Begin less helping, more healing
Less Helping Them, More Healing You, by Jean P. Kelly, offers an approach to mindfulness that is not another task to add to a fraught day of healing one’s self by one’s self.
It offers an invitation to join an ancient community of seekers who have practiced, taught, and embodied centeredness—a detachment—achieved through the practice of spiritual reading. Each chapter explains not only the process with easy-to-follow prompts, but also provides guidance for choosing books, art, music, or even life experience as “textual” starting points for healing.
In the introduction, Kelly writes “When I fell in love and made a family with an unrepentant alcoholic, I was navigating blind. I was unable to distinguish signposts toward fulfillment from those pointing toward a toxic mix of old insecurities, self-serving concepts of self-sacrifice, and false humility.
“I was detoured for miles and years by patterns I now recognize as codependent behavior, until I happened upon this ancient approach to mindfulness and the straighter, healthier, spiritual path trod by so many before me. Spiritual Reading taught how to detach from my situation with love in order to experience divine love, accepting that my only obligation was mercy, not sacrifice. Once I learned four simple steps—Read, Reflect, Respond, Receive—I found space not only to recognize, but also avoid roadblocks set by the dysfunctional people in all areas of my life, not just romantic attachments.”