Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Blog Tour and Giveaway: A Midlife Voyage to Transformation by Donna Roe Daniell

 



Join us for this tour from July 25 to August 5, 2022!

Book Details:

​Book TitleA Midlife Voyage to Transformation by Donna Roe Daniell
Category:  Adult Non-Fiction (18+),  233 pages
GenreMemoir / Women's / Personal Transformation Self-Help
Publisher:  Mindful Books 
Release date:  June 2021
Content Rating:  G  
 

Book Description:

Can You Step into Your Power and Birth a New You at Midlife?

YES! Midlife, and the major events that encompass the ages of 35-65, can be devastating or powerful for women. But we can choose to be awakened at this powerful time of life. This memoir is the story of Donna Daniell's healing journey through the five stages of the midlife voyage-Lost at Sea; Finding a Mooring; Deep Diving; Rebirthing; and the New You-to find self-love, resilience, and feminine wisdom. It is also a roadmap for other women on the midlife journey, charting a course that transmutes challenges into inner rebirth and stepping into the power of the Wisewoman.

​FIND YOUR OWN INNER STRENGTH - TAKE THE VOYAGE TO TRANSFORMATION!

BUY THE BOOK:
Amazon
add to goodreads

 

Meet the Author:

Donna Roe Daniell is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the state of Colorado and has had a private practice in the Boulder/Longmont area since 2005 called Balance Your Life Coaching & Psychotherapy. She has offered family therapy and individual trauma treatment using mind/body trauma tools such as mindfulness, yoga and IFS through her psychotherapy practice. Since 2015, she has focused her coaching practice for women in midlife on unique programs to specifically empower women going through major midlife challenges to grieve and rebirth themselves through the 5 stages of her Midlife Voyage to Transformation. Today, through her website, Donna offers on-line courses, Talks and live workshops, mp3 guided practices to support this book, and adventure and mindfulness retreats in nature for women wanting support to wake up, become unstuck, and find a transformative healing path through life’s challenges.

connect with the author: website ~ facebook ~ bookbub ~ goodreads


Guest Post:


Why I wrote this book…..
By Donna Roe Daniell

What inspires you to change?


To dive deeper into yourself?


Have you been in a really dark place and had to crawl your way out?


Have you struggled with self-criticism and self-hate that cut your energy and spirit to the quick?


Have you been betrayed and dumped when you were doing your very best to understand how to make things better?


Have you struggled with illness and bodily pain that kept you weak and unable to live the life you longed to live?


If you say "yes" to any of these situations, you have probably been through a major midlife challenge that knocked your world out of balance and created disorientation, chaos, fear and confusion.  


But did you know at the time that this horrible situation would give you such a major opportunity?


Maybe you are still exploring this transition you are in  and how you might shift your attitude or perspective to see how it can be your teacher?


What are the tools that help us shift from something horrible and painful and "poor me" to a new and larger view of "growing me"?


I have written a memoir that shows my story of how I found the tools in these challenging moments of major events in my midlife, between the ages of 39 and 62,  that helped me shift my perspective.  I found a new sense of my wholeness, that is more emotionally embodied.  My struggles also showed me my own personal patterns of trauma in my body, that as a therapist I hadn’t understood, or only intellectually.  And how these patterns impacted my  relationships, which I have been working on healing ever since. 


Not only do I show you the tools I found and used: Mindfulness, Internal Family Systems Therapy or parts work, and Self-Compassion Practices, such as metta practice and bringing in kindness to yourself in touch and words;  I also share with you the 5 Stages of what I experienced and named it the "Midlife Voyage to Transformation." This path helped me see myself and my life in this larger context of what I might be called to do now – that by facing and diving into these patterns of trauma caused by these events and others before it, I found a fuller and deeper relationship with myself and my life on this planet.  These midlife events over time awakened my soul journey – deepened my spiritual path into the divine feminine where I am learning to balance my masculine and feminine in a healthier way and to listen more deeply to this intuitive wisdom inside of me.


My book is called A Midlife Voyage to Transformation. 


In this book, I show you how to move your life through the 5 stages I found on my midlife voyage.  That’s why I wrote this book! So many of the women in transition I have met in my 30 year coaching & psychotherapy practice were afraid to go deeper into the darkness within them, even when I was there holding and guiding them. This reticience is normal but needs to be noted and overcome in order to heal our hearts so we can face what is coming. I hope this book can show women the way through their fear and grief.  


 The first stage, LOST AT SEA, is what happens existentially and emotionally when an event, such as an unexpected death or divorce, first hits you. (You can have the same lostness with expected deaths and divorces also). The tools that I show I used in this Lost stage are nature practices and regular exercise & physical activities that helped me settle my fear caused by catastrophic thinking.  As I learned to be more mindful in these activities, I developed a more conscious awareness of what I was doing that was causing the fear. This settling into the present moment and trusting myself to stay more open to my feelings brought my life to the next stage called: FINDING A MOORING.  Examples of moorings are trickled throughout the different transition stories I share such as: hiking with my dog, practicing daily in my sacred space, deep breathing, yoga, journaling, dancing on the beach, dates with friends, meditation retreats, walking in nature.  I show how moorings are regular practices that start allowing the shift to happen from listening to your crazy frantic thoughts to feeling the sensations of what’s going on inside your body. In a word: Embodiment. 


The second half (Stages 3 & 4) of the "Midlife Voyage to Transformation” is the most important to complete. Stage 3 is called DIVING INTO THE DEEP and Stage 4 is REBIRTHING.  So often, this point on the voyage is where we stop when we start feeling better and deny or push away our painful feelings, thinking “I don’t need to go there because it’s all better now.” 

In my book I show you how I linger with this choice, and resist going deeper into my grief, even though it shows up over and over again in my second relationship after my divorce, when I’m more grounded and happy.  It shows up at my mother’s funeral, and I begin to get more curious but still push it off.  Finally, I realize that to heal my sadness and deep darkness inside of me, I have to succumb to facing my fear which has kept me protected but also blocked from going into the deeper sadness inside of me, in order to have a healthier relationship with myself and/or with another partner. 


Choosing to climb Mt. Killimanjaro was my way of stepping over the threshold into Stage 3:DIVING INTO THE DEEP.  Creating a physical challenge for myself, moving myself past my comfort zone, has always helped me feel my strong and courageous parts, my deep love of feeling connected with all of life. Physical events help my mind relax and stop trying to “figure it all out”.  I surrender to the moment.  In the process of going to Africa and doing this climb, I found my mind calmed and I was able to feel more compassion inside of me for caring for young African women and just witnessing them in their desire to grow beyond the limits in their lives.  Descending this mountain in pure joy was the moment when I received my “call” from Halmouth, a Turkish prophet of Mary Mother of Jesus who had just miraculously climbed this mountain at the same time, to bring more compassion deep inside of me.  I am just beginning to learn what I am to do with this compassion container I am continuing to expand inside of me.


The most important learning that I reveal in this book is this:  You cannot reach Stage 5 until you complete 3 & 4 several times. I show you instead of telling you so you’ll have to watch the breadcrumbs I drop carefully.


Stage 3: DIVING INTO THE DEEP is all about grieving which can’t be done without embodying your feelings and dropping deeper into the shadow parts of yourself with curiosity and support. I also share that that Self-Compassion Container I was building was essential for my grief process--a clue for my future path embodying that Self-Compassion.


 Stage 4: REBIRTHING is what happens to you when you go into your grief and come out the other side. It’s the “composting” that reveals a new vision and a new version of you.  You also find a new way of seeing and being at this stage.  Stage 5: The New You, is how you emerge when you go through all 4 stages and truly use the tools I have laid out for you in my book and on my blog: website: www.women-in-transformation.com. I have a toolbox of trauma therapy tools and mindfulness practices that you can explore here.


But, I really hope you just read, devour and compost my book from the inside out.  


Tour Schedule:
July 25 – Rockin' Book Reviews – book review / guest post / giveaway
July 26 – Locks Hooks and Books – book review / guest post / giveaway
July 27 – Splashes of Joy – book review / giveaway
July 28 – A Mama's Corner of the World – book review / giveaway
July 29 – Olio by Marilyn – book spotlight / author interview
July 29 – Olio by Marilyn – book review / giveaway
​Aug 1 –
Mostly Mystery Reviews – book review / guest post
Aug 3 - Books for Books – book review
Aug 4 – Paws.Read.Repeat – book review / author interview / giveaway
​Aug 4 -
 Literary Flits – book review / giveaway
Aug 5 – Novels Alive – book review / giveaway
Aug 5 - Kam's Place – book review / author interview
Aug 5 - Mel_literate – book review / guest post

Enter the Giveaway:

 

Midlife Voyage to Transformation Book Tour Giveaway


 

My Review: 

As I try to navigate life without my husband, who passed last spring, I am always searching for books that will help me find my purpose in life. When I heard about Donna Roe Daniell’s A Midlife Voyage to Transformation, I quickly wanted to snatch it up and give it a read. I was far from being disappointed. I found the book to be quite helpful and it inspired me. The author was quite helpful in helping me in finding strength and courage, as well as, gaining confidence within myself. I admired her own adventures and what she discovered within herself. The lessons she learned while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro were beautiful. She really inspired me into learning more about healing, self care, finding the joy within and the spirituality in nature. Overall an encouraging book to read that I found to be relatable and one I could connect with. I loved every single page. 

A Midlife Voyage to Transformation will be getting a very well deserved five plus stars from me. I believe readers, particularly women readers, who are struggling, needing encouragement, or needing to find the beauty with themselves and their surroundings. I, also, think it would make a great gift. I would love to read more inspiring books by Donna Roe Daniell in the future. 

I received a paperback copy of A Midlife Voyage to Transformation from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.

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