Tag Archives: book

Update from Niara – Light at the End of the Tunnel

Posted by shaktistar on

DCIM100GOPROThis is an update from my last post. I am doing better, thanks to the support many have offered.

My friend Janet Sailor started a GoFundMe campaign for me to raise more money that could really get me back on my feet. She has been a dear friend since 2009 when I first went public with my experiences. After a conversation with her, she created the campaign as she knows how much writing my book took out of me, having to relive my experiences to write them effectively. I got what care I could afford for my back until my resources ran out. Now there is nothing left and I’m going without chiropractic, acupuncture, Bowen and other forms of care that have really helped in the past. The link will be included below. It is needed.

Funds are needed badly and urgently for dental care which is a ticking time bomb right now, and to be able to seek more care for my back disability. I need to purchase an older Subaru Forester, 2005 or earlier in excellent condition or fix it up for traveling to promote my book again in the future. And I’m not talking dental care in the USA, where it’s exorbitantly expensive, but money to go to Mexico, have lodging and get what I need done there where it’s more affordable.

http://www.gofundme.com/niaramovingforward

My life was gutted last year with a series of difficult events when I needed to be well and strong to promote my book. I was already trying to recover from writing the book as well. I could not do it under the pressures and stress I was under at that time. I am still under a lot of pressure and stress – including recent harassment from my landlady a week ago about my dog, in-training to be my service dog. My dog is a prescription from my healthcare providers to help me with my stress levels and PTSD, having her is absolutely necessary, and more than that, protected by federal law. So I did get help getting the landlady to back off and leave me alone finally.

I’m still dealing with massive exhaustion from years of not sleeping well or enough, and the stress of getting ready to move. The good news: I have a couple of options for FINALLY getting into a home in Pagosa Springs on the near horizon. I hope to hear something conclusive about this in the next week to 10 days. Once I’ve moved, I will need significant time to recover from living in this place where the stress levels have been intolerable and the lack of sleep has made it all worse, including my back problems. I just want to get back my health and vitality and get back to work serving the world I live in. Once I have rest and the chance to take care of myself for a while, I have more writing and books planned, videos to teach more about what is going on and how to deal with it, and more. It’s so frustrating to have all of this simmering within and be unable to get moving on it due to exhaustion and stress. Many of you may have noticed how long it’s been since I even did any interviews. I hope to get back to doing them once I’ve rested up and recovered sufficiently. It will have to be after I’ve moved and rested for a while from the work and stresses of the last several years.

As to the GoFundMe campaign: if you were one of the people who contributed to my earlier fundraiser to help get the closing costs money together, there is no pressure on you to contribute again. And even if you are one of my friends who cares about me, there is no pressure to contribute if it is beyond your means right now. If you can share my GoFundMe campaign with others who might help out, that would be very much appreciated. After talking with Janet Sailor about my needs, we decided on an amount of $25,000 to get me back on my feet. On one hand, that sounds like a lot. On the other, in this economy, it’s not that much.

If someone within a reasonable distance from Durango, Colorado had a Subaru Forester in good condition to donate to me rather than money, that would be welcome also. If it’s a major fixer-upper, unless I meet the goal of this GoFundMe campaign, I would not be able to fix it up with all the other expenses I’m facing.

If many people give small amounts, I can reach my goal without creating stress on anyone else, which I would never want for anyone, especially with what I’ve experienced this past year. This is all I ask, what you can give without creating stress for yourselves. If you can’t contribute, I hope you will share the GoFundMe link with others.

Thank you very much, from my heart to yours.

Niara

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Four Years: Birthing Facing the Shadow, Embracing the Light on 11/11/2013

Posted by shaktistar on

Updates to this post!

For Kindle readers and others in other countries, the Kindle edition of my book is ready and online at Amazon.com in the USA and other countries. Please check the Amazon.com website in your location if you’d like a copy. Here is a link to the USA Amazon website offering the Kindle version: 

Facing the Shadow, Embracing the Light; Kindle version

Also, I just found out that for those in Australia or New Zealand who want to order a book, you can order them through the Amazon UK website and get reasonable shipping to your region. I really regret that I can’t send books down there – it costs 2 to 3 times the cost of the book itself to ship “down under” or overseas anywhere actually.

***

Finally! The book release date is here! For those who have been waiting, my book, Facing the Shadow, Embracing the Light: A Journey of Spirit Retrieval and Awakening is ready to buy, for those who’ve been waiting for it to come out. 

I feel so much appreciation to everyone who supported me during this long process with their friendship, with holding space and more. There are no words to express the gratitude I feel for all of you.

IMPORTANT!!  IF YOU ARE ORDERING FROM OUTSIDE THE CONTINENTAL USA:

If you are ordering from outside the continental USA, please order the book from Amazon.com – simply go to the Amazon site for your country and order it from there. Shipping books to locations outside the continental USA costs as much as the book itself and in some cases, costs 2 or 3 times the cost of the book.

A signed copy directly from me can be purchased for $22 + $5 shipping and handling [$27 total] by clicking the book image to the right:

To buy from my CreateSpace Store front (no signed copy, but faster to get your copy), click here:

Niara’s CreateSpace Store

Learning to Cry

“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”
~ The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran

I have been through extraordinary trauma; trauma that warps the mind and makes the soul weep, even when my body, conditioned to be stoic and “show no weakness” couldn’t let the weeping happen.

Fortunately, at long last, I am learning to cry; indeed, I can’t really prevent it any more. When I am moved by either grief, beauty or some other upwelling of emotion, I find myself crying. It’s as if some dam of stoicism has cracked and all kinds of tears are pouring forth at times; tears of sadness, grief, of relief, even of joy.

I can only say that it’s better to be able to weep than not. In the past, when I could not allow myself to cry to the point it seemed my ability to cry had been shut off, the internal pressure of needing an outlet for grief and not being able to get it out by giving vent to tears had me feeling like I might implode.

A New Way of Being in the World

In trying to digest way too much from the “information superhighway” that is the internet, and feeling total information overload, another big insight is making a shift from being an information and learning junkie (I’m a lifelong learner and love learning new things!) to being far more inward-focused and moving from my own inner center, listening to impulses to do this or that or just “be.” I still want to learn as needed, but will be tuning in much more deeply to following my inner guidance on what I need moment to moment. I am coming to feel – and trust – that by staying centered as much as possible, moment to moment, I can be guided to what I most need in that same moment. No need to pile on tons upon layered tons of outer data and information “just in case.”

My wonder questions: What could I learn by following my impulses, by making space inside myself for the innate wisdom I might not have even realized was in there because I’m looking outside of myself so much of the time? What knowledge might be seeded within my soul, waiting for an outlet, waiting for a special new way of listening to see what might emerge? I don’t know, but I’m excited to learn new ways of deep listening within to find out. I will be finding ways to put myself in the path of this newer way of being, opening more and more to intuitive guidance, more and more to moving on my inner impulses as much as possible.

First-time Author Learning Curves

I guess I’m a rank amateur when it comes to being a new author. There is so much more to self-publishing a book than I imagined! Next book, I’ll be much wiser. And most likely there will be more books. Right now, I’m in an “aversion to technology mode” out of necessity to get my body back in shape after 4 years of sitting, writing, editing and formatting. After all the work on Facing the Shadow, Embracing the Light, it’s time for me to give some tender-loving-care to myself for a while. Writing the book has been a vital part of my healing process… remembering, writing, expressing, sharing. And I’ve discovered in my trauma recovery work studies that the kind of back problems I have are directly related to the sexual assaults I suffered during my experiences. But I believe in the complete resiliency of the body to heal when given the right opportunities, beginning within the realm of consciousness.

Managing My Electronic Life…

Sometime in the future, reworking how I use the internet, including email, Facebook, and other digital means of communication, I’ll be creating more blog postings, written and video. In the comments sections below such entries, I’ll be paying attention to questions that people pose to me about my experiences, and I may create a Facebook group for the same purpose. I will do my best to address these questions in writing or in a short video.

I plan to do some teleconference calls with groups of people where questions can be answered in an interactive, real-time setting. Because for all the people who have suffered trauma in one way or another who resonate with my way of working with people and trauma, I want to be there for you as I can. If you are a person who needs deeper work in this area, please visit my About Body-Centered Therapy page to learn more about me and my skills and talents in this area, not the least of which is having gone through the process myself.

Posts on this website and on my Facing the Shadow, Embracing the Light website will diverge from here on… Encounters with Healing will be more devoted to the healing arts, especially as pertaining to trauma, and teaching about consciousness expansion. Facing the Shadow, Embracing the Light will be for sharing new learnings and insights about extraterrestrials, disclosure and much more about the forces impacting and shaping our world today.

I sincerely hope the book does well out in the world, as of today. I poured into it all my love of this planet, of all life here, and especially my love of humanity and the wonderful things we can become if we can accept our differences and unify to celebrate the hearts and souls that we essentially are, that simply want to love and be loved in return. From my heart to all of yours, I wish you all your highest and best personal and spiritual evolution.

In’lakech – I am another yourself,
Niara

Still Working… Still Moving Forward

Posted by shaktistar on

For those following here who are waiting for the book to come out, I thought I’d post an update.

There have been so many little delays cropping up – internet being down for a few days, Mercury retrograde interruptions and distractions, and perhaps me overestimating just how much work I can humanly do in a day, especially still having chronic back pain that limits how much sitting I can do each day. If only I could just work and not eat, sleep or grocery shop! And, skip things like Thanksgiving, etc. and one risks being called a grinch about holidays. So it seems I am keeping up with life as well as working to keep up with publishing the book!

I did just accomplish a major milestone this week: I finished all the edits from my editor for the entire manuscript. I now have a fresh copy that I will be reading through – as quickly but as accurately as possible – and will then be working on uploading it to a self-publishing website for formatting and publication.

Other things that slowed work down on the book were finishing up a new Level I certification in Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE), but this is a very worthwhile “distraction” from the book work. It’s very important to me to have skills in place for helping others recover from trauma. The process of TRE – a series of exercises designed to fatigue the muscles of the feet, legs and lower torso enough to bring on body tremors, these tremors being the trauma release mechanism all living organisms inherently have within. Human beings have the unique capability of suppressing their natural tremoring for trauma release, often because they don’t want to appear to have lost control of themselves. So TRE is a way of retraining the body to get back in touch with it’s natural trauma releasing process.

I will be working on my Level II TRE certification in the new year, which will allow me to work with groups – and after the completion of the book!

Many Blessings,

Niara