Review of "Married to Bhutan" by Linda Leaming

Have you ever heard of Bhutan? I had never heard of Bhutan until I was given the book to read and review by Hay House Publishing. I was expecting a travel journal but instead read a book about the author's personal growth as a result of living in Bhutan.

This book offers a glimpse into the country of Bhutan, a land locked country at the eastern end of the Himalayas bordering on China and India, but on many levels, it really is only a glimpse. The book is primarily about the personal interior journey of an American woman living in Bhutan leaving behind the traditional comforts of the United States. Her initial struggles to survive in a country that, for the most part, does not have electricity or modern transportation but instead has a government committed to "Gross National Happiness."

There are comparisons between the two countries: "An American friend who visited Bhutan from the U.S. commented on the frenetic level of physical energy everyone seems to have in the U.S. There's all this multitasking, and we have to schedule our days and carefully plan so we get everything done. We talk more in the U.S. The opposite is true here. Multitasking is not in evidence yet, and the pace is much slower. But the mental energy here, the level of awareness that comes from paying attention, from having less stuff around and having less on our calendars, is formidable." p. 80

The moments of reading in which the author really grabs my attention is with statements of her own personal learning: "Learn to be water. In dreams, rivers are symbols of change or transition. The river we live next to, the one I sit beside, is called the Thimphu Tsang Chu, or Clean River. If the water weren't so cold, newly melted from the glacier, I'd wade in and lie down in it, have a baptism. Instead I take a handful and shock my face." p. 141. This sentence took me deeper into my own personal learning and I appreciate that in a book.

The book lacks the depth of descriptive writing to allow a reader to picture and feel the country. However, there is depth of writing in the author's struggle to live in this country and her eventual fall into love with a man and the country.

For more depth about Bhutan go to the back of the book to "More about Bhutan" in which the culture and geography of Bhutan is explained in more depth. My recommendation would be to read that first and then go to the beginning of the book. There is also a glossary at the back of the book with Bhutanese words that are used throughout the book.

This is a good read with an eye toward reading about a personal journey rather than the country. For those of you, who like me, have never heard of this country, you will find your horizons expanded.

Be Your Own Shaman by Deborah King

From the beginning of this book Deborah King challenges the reader's boundaries and understandings of what it means to be a shaman and how to be a shaman. "So what does it mean to be a shaman today? Is it someone who wears a feathered headdress, shakes a rattle, and dances around a fire to the beating of drums as he communes with an invisible world of spirits? It could be. But did you know that the sweet little old church lady with blue hair and clothes from the 1950s could be a shaman to?" In Deborah King's context she uses the word "shaman" to mean "a healer." In her words, " someone who expands his or her consciousness and conducts healing energy to help others resolve whatever is ailing them on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual planes."

Her book is the starting point and a guide for understanding this type of healing. We must start with ourselves first. She writes from the belief that "everyone one of us is a natural born self-healer--those abilities are there within us, even if they've been dormant. Our task, then, is to learn how to access and use them." And that is the basis for this book: to provide an understanding and practice in how to access and use energy medicine to heal ourselves. Learning about the chakras, of which most of us are familiar at least with the word, is only the beginning of what she covers in this book. Deborah King takes the reader much deeper into energy medicine and provides exercises to start or continue the reader's personal healing journey. Along with all of this, Deborah King intersperses her own story which makes all the information much more accessible.

One of my favorite parts of this book is her chapter on "Healing Through the Ages." I love history but it was both surprising and fascinating to learn the roots of energy healing. Deborah King has also included an index which I find invaluable.

I have started a second reading of this book because there was so much material that I found fascinating. This book is a "keeper." I zoomed through the first reading of this book because of the way Deborah King writes. It is personal, accessible and informative: an unusual combination. This book would be a good read for those in the beginning stages of understanding energy medicine but I believe it would also be useful for people who have already delved deeply into energy medicine.

Thank you to Hay House Publishing for sending me this book at no charge. It is another great tool on my journey.