In exchange for my honest review I was given a free copy of Take Your Life Back by Stephen Arterburn and David Stoop by Tynsdale Publishing. The opinions I express are my own even though I received this free gift.
I received “Take Your Life Back” by Stephen Arterburn and David Stoop during the two weeks I have been healing from my trachea surgery. And the final decision of going ahead with the resectioning surgery. There are so many great points to reading this book. I know it will be a reread for me as I dive deeper into my own healing process from my body and my emotions. God definitely sent me this book at just the right time. In the future, I am putting a call out for a book study of this book. I want to have a group of people who are willing to go deeper and go through this book with me. I will let you know when I will do such a thing. I know it will be after my resectioning surgery and probably while I am in recovery.
I am only going to share two things that have touched me deeply from this book.
The difference between being a reactive liver and a responsive liver. I want to be a reactive liver. Here are the definitions:
Responsive living: begins with a willingness to change the way we think. I am responsible. No one else is.
Reactive living: being on guard for the next slight, disregard, rejection, wound, or threat to take place. Reactive living is rooted in the lack of healthy attachments from an early age. It is everyone else’s fault. Never your own.
I want to be a more responsive liver. Here is why:
Being a responsive liver includes these thoughts.
Instead of thinking, I can chance the other person. You instead think, I can change myself. What the other person does no longer motivates my desire to change.
Stopping thinking about what is wrong with the other person and their areas that need to be fixed. Instead concentrate on my own.
Instead of feeling trapped, start seeking other options step by step even if it doesn’t feel doable at the moment.
No longer will I think I tried everything. Instead think I will connect with someone who may have other options that I haven’t thought of yet.
It’s about not making problems be about the other person and their actions and their choices. It is about being responsible and taking actions in your life. That is who I want to be. This is who I am striving to become.
On the other hand being a reactive thinker, You constantly feel insulted and waiting for them to insult you, reject you, or hurt you in some way. I hate feeling that way. Blame is key, you allow them to take over your mind and heart. Feeling trapped and abused. Instead of putting up the boundaries, instead being the real you, you allow bitterness and resentment to take a hold of your heart. I have been this person in my past. I’m better at being a non-reactive thinker I know I can use some improvements in my thinker in this way. Especially when it comes to some key relationships in my life. I know I have allowed triggers to cause me to become a reactive thinker.
There is so much more in this book. I am not going to spoil it for you by telling you all about it. I recommend you get yourself a copy and go on a self-discovery journey and even journal and take some notes. It is worth it.
Here are some links that might interest you:
Please wait...