Synopsis

This reflective book is part memoir, part step by step crash course in spirituality. Through Carly Söderström’s remarkable and wildly colourful life you’ll delve into a journey through adventure, entrepreneurship and true heartbreak that led to a spiritual awakening. Carly’s life is rich with lessons in empathy that serves not only as a beacon of hope for those suffering mental illness but also offers insight for those on the other side of it.

Through sharing the true struggles of suffering depression and anxiety and how dangerously close it lead her to encounters with suicide, Carly will share the steps she took to firstly; face her demons and ultimately calm the beast that threatened to take her life.

There is a stigma in mental health. It implies weakness or a failure of sorts. We fear failure almost as much as we despise weakness. We fear vulnerability yet it’s the key to unlocking the perception shift required to cultivate happiness. Starting simple conversations with ourselves can cause subtle shifts in our reality that compounds to cause lasting change

Each of us desires true happiness and contentment in this life yet, we stand in our own way of achieving it. We are so lost in our own stories, blinded by our own cognitive dissonance and refusal to understand or appreciate those around us.

We default to anger and vindication through irrationality that's justified in our entitlement and unrealistic expectations of others. What’s worse is we actively choose these actions and ignore the lessons life continues to serve us, only increasing the difficulty each time the challenge is re-served.

Carly will assist you on your own spiritual journey as she shares some of the hardest and untold stories of her life. In this clear, step by step guide, you will have an opportunity to open your own heart and learn invaluable lessons in empathy that will enrich your own life.

Through unbelievable, yet true stories, this book will guide you through that process so you can find the quiet and stillness you need to cultivate happiness. Whilst shedding light on the mental illness you’ll learn what a miracle it is to look through another's eyes for a moment and how it can guide your actions to a happier life.

Sales arguments

• 17.0% of Australians aged 16 to 85 have experienced an anxiety and/or affective disorder in the past 12 months. This is equivalent to 3.2 million people today. That's one in 6, which means our friends and family are likely suffering and we have no idea. This book aims to open the conversation so we can begin to understand each other.
• This book will feature key strategies from leaders in their field to facilitate change in ourselves, from spiritual leaders to psychologists and health professionals.
• After a decade in business, Carly has experienced both the best and worst in people and through the beginning to the inevitable demise of her business, these stories are lessons we each inevitably face, yet no one wants to talk about. This book will help us embrace our failures and appreciate the flaws we so easily identify in others.
• Carly has amassed a following of 10K on instagram who have been closely following her journey the past 7 years. The huge engagement speaks volumes for the need and desire to have someone brave enough to speak out and start the difficult conversations.

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Audience

Men and women - aged 20ish - 40ish who are trying to discover who they really are. Who have aspirations to try something new but are too afraid to start, or are on their journey of living a life on their own terms yet are faced with judgement and isolation.