From Seeking Recovery to Finding Wholeness
The spiritual text From Seeking Recovery to Finding Wholeness compiles wisdom and personal stories into a guide for renewal.
Alex Mezulari draws self-help principles from his own story in From Seeking Recovery to Finding Wholeness, about moving from being broke, homeless, and drug-addicted to achieving self-realization and the ability to cocreate with the divine.
This direct and accessible text introduces Do it Yourself Cognitive Therapy (DIYCT) as a method for self-improvement. DIYCT draws on ancient wisdom traditions, self-development books, and the teachings of religious luminaries to suggest ways of replacing negative and limiting thought patterns with practical, life-affirming ones. Three grounding principles are suggested: be good to yourself, go where the love is, and you are not your mind. Suggestions and strategies for breaking disempowering patterns of thought run throughout; the book asserts that the process requires patience, time, and distancing oneself from toxic relationships.
To support these encouragements, personal vignettes are present. They are meant to show how DIYCT might be applied, and to illuminate the steps to freedom. In turn, though, they reveal that the mindset changes, new habits, and spiritual perspectives suggested are ones that made Mezulari’s specific healing possible. For example: Mezulari shows how a twelve-step support group and sponsor helped him to reorient himself; other accounts cover his long, intensive studies of spiritual teachings, as well as his explorations of inner being. Personal accounts are also used to discuss downward spirals, hitting rock bottom, and embracing the power of the mind to heal.
Mezulari is an empathetic guide who knows that the processes he’s suggesting can be painful, but who also says that they are necessary if one is to not “miss [their] destiny.” The belief that “we are God, and that God is us” runs throughout. Topics that the book presents as essential to self-realization, including faith, expectancy, forgiveness, and vision, are addressed chapter by chapter. The book stands to provoke honest questioning and reflection at each step, and it suggests resources to help with such work.
But obscure and contradictory notions impede the book’s delivery, while its punctuation and spelling errors further undermine it. There are instances of missing and extra words, too, while the placement of bold-print letters at the beginning of each chapter is awkward and distracting. Further, a quote from Jesus runs at the beginning of the book, and is misplaced, making it appear to have been said by the Buddha.
From Seeking Recovery to Finding Wholeness compiles wisdom and personal stories into a guide for renewing the mind, building helpful habits, and creating a happy, meaningful life.
Reviewed by
Kristine Morris
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
