Book Review: Glad No Matter What

It's time for another book review! As you may or may not know, I am absolutely in love with SARK, also known as Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (Is that an awesome name or what?) She is a fabulous woman full of wisdom. There is just so much greatness that she has to teach in such a loving way. Glad No Matter What is her latest book and it's about surviving loss and sadness.

As she adamantly states in the first line of the first page:

"This is not a book about feeling glad when you don't. How annoying. This is a book about finding and living from the glad parts in all of your feelings."

In this book SARK teaches us that we can experience a multitude of emotions at one time. Just because in a moment we are sad, doesn't mean that we can't be other things. We can be sad and happy. We don't have to commit to one emotion at one time. We can shift our perspectives so that we can experience more.

If you've never seen a SARK book I recommend you go to the nearest book store and open one up. The pages are hand written, strewn with writing in colored markers, watercolors and little doodles. It really feels like you are picking up someone's journal and reading all of the juiciness within it. One of the many things I love about SARK is that she isn't perfect. She admits to her flaws, fears, and doubts and lets you share in them.

Not only does Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy give you wonderful tools and advice, at the end of every chapter she provides extra resources, books, music, websites, and quotes. I love it!

At the start of the book is a Feelings Menu (how awesome is that?) There's a list of all types of feelings, and direction the the part of the book that will most help you deal with them. It's wonderful!

The book is split into several sections:

Section One: Glad No Matter What - How to acknowledge your feelings and begin to trust them.

Section Two: Waves of Love - Self love and self care. Taking care of yourself and being gentle with your feelings and emotions.

Section Three: Yes To All The Changes - Embracing change and opening your heart up to the experiences. Change can hurt and be painful but there are wonderful lessons and opportunities to come out of it.

Section Four: Singing Through the Storms - How to deal with life when you are falling to pieces and in the depths of grief. How to grow in the darkness. Allow all of your feelings.

Section Five: Learning to See In The Dark -This is about dealing with death and how beauty can be found. This chapter had me in tears in the honesty of the words and stories. There is also a wonderful list of things to say to people who are grieving.

Section Six: Transformation Practices This is about learning to transform the losses into gifts. Making a list of your losses so you can express and experience them.

Section Seven: Portraits of Joy and Transformation Through Loss and Change - Interviews with artists and other creatives about there experiences with loss.

This is one of my favorite books and has helped me through a lot of tough times. If you are experience grief or loss I fully recommend this book. It would also make a beautifully loving gift to someone you know who is going through a hard time.

Here's to being glad even in the face of sadness,