G163, G35 The Secret of Emotions
Author: Justice Saint Rain
Publisher: Special Ideas
Publishing Date: 2012
ISBN: 978-188854751-1
Summary:
How can we tell the difference between Love and Lust? For that matter, how can we identify any emotional sensation and decipher its meaning? Is it possible for the head to ever understand the language of the heart?
Yes.
Start here.
This book is a practical guide to understanding the connection between our emotional sensations, our experience of virtues, and our longing for God. This understanding will help you heal old wounds, overcome shame, learn the true meaning of love, let go of compulsive behaviors, break unhealthy relationship patterns and develop new, healthy habits that will make future growth even easier.
This is not an invitation to visulaize your way to a better life. It is a challenge to understand what you feel, recognize how your emotions have led you to where you are, and then train your head, heart and body to work together to make better decisions in the future.
Other Works:
This is the first book of the trilogy which includes 4 Tools of Emotional Healing and Longing for Love. He has written other books too such as Falling into Grace, My Baha'i Faith: A Personal Tour of the Baha'i Teachings, Why Me? A Spiritual Guide to Growing Through Tests, and The Secret of Happiness - Gift Edition.
Background of author:
(from goodreads.com)
born
The United States
gender
male
website
http://www.interfaithresources.com
influences
John Bradshaw, Susan Forward, Baha'u'llah, Abdu'l Baha,
member since
August 2012
About this author
My goal as a writer is not to say what I have to say in the best way possible, but to say what my readers need to hear when they are alone and confused and feel that no one in the world could possibly understand what they are going through.
I write to comfort, to enlighten, and to inspire.
I believe three things:
That the purpose of life is to develop our virtues.
That virtues are the signs of God reflected in the human heart.
That our emotions help us recognize and follow these signs.
The implications of these three simple observations could fill volumes - and that is what I am trying to do. I invite your insights and input.
Theme:
"If following your heart has repeatedly gotten you into trouble, but to follow your head feels like a kind of soul-death, then this book will open up a whole new world of possibilities for you. It will teach your head how to understand the language of your heart, and teach your heart how to speak the language of God." (Introduction, page not available.)
Problem the book addresses:
"So this book has the humble goal of helping you accurately identify your feelings so that you can develop the virtues that will help you become the best person possible. Along the way, you will heal old wounds, overcome shame, learn the true meaning of love, let go of compulsive behaviors, break unhealthy relationship patterns and develop new, healthy habits that will make future growth even easier." (Introduction, page not available.)
Summary of content:
The author focused a lot on problems such as shame, how real love feels like, and how close fear and love parallel each other in sensations a human being experiences. The author does go into what to do when it comes to breaking the old styles and habits, but I feel that the cures were brief and were not given enough discussion. I have read dozens of self help books, and I am admitting that this is one of the most powerful books that I have read and that really spoke to me in a way I can understand. If one does feel a negative emotion, one needs to acknowledge it and it will go away is one of the messages.
Thesis:
It is possible to get control over self and to become closer to God without christianity being present. (Something else I loved in the book is that the author never said jesus or used christianity.)
Main points:
The Secret of Emotions
*My Rosetta Stone
* Recalibrating Our Inner Compass
* The Importance of Emotions
* Physical Emotions and Spiritual Emotions
Understanding Love
*Limitations of Love as a Sensation
* Romantic Love
* America's Classic Romance
* Why we marry our mothers
Healing Shame
*What is shame?
*Shame Spirals
*Love, sex and shame, the universal spiral
Breaking the Shame Spiral
*Transforming our perfectionism
*Being Present
*Consulting with your emotions
Replacing Old Patterns
*Changing our motivation from shame to joy
*Joy and longing as motivators
*Replacing physical sensations with spiritual sensations
Emotion as spiritual perception
*what's in a name?
*The down side of virtues
*A story of longing
* Dealing with what is missing
Developing virtues in our lives
*Understanding virtues
*Virtues and happiness research
* Where to start
Summary and conclusion
Why its interesting/informative:
I never really saw love and fear as one thing, and I never knew that so many were misinterpreting love. It also spoke a great deal to me about the fears and mistakes that I feared I was making and in a way the author assured us its okay to be human. The author is also careful to draw boundaries between shameful shame and normal shame. I would recommend the book to virtually everyone I can because its a beautiful novel that is also non-judgmental. The author admits to making mistakes himself as well as struggles he goes through on the road to becoming a better person.
Successfully Supports Thesis:
The book does successfully support the thesis and it does preach things without putting christianity in it; that is the ideas and whatnot are universal and not just exclusive to christianity.
Special features:
The only two special features of the book are the two charts located on pages 65 and 30. They seem to fit in with the book and add depth to it. I felt that the book was clear and very explanatory.
Addressing Issues:
All of us are human beings, and the author believes that we have been taught incorrectly about love and other things we experience when it comes to physical sensations. The ideas of sin and whatnot permeate through everything, causing all to feel ashamed of selves. Here the author tries to tells people that no matter what we are children of God and we are beautiful and not full of original sin.
Book ideas vs larger ideas:
I can imagine that this book can shake up a lot of christian dogma and doctrine that humanity had to contend with for centuries. The ideas, if I'm not mistaken, sound also a bit Jewish. I would imagine that many people will resist these ideas and will consider this book as incorrect or the author as a heretic, at least old fashioned people anyway.
Agree/Disagree with opinions:
With a lot of what the author has written, I agree with it, and I also find surprises as well.I recall what one time an ex friend of mine told me; how close the scream of pleasure and pain blur together, and now reading what the author wrote about love and fear having same sensations, its interesting how that can relate to what my ex friend has said. I never saw or learned to see pleasure as sinful, thus its hard for me to understand the idea of original sin, but I never approved of the way it controlled people's lives. I think that I will use a lot of what the author has written in my short stories, and will incorporate some of it in my life as well.
Sources:
The author used interesting quotes to add more dimension to the book, such as one about saying thanks on page 57, and mentions some books too, one of which I have read titled The Artist's Way which I have found very spiritual and beautiful reading. Other books that the author mentions I haven't read, unfortunately.
Conclusion:
I would highly recommend this book to everyone who may struggle with self and whatnot. Its not a conversion book, and the author simply asks one to examine ideas and self. For me personally a lot of what he said resonated with me and I do hope to have a chance to read his other two books in order to gain more understanding of what I need to do. Also, the author offers something to help with life instead of a pop psychology type book.
Quick notes: I won this book on goodreads.com thus this review will appear in its entirety on goodreads as well as the blog
5 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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