Synopses & Reviews
This is a book for any person who is living with a life-threatening illness and for anyone who is caring for and/or loves a person who is ill. Bolen affirms that the price of going into the scary places, of feeling like a piece of green meat on a hook, is high, but worth it. We have no choice. We will all face health crises--our own and others. We can try to bury our heads in the sand. Or we can travel to the underworld. We can probe. We can listen. We can connect to what we know in our bones. In the ten years since the original publication of Close to the Bone, Jean Bolen has continued to explore the impact and the possibilities for finding purpose that confronting a serious illness and possible death present us. This expanded edition includes a new section about forming circles in the time of crises, plus more stories that support the process of hope and the desire to live and change as well as a very personal passage in which Dr. Bolen tells the story of the death of her son. This book is meant to help and heal, to make people less afraid, and to encourage them to trust the wisdom they have inside--what they know in their bones. * 10th Anniversary revised edition, with a guide for those who want to form support circles.
Synopsis
Face Illness and Find HopeEveryone faces illness. Whether it's a personal health crisis or sickness a loved one is experiencing, none of us escape this life without encountering some form of illness or death. While we can try to ignore the reality, internationally known author and speaker Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen suggests we do the exact opposite: face it. By encountering the frightening world of serious illness and death, we can better uncover how it gives us purpose.
Trust what you know in your bones. In probing and studying the health trials we face, Dr. Bolen shares how what we learn often connects to what we know to be true. As a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst, Dr. Bolen has an acute understanding of what shapes a person, particularly as it relates to one's sense of balance and wholeness. Based on her knowledge and experience, she guides readers to find the truth buried in their own bones.
A tool for help and healing. While encountering sickness is inevitable, healing often seems harder to come by. We are left broken open when serious illness hits. While there is no single key to recovery, it is rare to find healing without first addressing the pain. This book serves as a guide to finding purpose in the pain. Through practicing self-compassion and empathy for others, and actively listening and learning, we set ourselves on a path to thoughtfully unravel the process of finding hope.
Read Dr. Bolen's Close to the Bone and find...
- An insightful book for anyone living with a life-threatening illness (or caring for a loved one who is ill)
- Encouragement for facing the trials and trauma of illness by relying on the wisdom we all have within
- A supplemental guide for those who want to form support circles
If books such as Invisible Acts of Power; When Things Fall Apart; or No Mud, No Lotus have helped you, then Close to the Bone is the next book you need to read.
About the Author
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. is a psychiatrist, a Jungian analyst, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the recipient of the Institute for Health and Healing's Pioneers in Art, Science, and the Soul of Healing award. She is an internationally known lecturer and a best-selling author of The Tao of Psychology, Goddesses in Everywoman, Crones Don't Whine and Urgent Message from Mother, and many more. She resides in Marin County, California.