Excellent book!
April 30, 2013
By Peggy Stillwagon
Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars
I found this wonderful book during a difficult period of feeling stuck and unable to move forward with my life. As if speaking directly to me, the author began to guide me gently out of that stuckness. Each chapter gave me encouragement and new tools for finding my passion again. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to create a more satisfying and fulfilling life!
Review of Trust Your Life
January 13, 2012
By Denise Bouchard
Assistant Editor of The Write Place At the Write Time
Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Noelle Sterne has a PhD in English and comparative literature. In her humble ways, she says that the PhD stands for “Phenomenon of Divinity” and in this, her first book, Trust Your Life: Forgive Yourself and Go After Your Dreams, she helps us to find ours.
Recently, my mother passed away and, as such a life passage will do to us, I had to come to terms with the outdated areas of my life as we all do; how we’re perceived by people from our past who no longer know who we are, the need to immerse ourselves in our work (take it seriously, get it out there), the need to nurture ourselves after caretaking for so long. Also waiting for me was Noelle Sterne’s book to be reviewed that I’d felt guilty about having to put off.
I’m so glad that I did put it off because as the book reminds us, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” I feel strongly that I needed to pass through certain phases to better write this review and having read the book just now, I feel as though God has spoken to me through Noelle’s wise words. The very issues I’ve been grappling with are right there in this book. It was like a blueprint that all but had my name on it. From practical advice from the greats to tools and exercises as well as examples of older writers coming into their own at 50, 60, even 100 years old (including Belva Plain, one of my favorites)- I had no more excuses.
Sterne is a very talented counselor and writer who gives both spiritual and practical advice; including reframing your past, getting down to reality with your projects (outlines, drafts, setting monthly and daily deadlines) and finally sending out your finished work. Her workable tools and exercises involve forgiving others, meditations, prayer, listening to your body, the art of decreeing, changing your thoughts/beliefs and owning the good that you deserve. With information and rich material from other spiritual self-help authors, it’s like having the best of the spiritualists in one spot.
In the limo after the funeral, I was thinking that though I was coming into my own in the field of writing, I still had a novel to get out there that my mother would not see and here I was, fifty-five years old. Then weeks later, I read this quote near the end of Sterne’s book: “Could it be that late-bloomers flower bigger?” Now, all of my thoughts, fears and excuses had a light shined upon them. I had nowhere to hide; so it’s Ribe Tuchus (rough translation from the Yiddish means ‘sit thyself down’) and time to give it all I’ve got.
Thank you, Ms. Sterne, for this powerful, spiritual yet practical book.
Good for All
February 18, 2012
By Bonnie Neely
www.RealTravelAdventures.com
Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Trust Your Life: Forgive Yourself and Go After Your Dreams by Noelle Sterne, Ph.D. is a terrific affirmation for people with self-doubts who are held back from their God-given potential by lack of confidence and lack of loving themselves so that they can use their talents fulfill their dreams. Each of us is unique with special abilities for our specific tasks in life, which the Almighty assigned to no one else. But without tapping into our own deeper Self, we cannot have the confidence and faith needed to reach our own potential. This book is excellent, especially for graduation gifts to anyone! Available through Unity.org
Exceptional Book!
October 29, 2011
By Jed Selter
Retired Aerospace Executive and Founder/President of Caring Clowns International,
A Charitable Nonprofit
Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you have ever even casually–or fervently–thought about getting more out of this life, you need to get this book. Read it. Study it. Internalize it. Personalize it. Embrace it. Make its process your own.
What you want for yourself is attainable. And Trust Your Life will set your course to do it.
Dr. Noelle Sterne, using her life’s experience, academic background and lessons realized from her long career counseling people wanting more in life, has done a masterful job to provide us a simple, believable, and inspirational step-by-step way to reverse our doubts and soar to the heights.
This book promises no canned magic or silver bullet. Instead, it provides the solid foundation for us to do more in life for what and how each of us uniquely wants to. In Trust Your Life, Dr. Sterne gives us a road map to make our dreams for life happen.
Read and Trust This Book
September 21, 2011
By Ed Vaguely, Junior
Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars
My awareness of this book came from an essay by the author on the Unity website, as they are the book’s publisher. I am going through personal, not professional, challenges so I reached out to Unity for comfort, inspiration and insight. Sterne’s brief essay served those needs and was a great appetizer for her nourishing book.
Trust Your Life revolves around 3 concepts: there are no mistakes (who among us can’t take heart in that), you can “reframe” your past (put a less harsh/actually positive spin on what you may label wasted time, actions and such), and the outer reflects the inner (basically a fake it ’til you make it outlook of positivity).
The book is very well sequenced, and builds to a climax of encouragement and sage advice from one who has much to impart. There is a gentleness to Ms. Sterne’s approach that brings you in closer, and she cites several other forward-thinking philosophers throughout the book which is great because it reveals an appealing modesty and true smarts and taste. For example, she praises authors I too respect and have learned from, including Shakti Gawain, Wayne Dyer and another Unity author, Mary Kupferle, who also has an inspiring essay on their website.
I mentioned how my challenges currently lie in my personal rather than professional life because I wanted to note that her writing is so uplifting and specifically right on that I wanted to read every word even when some of it (job hunting) has no immediate relevance.
Her writing is occasionally funny and always sincerely helpful. Thank you, Noelle Sterne!
Book Review Fridays: Trust Your Life
September 18, 2011
By Tara
A writer who blogs at The Act of Returning to Normal
http://www.theactofreturningtonormal.com
I’ve been really struggling with writing these days. I have a half finished novel and several short pieces awaiting serious editing. I’ve barely hung onto finding things to write about in the blog. Life seems to have gotten incredibly busy these days and there is so much to do. Since my husband stopped drinking, the urgency of “figuring things out” has gone away so I’ve coasted a bit. In July, I read a wonderful book about pursuing your dreams called Trust Your Life: Forgive Yourself and Go After Your Dreams, by Noelle Sterne.
Sterne began her career typing papers for graduate students, slowly branching out into coaching. For the past 28 years, she’s helped people overcome their fears and has provided them with tools for success. Through her work, she’s often found that what causes us to fail is internal, not external. It’s the voices in our own heads that tell us it’s too late, we’re too old, it’s too hard, we can’t.
This book is designed to take us through the many hurdles we erect for ourselves so that we can pursue the dream we’ve always had. I think the direction provided by the book applies equally to the big and small goals we have for ourselves – whether we want to quit drinking, start exercising, or change careers.
She calls the book “a manual of practical spirituality,” writing that her book “encourages you to forgive your self-judgments, overcome your guilt, step beyond self-imposed “shoulds” and deep dissatisfactions, develop yourself more courageously, embrace your creative strength and power, and learn how to rely on your always-trustworthy, knowing and peace-producing Source.”
The book is divided into three parts. The first provides exercises for uncovering the problems that interfere with attaining your dreams, the second provides methods for overcoming those problems, and the third discusses dream attainment.
One sentence that really resonated with me was this: “Often what keeps us stuck and continually doing penance is the very feeling that we must pay for our lack of action.” Whew.
Often as I was reading, simple things I had unconsciously believed were brought to light. There is a lot of wisdom in this book and I plan to re-read it with more focus on my writing in the hopes that I can begin to make better progress towards my goal:
Your Dreams don’t go away. The just go underground and keep resurfacing until you’re ready.
