"Awake & Aware - Top Priority: Self" by Cathy LaCounte

Review of the book "Awake & Aware - Top Priority: Self" by Cathy LaCounte
http://www.amazon.com/Awake-Aware-Top-Priority-Self/dp/1442196351/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245554471&sr=1-1

The title says much about what's in this book, but I'd say one main thrust of this book is Truth = Healing.

Many people in the enlightenment movement only want to look at the light and fluffy side of things. Doing so keeps us from moving forward. In order to heal ourselves, other incarnations, our ancestors and our world, we must be courageous enough to shine our Light of Truth into some rather dark places. Whether it's in our world or within ourselves, we must be willing to look into the dark side of things, into our "shadow" side in order heal our world demons and our own personal demons. The "light" side of things is getting plenty of attention with the spiritual people. This book does that also, but it also does something that many spiritual / self-help books don't. It shines the Light of Truth into some rather dark places.

Our "shadow" is the side of us that we don't let see the light of day. Period. We don't need to cast judgment, that's just calling it like it is. Sometimes the shadow is less-than-desirable personality characteristics no matter how you look at it, but oftentimes, that "shadow" is actually our strong points or at least a link to our strengths. We've allowed our culture at any and all levels, be it religion, geopolitical, and others, or even the Earth culture as a whole, to demonize parts of ourselves. There's so much talk from spiritualists about "integration" and "wholeness" and yet many won't look at these things. How can we be whole when there's one side of things we won't look at. What are we talking about when we say "integrate?" Integrate what? We cannot fully integrate and become whole if we aren't willing to look at and embrace the darkness. We may not care to camp out there, but by avoiding it we are essentially pitching a tent there. When going through hell, it's best to keep going. Personally, it'd like to move through that once and for all and I'm willing to face the dark to do so.

Those that aren't courageous enough to do so will sit back and scratch their heads and wonder why we, both individually and as the collective earth-based human race, keep repeating the same patterns over and over. We wonder why we haven't even healed from solar system catastrophes from 11 - 14, 000 years ago. It's the underlying wounds and lies that keep making our records skip, that keep us repeating the same patterns, that keep us camping out in hell.

This book looks at areas to heal from personal to global. It looks at perspectives getting closer to the truth of things at personal levels to global to solar system to galactic to cosmic. So much has been kept from us. It's time we sought the Truth then got down to the business of Healing.

This is a refreshing, real, and yes, definitely a "big picture" view of the human condition that shows the interconnection between many facets of our lives. It's exactly this kind of perspective that will turn our personal and world situation around to something better. Anyone who SERIOUSLY wants to heal themselves and this world has got to very strongly consider this material.

Hello and welcome to our community brewster. This sounds like a book i need to read. Im always seeking answers and i think this book may hold some of the answers i seek. Thank you so much for sharing.

Hello Brewster Welcome to Spirits Journey Forums :Hello:

Brewster wrote:Many people in the enlightenment movement only want to look at the light and fluffy side of things. Doing so keeps us from moving forward. In order to heal ourselves, other incarnations, our ancestors and our world, we must be courageous enough to shine our Light of Truth into some rather dark places.

This is well put, from what i understand through this Spiritual Journey i have been on for the past 3 years give or take have been many ups and downs, i notice when i am at a peak there is always an obstacle in my way usually i trip and fall and have to brush myself off again and again. Many times i try to be a light for others but there are many times i need to see and receive the light from others as well, sharing our light with one another. Now the adversary to me would be anything other than a positive loving nature, which i will call darkness it does not like the light and where light is present darkness is not, i believe there is a post on here somewhere about the topic of Light & Darkness.

Having courage to shine our light where darkness is for me has been very tough only because darkness will lie, and try to bring light down, in any way it can. Darkness does not want change, it feels comfortable in it's own illusion. It cannot see clearly it hides and sneaks around in the corners. It takes and does not give.

Living in the light of the creator shining this light for all to see is absolutely how we can change the world.

I would like to add that there have been many times at work i would feel the need to say something to people at the counter while buying their lotto tickets or cigarettes and i feel this strong urge to speak to them with a question to maybe trigger a thought in them so that they may see a lie that they cannot see. I really do not know how to explain it any other way, i do not feel that i am better than anyone else i just Love people and the thought of people treating their bodies badly putting cigarette smoke into their lungs really saddens me, as d-knots said in another post our bodies are our temples. I do know that each person must make their own decisions but are we not here to spread some of the light we have?

This book seems to have great information and one that i would very much like to read sometime. this post has inspired me and have come to the realization that to be a light and change the world one must share the Light even in the darkest of places.

Many Blessings

wow!!this book sounds intriging.the trick and i guess you have to read the book to find out and that is how do you light up these dark places with light.These dark and scary places with with all our demons in it and reaching inside to bring light into them would be really quite profound i would guess it would be very enlightening .Thank-You for posting this interesting link to the book Brewster.And by the way WELCOME to Spirits Journey.I'm am looking forward to learning and reading your future posts. :.: :s2:

I'd really love to hear back from all of you after you've read it. These kinds of subjects are not new to me and I have no issue with such but I've met so many people who do. It'd be so refreshing to hear from people who are at least open and receptive to such, whether they are ready to fully embrace it or not. I know I certainly like to make people think and this book does that. I almost feel like it's Awareness 101. I discuss such things with people and even the more enlightened don't always see the interconnections, perhaps they don't want to and that's their own wounds showing, that fear of shining the light into the dark. I was talking about this with someone today and said that dark places aren't dark anymore if we shine the light there. Besides, it makes all the cockroaches scatter. :-) I've been looking for a book that I could just refer people to that gives that Awareness 101 course and this is it. And it gives you plenty of direction to continue your research if you want more detail in different areas. There's a certain level of humor interjected also, which is great and provides the comic relief necessary to take in such topics. We could stand to keep our sense of humor in these times.

You may very well see me around these forums here and there but it may be a while. I see someone suggested a forum topic to me so I'll go look at that soon. I just had to share since, like I said, this is the kind of book I've wanted to turn people on to.

Thank You so much Brewster i do have alot of spiritual work going on recently, i do feel this book would definitely help me along my path. Hope to find some time in the near future to pick this book up and read it.

Many Blessings