call on its teachings any time I feel anxious or sad or incomplete or lonely.
• I'll echo another reviewer that this certainly lacks depth. The author is ignorant about privilege and is unrelatable. A few times she attributes depression and poverty to an individual's unwillingness to connect to their "spirit". Sure, maybe to an extent, but you can't ignore institutionalized racism and oppression as a reality. It's not just in your head. Additionally, although she discusses her struggle with addiction, she made it seem that she was able to do a 360 incredibly easily just by being "in touch with herself". That's totally fine, but please acknowledge that some people literally can't afford to sit on a cushion and meditate for 4 hours per day and that their problems will go away as a result. Btw, I'm a 28 y/o female (her target audience) and her tone seemed dis-ingenuine and fake, like she was trying too hard to be approachable and relatable but it felt too forced (is there really a millennial that says, "man, oh man!"?). The writing was repetitive as well. Super difficult for me to digest.
• Although author seemed very honest, it still lacked depth. Pretty dusappointing.
• Very disappointed. I was prepared to read something inspiring and non lecturing. That’s not what this book is. This book, and her first one, are just repetive lectures trying to convince the reader that something bad/disappointing MUST have happened to them at some point in their life and that is the ONLY reason one is feeling incomplete or needing guidance. Each chapter was just more of the same, redundant nonsense.
• I am 30 so I am assuming I was Gabbys targeted audience.
  I read a lot of self help books especially spiritual ones. I've came across some absolutely amazing books out there but this one ... I couldn't finish. The tone was entitled and honestly it felt ego driven which is the opposite of what it's suppose to be about. The lingo is just silly and it felt fake. I really wanted to love it but I didn't learn anything besides the fact that the author, Gabby was a very entitled selfish New Yorker and I think she really is obsessed with the NYC "scene". It felt like sex and the city to me. Not a spiritual journey in the least.
• Very repetitive. We get the message but the writing is so poor that it truly takes away from it; keeps talking about the same thing in different ways and it looks like they're just struggling trying to fill in the pages.
• According to Gabrielle Bernstein, author of "Spirit Junkie", we live our lives either full of love or full of fear. Most of us fall into the latter category even though we were born into the former. To avoid getting bogged down by semantics, she calls her inner guide, or Internal Teacher, "~ing," which can also mean God, Holy Spirit, the Universe, or whatever you want to call it, but it means love.
  
  The opposite of "~ing" is the ego (not the Freudian ego) which controls us with fear. The ego forces us to feel separate from everyone and everything and can have us believing we are better than others while at the same time having us believe that we are less-than or not good enough. We can only know true happiness and peace when we stop comparing ourselves to and competing with others.
  
  Bernstein says that each time we gossip, feel jealous, or think nasty thoughts of others, we deepen our faith in fear. "If you choose to see a person's darkness, you strengthen your darkness within. If you choose to see their light, you shine from the inside out." Her solution to our problem of separateness is nothing new pray, meditate, and write. She even offers her own version of AA's promises "...you'll know a new way of being and a life beyond your wildest dreams. Fear will lift; anxiety, resentment, and attachment will slip away. You'll feel a presence greater than yourself leading you on a path toward true serenity and peace. You'll know that all your obstacles are opportunities, and you'll learn to lean on a power greater than yourself. Most important, you'll no longer feel the need to figure life out. You'll just be."
  
  When you discover that success and status, the perfect romantic partner, or a hefty bank account won't make you happy, you can learn from "Spirit Junkie" that you already have everything you need to be content and at peace, and it's not outside of you. It's already in you. All you have to do is look.
  
  David Allan Reeves
  Author of "Running Away From Me"