Spirituality that draws on ancient wisdom and modern pop culture to help anyone connect with their true calling “A lighthearted, upbeat take on questions that have churned within human minds for millennia.”―Spirituality & Health Book Review “With a balance of careful scholarship and refreshing irreverence, Spiritual Rebel offers a treasure map to the best of the wisdom traditions.”―Mirabai … wisdom traditions.”―Mirabai Starr, author of Wild Mercy
“A must-read for anyone seeking to find or deepen their spiritual path.”―Francesco Mastalia, author of Yoga: The Secret of Life
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Bringing together insights from a wide range of traditions―from Taoism to Jediism to Yoga to Science to Christianity and more―Spiritual Rebel encourages readers to explore their own personal spiritual style and life purpose.
Mining the world’s philosophical, scientific, and wisdom traditions, Spiritual Rebel offers a three-week program of unconventional spiritual practices. Each day readers choose from a variety of creative activities to try out including forest bathing, meditation with animals, visio divina, kirtan, sacred reading, and visiting spiritually charged locations, just to name a few.
Throughout the book, Sarah divulges juicy tidbits from her own spiritually rebellious journey. A preacher’s kid originally inspired by the Force of Star Wars, she confesses her challenges with her birth religion, descent into addiction, and recovery into a life where everything can be sacred.
Combining pop culture with ancient wisdom, Spiritual Rebel draws on the interfaith wisdom of Wayne Teasdale, Brother David Steindl-Rast, Dr. Andrew Newberg, A.H. Almas, David Spangler, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Neil deGrasse Tyson, John Muir, Dr. Qing Li, Sarah Wilson, Leonard Felder, Deepak Chopra, Ram Dass, Diane Berke, Thich Nhat Hanh, Madeleine L’Engle, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Krishna Das, Phyllis Curott, Belden C. Lane, Albert Einstein, and many others.
An indispensable guide for seekers, those in spiritual communities, agnostics, atheists, mystics, and the spiritual-but-not-religious, Spiritual Rebel is for anyone who desires meaningful experiences without having to commit exclusively to one path or fear they might be “doing it wrong.” The diverse collection of interspiritual practices and resources will inspire the Force within you, by whatever name you call it.
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This book is so much fun! Author Sarah Bowen describes her spirituality as “often fluorescent orange with a thumping bass beat.” If you’re still searching for a spiritual practice that feels authentic to you, this book is filled with thought-provoking stories and quotations, fun practices, and lots of resources for further exploration, all written in a friendly and often humorous style. I made avid use of my highlighter while reading this book.
I like how the book was organized. It starts with a discussion of what it means to be a spiritual rebel; how to overcome limiting beliefs about religion, divinity, and spirituality; and how to find terminology that works for you.
The middle part of the book offers 21 suggested spiritual practices to explore, with a different theme for each day of the week and plenty of suggested modifications (“Rebellious Variations”). I was already familiar with many of these practices, but some were new to me, and I liked the Rebellious Variations and the suggested resources. For example, I’m an experienced meditator, but I loved the suggestions for meditating with animals. And I was delighted by the discussion of blessings.
The book wraps up with an examination of discovering and living your higher purpose.
If you’ve had a rocky experience with religion or feel suspicious of spirituality, I highly recommend this book. Ms. Bowen is a friendly, inclusive, hilarious, relatable, and inspirational guide for anyone seeking a more meaningful, connected life.
Thanks to Monkfish Book Publishing Company for providing me with a free review copy through BookSirens that I volunteered to review.
There is a myriad of books on the market to help people find their way through this tricky world. It could take a lifetime to simply find the ones that might apply to your exact situation. The author here has done the leg work for you. Through her incredibly well written journey, she has tried and tasted most every kind of spiritual way that exists.
The key here is not to follow her way in exactitude. The journey to your own level of preferred spiritual awareness is an incredibly personal one. No one needs to be directed by a herder or led like a lemming over a certain spiritual cliff.
The author illustrates many handy ways a person could use to help find themselves when faced with the low point that most humans find themselves in. Each reader will find something in this book that resonates with them and that is one of the key benefits of this work.
For this reader, the simply philosophical idea that I will paraphrase: stop fighting against what you don’t like and change yourself to get the most out of it. My wife and I did that in January of this year when we consciously decided to love every day. Hating Mondays only made us give up 14.3% of our potential life enjoyment. We found our inspiration for this from Winnie The Pooh but there are a million ways listed in this book for everyone to try (or not…not all works for everyone!).
Not a simple read but when you get to the aha moment that works for you, this book has done its job.
A solid edition to the self-help spiritual world.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher via Edelweiss in the hopes I’d review it.
My Rating: 4.5 stars