Find the "Road Back to Yourself" and Be a Reviewer!

This sounds like something I could use. I'm not midle aged but I feel like I've lost my sense of self. I'd love to review it. I'll join that group too, just send out a reminder or something!

Ditto!

I want to be that woman who exerts, initiates, and moves on her own behalf. ... Each of us has our own path to happiness. Only we know what will make us happy and reading & reviewing this book just might set me on my journey.

I think everyone goes through times when they feel like they've lost themselves. Especially when they are the one taking care of everyone else or trying to keep the peace between rivalries. Sometimes when one is faced with trying to take care of so much, they forget to remember themselves. This sounds like a very interesting read.

I work in a Corporate office, but I want to be a writer. I have traveled all over the country, but I feel lost now living back in my home town. I am searching for something that is missing in my life, but I'm not sure of what that is. I have lost my sense of self, and am looking to rediscover it; in fact I may need to discover who I am for the very first time...

I am past middle age, looking at retirement in a few years. I have always been a seeker, looking for new ways to reinvent myself. I'd like to know what Joan Anderson has to say about it.

I feel like I'm in a rut and have lost my way. I spent several years caring for my parents and have gotten into a rut at work as well. I feel like I've just settled into a routine and no longer make time for things that used to bring me joy before my parents became ill. I need to find my passion in life - I'm too young to be feeling this old.

Oh my! I just happened across this while wandering around lost on the main Gather webpage. This is so ME! I work full time, am married, have a grown daughter who still lives at home (and won't help out in any way), have a friend "camping out" in my living room for a while, am president of a ferret club, run a ferret shelter out of my home and have 40+ ferrets in my living room. My house is a shambles, I have absolutely NO free time, my life is scheduled down to the second, and I'm surrounded by people who whine at me that I should be spending more time doing what THEY want to do. I wake up with a feeling of dread that I can't possibly get it all done, but I don't know how to stop the merry-go-round and get off! At least once a week I seriously think about running away from home just to get out from under the workload of this life I've set up for myself! I go to meditation (twice a month on Thursday evening), counseling (every other week), out to dinner with a needy friend Monday evenings, to the vet Tuesday evenings, show up for a day at Petco about once a month (Saturday), don't go to my writer's group meetings anymore, don't go to my science fiction club meetings anymore, don't participate in the acting group anymore, yet I never have a spare second. I rarely have time to play with my ferrets or my dog and I walk around under a huge weight of *guilt* from all the things I just don't have the time or energy to do. And now I think my joints are dissolving or something, as it hurts to walk (knees, heel spur) and I'm overweight but can't walk for exercise!

Wow. Is there a solution? Short of dying from a heart attack, is there a way to get my life to a point where I don't walk around feeling overwhelmed and ready to break?

I love all of Joan Andersons other books- I'll bet this one is great, too! My to-be-read pile is much to big to add another one right now though.

I would love to read and review "The Second Journey: The Road Back to Yourself". Since June of last year, I have actually been on my own journey to find myself, and I think this book would help me in my efforts.

On May 30th 2007 my mother past away after a long struggle with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), and ever since I have been trying to find my way back to who I used to be before my mother got sick.

My mother got sick, while I was in college, and while I was pregnant with my oldest son (he is now five). I was living in the U.S., and she was in Denmark. I worked very hard in school to make my mother proud of me, and I spent every summer and winter vacation in Denmark with my son. After graduating, my father asked me to come home and become an aide to my mother. I quit my new job, I packed my suitcases, and my son and I left his father behind in NJ to go live in Denmark. I spent the next two years helping out my parents, and my mother's illness and taking care of my son was all my life was about.

In Feb last year, I moved back to my husband in the U.S. together with our now two sons. In May I went back to be with my mother during her last time, and on May 30th she passed away.

Well, to make a long story short, I have tried ever since to figure out, who I am as a woman (and a mother), in my own life. I had put my life on hold for two years, and I in the process it seemed like I lost a huge part of me. I will never regret the decision to move to Denmark to help out my parents, but I also think it was the right thing to do, when I returned here with my sons. I have been taking small steps, but it seems like I am finding my way back to who I used to be little by little. The past six years seems like a busy fog, and it is so easy to keep on with a busy lifestyle, but I am now trying to wind down and find me.

I have loved Joan's books and through the years they have helped me on my journey back to myself. I read A Year by the Sea while I was going through my divorce and Joan's words were words that I could not speak for myself. During the past five years I left an executive position with a national non-profit, lost my maternal grandmother, lost my youngest brother to a 15 year battle with drugs and alcohol and completed a four year intensive seminary program. Daily I feel that I'm coming out of the fog but still find myself craving for balance - balance that fits my life not as prescribed by someone else. Joan's words have spoken the words of many and I'm sure her new book with do the same. It would be an honor to review the book.

Sounds great but I'm too busy

Oh my goodness. That describes things I have said to my husband about the way I often feel nearly identically. I'm sure a lot of people think I must just sit at home all day and watch soap operas or something, because I am a stay at home mother, but it is not that way AT ALL. I never get time to myself. I never get to watch the news or just sit down and relax. From the second I get up out of bed in the morning until sometimes one o'clock at night I am on my feet all day doing things with my two small children (ages 4 and 3). They're not old enough yet to have ball games and practice and dance recitals and all of that, but I teach them their alphabet and how to write their names, where we live and the states we go through to get to West Virginia. We garden and play games. I often feel as if my life is not my own, as if I no longer know who I am anymore. Am I just a wife? Am I just a mother? Who am I? And how do I find myself again?

I am at a crossroad in my life. My children are both married and moved away. I want to find myself again. I feel like I have gotten into the Mother Routine but now that part of my life is past. I need a new routine. One that gives me purpose and importance in my life again. I would love to read this book and review it.

I'm struggling to find the balance in my life. I spent most of winter ill and I need to find a way to slow down and still feel like I am accomplishing things. It is a surprise to most everyone that I am still alive (I have major health issues including a trach for breathing and most people don't live ten years with one, I'm on my 15th year).

My writing is coming alive and it seems if I focus on it I don't have time for my husband, home and friends. This book seems like it would be helpful for me to find the balance so I can do the work I know I am meant to do.

Thank you for offering this opportunity. I would be honored to review The Second Journey: The Road Back to Yourself.

I am a single working mom with a child that has a bipolar diagnosis. My life can be very chaotic and unpredictable. I have had to put many of my dreams and hopes aside to care for my child. It is easy to get lost in the needs of my children and of running a household. We finally have a diagnosis and medication and life is a bit more stable. I find that I am trying to figure out who I am besides a mom, advocate or caregiver. What really feeds my soul? I need to find it again.

Sometimes when one is faced with trying to take care of so much, they forget to remember themselves. This sounds like a very interesting read.

At the age of 57, I am starting a new career as a self-published author, contemplating getting a degree in metaphysics, and planning to teach a couple of classes on self-publishing and paranormal investigation. I am definitely starting off on several new paths at once. I could use some guidance here!

The ability to reinvent oneself is one of humanity's more compelling abilities. I find books like these really inspiring and would love the opportunity to read this one.

I'm very much a woman who wants to awaken her own independent spirit and set herself on a new path. I don't know if you can find a new path, but you may be able to get around those 'pot holes' a little better.

"Blink" hasn't worked for me, that's for sure. But it sure sold a lot of copies. Thanks, I'd be very interested in reading this book and trying the concept.
Rose

this sounds like someone has been wire-tapping my house. I would love to find me and any help getting there would be great.

At one ponit or the other, we all need to take stock of our life. This book might help in that. I would like a copy to read and review.

Thanks!

I would love to review this book I have been in a serious point in my life where i'm waiting for something to happen to guide me to something I need to be doing for myself I am in constant doing for my family and i feel a bit like i have lost myself to others, serious help need here.

I would enjoy reviewing this book. I recently quit my engineering job to become a stay-at-home mom. I love staying at home with our daughter, but at times I feel as though I've lost my since of self.

Hope I'm not too late to get in on this - I just had the first of my kids leave home, and it's a stressful time in life. I think I need to read this one!

I love all of Joan Anderson's books. As a wife and a mother of four ( now teenagers and young adults), I have a natural tendency to put myself last. My husband and children have always encouraged me to be my own self, and take time for "me things." I am convinced that when I am satisfied with myself as a person, as a woman, My family benefits. I work with my husband and spend a lot of one on one time with him and each of our four children, but I have learned to nourish myself with things I love like yoga, writing, reading and sometimes just in quiet devotional time. I would love to review Joan's book, she has been an inspiration to me.

This looks like a good one. Sorry I missed the deadline for commenting. I look forward to reading reviews.