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Book Recommendation (and Giveaway): Hope Prevails by Dr. Michelle Bengtson

June 26, 2017 4 Comments

Depression hounds the most unlikely people. As humans, we often make rash judgments on others based on social media and other factors, but we can’t truly know what struggles are hidden under the Snapchat filters. The reality of Depression shadows my life (I have loved ones with Depression) and the lives of others.

In college, I recall a crush explaining to me that someone who had Depression just must not have enough faith in God to get better. Fury boiled through me. How dare someone judge another person’s faith by that person’s struggle? Lucky for that gentleman, someone else jumped in with good argument because I was past the ability to make conversation. Oh, and yeah, my crush was over.

When Hope Prevails by Dr. Michelle Bengtson arrived at the top of my reading pile, I was excited to see her take on Depression. I might not have too deep of a personal understanding of it, but I wanted to know more. And somehow, Hope Prevails offered me hope, too.

Book Recommendation: Hope Prevails by Dr. Michelle Bengtson

Hope Prevails: Insights from a Doctor’s Personal Journey through Depression incorporates medical knowledge with personal experience of Depression. In 12 chapters, Dr. Michelle Bengtson establishes an intuitive look at the symptoms, mentality, and effects of Depression on a life. At the end of each chapter, she includes a few questions or suggestions for introspection. She also includes a prayer and a list of music.

In format, I thought Hope Prevails was very easy to read, and I enjoyed the personal understanding of Depression that Dr. Bengtson offered.

“We lose our peace when we hide our brokenness.” – Dr. Michelle Bengtson

Despite not being clinically depressed, I underlined statements and dog-eared (gasp) pages. Every life has experienced difficulty that causes the question of whether or not hope actually does exist. And so, even though I picked up Hope Prevails to understand my loved ones better, I met encouragements personal to me.

About Hope Prevails

As a board-certified neuropsychologist, Dr. Michelle Bengtson believed she was prescribing the most effective treatments for her clients who struggled with depression. But when she experienced debilitating depression herself, she found that the treatments she had recommended weren’t helping her the way she expected. She was determined to find out what was missing.

With the deep compassion of someone who has been there, Dr. Bengtson blends her training and that vital missing piece she discovered to offer you a hope grounded in God’s love and grace. She helps you understand what depression is, how it affects you spiritually, and what, by God’s grace, depression cannot do. The result is an approach that offers not just the management of symptoms but the hope of true release.

Keep up Dr. Bengtson on Social Media!

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My Struggles: Hope Prevails

Honestly, as someone who does not know debilitating Depression like others, I’m not sure that I’m qualified to talk about what I struggled with in this book. For me, Dr. Bengtson seemed almost too chipper sometimes. But somehow she still included the nitty gritty parts of what her experience looked like without being to exhausting on the details. I think she hit this balance well since she wants to help with Depression and not add to it!

My LOVES: Hope Prevails

I really enjoyed the details of the questions, prayer, and music at the end of each chapter. In a way, this made the book almost a multi-sensory experience. Personally, I think music can speak much more deeply than other things. And I appreciated that Hope Prevails offered some encouragement to me as well.

Hope Prevails could possible be a good gift for some people I know with Depression. However, giving this gift would require sensitivity to their journey.

Hope Prevails Giveaway

The Blog Spot and Dr. Michelle Bengtson have made it possible for me to offer YOU a free paperback copy of Hope Prevails. At this time, this giveaway is only open to the USA. However, if you’re international and you’re willing to pay shipping, feel free to enter (but it might be cheaper to purchase a copy online). Please, one entry per individual (two comments by one person still only counts as one entry).

How To Enter:

Leave a comment below answering one of the questions: How do you foster hope in your life? What types of activities give you hope? Does something keep you from feeling hope?

Contest Closes on June 30th, Friday, at midnight, EST.

I will then randomly select a winner from the comments (with a helpful website), and I will notify the winner via email.

When Books Feel Sacred

June 19, 2017 Leave a Comment

Have you ever read a book that feels sacred? A book that speaks so deeply to your soul that you want to hold your breath and release it gently because to exhale with great power would sweep it away? As most of you know, I enjoy reviewing books.

I adore reading books.

I can’t remember a time that I didn’t.

Books have been my best friends, my best escapes, and the most crazy adventures. I’ve almost always wished to live life from within the pages of these novels, except once. But that’s a thought for another day.

When Books Feel Sacred

I can’t be the only person who finds that some books feel like a sacred experience. I know I’m not because I just finished reading The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan. And Nina, the star of that story, sees the world through her books.

Seriously, I relate. I just went searching through all my storage space in my bedroom (for some super sweet wall hangings), and I discovered that I not only have two bookshelves crammed with books, but I also have four big boxes of books. Apparently, I have a book problem. And I’m not sorry.

Anyway, in the last year, I’ve read four books that have felt sacred to me. I’ve read SO many good books since last summer, but these four…I struggled to find the right words to adequately review them. How can you speak with words a quiet shift in your heart center? Prompted by ink and paper?

Waves of Mercy by Lynn Austin

When I read Waves of Mercy, I just finished the hardest two years of my life (to date). And I relished an author who wrote about difficult decisions and heart-brokenness on a number of levels. Categorized as a historical fiction, I could have read this in my morning quiet time because it met me in such a deep part of my soul. Here’s my larger review @CordiallyBarbara.

A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken

I love love. I think I’ve finally come to grips with that fact that I get a little weak in the knees over romantic books and movies. But A Severe Mercy was not the love story that I expected, especially with a title like that. I cried over those pages because of the love that the couple had for each other, and I sobbed over the severe mercy that the book is titled for.

Most of all, Sheldon Vanauken is a poet, and his prose only benefits from his understanding of language. I share more of my review @CordiallyBarbara.

The Mountains Echoed Back by Khaled Hosseini

It took me three weeks to gather my thoughts on this book to try to write a review on it. The Mountains Echoed Back haunted me for days, weeks, and now months. I know that Khaled Hosseini is a famous author, and I’ve read others of his books now. But this one. The Mountains Echoed Back layered story in such a way that it has become unforgettable to me. Read more of my review @CordiallyBarbara.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

[I don’t have my own picture of this one because I listened to it as an audio book]

I understand now why the friends who recommended All the Light We Cannot See to me spoke of this book with such reverence and wonder. Anthony Doerr opens the door to a part of World War II that I have yet not experienced. Interlaced between the day to day business of surviving is the lore of myth and the magic of science, but most of all, the importance of connection impresses the heart.

Having just completed this book in the last week, I still don’t know how to express myself. I write a few more words over at @CordiallyBarbara.

If you read, then you know that there is a certain tone of voice that accompanies the word “good” when you speak about a book. A quick, high-pitched “good” signals that the book lifted the spirits and tickled the funny bone while a longer, lower-pitched “good” reflects a book that spoke to the reader in a deeper way.

Listen to the way that people speak about their favorite books. Tone is everything.

Have you read any books that felt sacred? I’d love to know so I can read them too!

One Instant Doesn’t Define You

June 12, 2017 Leave a Comment

Like most, I try to shake mistakes off and move on. I like to offer other human beings the benefit of the doubt: maybe that guy who just cut me off has a in-labor wife, maybe that snippy comment stemmed from a sleepless night, maybe my friend is too busy to text me back. Some days, I pick up litter and keep up with the news with TheSkimm.

But sometimes, I don’t even realize that my thinking has gotten a little whacked out.

There I am sitting in a crowd of people with my friendliest smile and best conversation tactics, but on the inside, a voice says, “If they only knew what a rabid bloodhound you are, they’d walk away right now.”

And my smile wilts a little. And I feel like I don’t belong in this group of people who clearly share no symptoms of rabies or dog breeds. Their ears look human, anyway.

The worst thing is that I believe that voice in my head. I believe that every person would turn away from me if they knew that sometimes I’m the meanie who takes the multi-colored lollipop from the pigtailed 5-year-old girl. I’ve done some awful things. Maybe you won’t believe me unless I make a list, and I just don’t have the guts to do that.

One Instant Doesn’t Define You

My perception of others is constantly changing.

One moment, my sister is the best thing that ever happened to me, and the next, well, she’s as annoying as the guy sitting in the next cubicle crunching Cheetos. Oh, how I loathe monotonous sounds!

A co-worker brings me a tall Chai latte with a shot of Espresso, and she’s my best friend. But then, an hour later, she hits me with an urgent task that needs to be completed within an impossible deadline. The warmth of that Chai latte chilled to the dregs in the bottom of the paper cup.

Some dude with blue spike hair grabs the last carton of peanut butter cookie dough ice cream, but later, he helps me pick up the groceries that split the plastic bag in the middle of the parking lot. And I catch myself thinking, “I guess he’s not evil.”

It’s so easy to peg others by one event, but those nearest and dearest to us are not That One Bad Moment.

Learning from the Villains

Think of the best villain you’ve ever seen on television, in the movies, or in a favorite book. Are you thinking of one? Now, it doesn’t have to be just an evil villain. A villain sometimes is just the guy or girl who wants something different than the hero. And that difference causes tension.

Emily Gilmore, from Gilmore Girls, always pops into my head. She’s not a straight up villain, but Lorelai acts like her mother is Snow White’s evil stepmother. Emily Gilmore controls people with money and expectation, but she desires relationship with daughter Lorelai (who wants freedom from her mother’s control) and granddaughter Rory.

Emily Gilmore has done some awful, conniving things, but she also loves to take care of Lorelai and Rory.

Is she only evil? Despite Lorelai’s belief that her mom is evil, Emily Gilmore is many more things than just evil. She’s society’s hostess. She’s her husband’s supporter. She funds Rory’s education.

Emily Gilmore is not defined by one instant (when she broke Luke and Lorelai up…and then got them back together).

The best villains…the BEST people are many layered individuals, with good, sad, hilarious, and bad.

If you’ve seen Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, then maybe you’ll agree that Emily Gilmore should receive MVP award.

Not a Villain Despite One Bad Instant

I like to label myself. It’s a bad habit. But it’s homey in my label because, hey, at least I know where I fit. But, one instant should never define the entirety of my life. I’m more than that. You’re more than that. We’re more than that.