The Art of Becoming Unstuck
With exacting focus on the origins of trauma, The Art of Becoming Unstuck is a compassionate and practical spiritual guide for deep, self-directed introspection.
Arda Ozdemir’s self-help text The Art of Becoming Unstuck builds on intuitive tools from Eastern spiritual practices to address the roots of personal failings and fears.
This integrated guide to better mental and spiritual health includes both the lecture and practicum aspects of a course in self-improvement. Its suggested method is a five-step process to breaking unhealthy, limiting life patterns and moving toward self-actualization and a happy, purposeful, and fulfilling life. POWER is introduced as an acronym for the five phases of self-examination: Pause, Observe, Welcome, Earth, and Respond.
Inspired by techniques shared by George Gurdjieff, Mikkoyo Zen Buddhism, Yoga Nidra, and Qigong, POWER is an interspiritual method. Each step of the process is described and explained using storytelling, personal anecdotes, examples from coaching sessions, and references to philosophical or spiritual texts, like Plato’s allegory of the cave. Self-guided exercises are introduced in each section as well to help put their ideas into action.
The book’s nine chapters move in the form of a hero’s journey, from personal awareness to responsibility for the self, and ending in new harmony. Diagrams and geometric charts are present to illustrate concepts like the relationships between oneself and others that help to show that, while the POWER method seems straightforward, it requires a degree of self-awareness that may be difficult to achieve without the support of a life coach or therapist.
Success stories are used to demonstrate the ideas laid out in the POWER method. These anecdotes tend to be lifted from coaching sessions, covering, for example, a woman who felt internal conflict in her professional life and wanted to be recognized, respected, and seen, and who used the POWER method to connect with her inner strength and show up to meetings with more integrity. Though the metrics for these successes are non-standardized, the book reports a general sense of improvement. Its focus on corporate and C-suite training is still hyperspecific, though its lessons may translate to other types of relationships.
Although the book incorporates advanced spiritual concepts, they are described in approachable, convincing language and with sometimes plodding, but consistent, images, as of a rising hot-air balloon that signifies improved consciousness and higher psychic altitude. Its writing exercises are arranged in checklist-type columns, with response options that often follow prescriptive flow charts.
With exacting focus on the origins of trauma, The Art of Becoming Unstuck is a compassionate and practical spiritual guide for deep, self-directed introspection.
Reviewed by
Claire Foster
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.
