The Satisfied Soul Daily GuideBook
Your Path to Fulfillment
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Your Path to Fulfillment The Satisfied Soul Daily GuideBook offers uplifting inspiration and a gentle structure to help you know what’s right for you in all areas of life. It’s based on my life-long fascination with words and my concept of “soul hunger.” Through the years of working with my psychotherapy clients, as well as pursuing my own healing, I learned that no amount of food, money, or sex can satisfy a starving soul. We thrive only when connected to our truest self. The Power of Words Since I was a young child, I’ve been awed by the written word. As soon as I could bike and roller-skate, I’d struggle up the hill to the local library two or three times a week. I was a solitary child. Soon Jane Austen, Dickens, and other authors became my best friends. They opened a window to a world of possibilities beyond my narrow life. Their stories gave me wonder, passion, adventure, and dreams. As an adult, the power of words was a vital part in healing the wounds from my childhood. I filled notebook after notebook with journal entries and daily goals. Journaling released painful memories while “to-do” lists kept me focused. I’ve seen this writing practice open vistas of success for both myself and my clients. Soul Hunger Recovery from bulimia taught me that my soul was starving, not my body. And that’s what I see happening with my clients who have eating disorders. They are suffering from soul hunger—a deep hunger that cannot be satisfied by feeding the body or losing weight. Connecting with our buried emotions, stifled desires, and latent creativity is the only way to nourish a hungry soul. My clients find that expressing hidden feelings and parts of themselves on paper actually replaces their bingeing, fasting, and purging. I soon learned that soul hunger also applies to other emotional ills and is a factor in all life’s challenges. Symptoms include difficulties in making positive connections with others, community, living and work situations, and even the everyday world around us. A more critical problem is not being connected to our authentic or Inner Core Self and our Higher Self. Developing nurturing connections and moving with the natural flow of life satisfies a hungry soul. A Simple, User-Friendly Tool Journaling can be time consuming and tedious, and you may not want to spend an hour or more a day writing. That’s why I made the daily entries of The Satisfied Soul Daily GuideBook short, snappy, and to the point, requiring little time from your busy schedule. I suggest spending only ten to fifteen minutes to complete an entry. You may find these “snapshot” entries more powerful than longer ones because you focus precisely on what’s most important to you. Assessment quizzes allow you to gauge your progress. The GuideBook draws from various spiritual traditions including the mystical Kabala and the teachings of Abraham. These are integrated with models of positive psychology, family systems, attachment theory, and Maslow’s theories of self-actualization and motivation. Over a period of months, I worked with the GuideBook myself. In fact, it helped me get out of bed in the morning! I’m amazed at the many surprises in my life since I started completing the daily entries. I found that what I believe, imagine, and think is reflected in my life. Writing down my wishes and desires transformed them into reality. The right people and opportunities entered my life at the right time. I took a new, more fulfilling direction in my spiritual practice. The gentle, nourishing structure of the GuideBook helped me to more easily accept the curves that life throws at me. I stay focused on who I am and what I want and need. And most important, my life now feels rich and rewarding! GuideBook techniques supported my clients in their steps toward fulfillment. You, too, have the power to transform your life. I hope that you discover new concepts and strategies to take you from scarcity to prosperity and self-actualization. May the everyday miracles and plentiful fruits of our astonishing planet, Earth, nourish your body and your soul. Your Daily GuideBook Step by Step At first glance, your Daily GuideBook may seem simplistic to the point of triteness. But writing is a powerful process. There’s a kernel of truth about “I know it’s true because I saw it in writing.” Your unconscious accepts the written word as truth far more easily than it accepts thoughts or ideas. When you complete a GuideBook page at least five times a week, your mind clarifies and prioritizes your desires and wishes. You need practice, just as you do with learning to play tennis or a guitar. Regular practice with the GuideBook forms an optimistic and compassionate relationship with yourself. Your daily entries will increase your self-awareness, foster mindfulness, and discipline your mind to focus on positive thought. Journaling with the GuideBook can lead to peace and wholeness. This mini-pause in the morning or after a busy day detaches unwanted emotion, decreases reactivity, quiets your mind, and calms anxiety. It releases you from regrets about the past, feverish plans for the future, and obsessive worries of things to do. As the Buddha said, “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world.” You might wish, for instance, that you have a creative outlet in your life. Writing day after day “I now have a fascinating hobby” can galvanize you to begin a ceramics class, or take up line dancing. Your GuideBook puts you in touch with the present, the Now, so you notice the scent of the south wind, new buds on the rhododendron, or the comfort of the couch at your back. This GuideBook is a powerful tool for choosing what nourishes you and avoiding whatever leaves you frustrated and empty. You’ll discover which relationships, communities, or job situations work for you and which you’re ready to discard. Daily journaling programs your unconscious mind and your Higher Self to either find solutions or to accept with serenity those issues beyond your control.
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Struggling with money, relationships, work, or harmful habits? You could have SOUL HUNGER. No amount of food, money, sex, or job promotions can satisfy a starving soul. We thrive only when connected to our truest self. Ten minutes a day working with The Satisfied Soul Daily GuideBook helps you to untangle confusion and frustration, and know what’s right for you. • Clarify priorities and goals • Break away from negative patterns • Revolutionize outmoded habits • Act from a place of inner peace • Face challenges with courage and creativity • Attract the right opportunities and people • Achieve your objectives and realize your dreams FEEL TRULY ALIVE! Praise for the GuideBook: “Let's face it—self-reflection and putting words on paper can be daunting. Shoshana Kobrin's GuideBook provides an approachable, easy-to-use format for giving yourself permission to reflect on those aspects you'd like to enhance . . . . or change. As you write down your reflections, you'll gain a new appreciation of yourself, your world, and the people in it. And you'll move from self-rejection to self-acceptance.” –– ELAYNE SAVAGE, PhD, author of Don't Take It Personally! The Art of Dealing with Rejection, and Breathing Room - Creating Space to Be a Couple. “When I finished the GuideBook, I wanted to share it with everyone dear to me. It's a great read with wise and practical strategies on achieving happy, fulfilling relationships and life goals. By applying the strategies, your thought process changes, leading to a more positive outlook on life.” – JALEH ROBINSON, MSc, author of Life’s Little How To Book “This is the perfect, simple, guide to doing the complex work of reclaiming yourself and your soul. Everyone could benefit from using it daily.” – PATRICIA WILSON, LMFT
About the Author
Shoshana was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and started her professional life as a preschool teacher. After taking a Master’s degree in literature, she pioneered a multi-cultural communications program during apartheid in South Africa. Her manual, Communicate While You Teach was written for teachers and nurses in training. Interest in intercultural group dynamics led her to a Masters degree in psychology at John F. Kennedy University when she arrived in the United States. She is a licensed Marriage Family Therapist, practicing in Walnut Creek, California. Specializations are: people in transition, couple counseling, child therapy, food and weight issues, hypnotherapy, and EMDR. Shoshana teaches at university level, supervises interns, and provides continuing education for therapists and nurses. For thirty-two years, Shoshana has been teaching, training, public speaking, and facilitating workshops and retreats in the community. She has presented at twelve, state-wide, professional conferences. Publications include poetry, a short story, and articles on food and weight issues, eating disorders, relationships, addictions, spirituality, communication, the family, and parenting. Her self-help book, The Satisfied Soul: Transforming Your Struggles with Food and Weight will be published early in 2012. Books, reading, and writing have been an important part of Shoshana's life since childhood. Two tools were invaluable in healing from a difficult childhood and many years of bulimia: Natalie Goldberg’s book, Wild Mind, which introduced her to free, associative journaling, and Buddhism’s Vipassana meditation technique. Her spiritual and creative life, which she defines as "connection in many spheres of life" is of prime importance to her. Shoshana lives in Walnut Creek. She enjoys swimming, hiking, singing, playing piano and guitar, composing music, sketching, and ceramic sculpture.