I am a survivor. I’ve fallen and broken, sobbed and surrendered. Only to learn, laugh, pick myself up and stagger onwards on this exciting, miraculous journey called life.
You’re a survivor too, dear reader. And that is why we’re going to get along.
But life is about more than just surviving. The world is an astonishingly magnificent place. Yes, it can be full of hardship, pain and suffering. But it’s also full of love, laughter, sharing and learning.
In this blog, I’m going to give tips on how to survive the challenges we all come across. I’ll reveal some of the heart breaking and hilarious episodes from my life. I don’t claim to be an expert, psychoanalyst, spiritual leader, or even the new Oprah Winfrey. I’m just a survivor, who loves to write.
In reality, surviving these obstacles is a lot more challenging than simply following a list of tips but I hope that my stories and recommendations will help you on your journey, give you ideas, and make you realise that you are not alone. And I’m sure you’ll come up with a few useful tips of your own.
Please feel free to make comments, and to divulge some of your stories and tips. Let’s take this journey together. To survival and beyond.
betterthansurviving 
This is the most fabulous “about me” section I’ve ever seen. You’re lovely 🙂
Why thank you, Jaclyn!
You’re lovely, too 🙂
Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. I found yours a few days ago, and I love the statement you wrote, “But life is about more than just surviving. The world is an astonishingly magnificent place…” is such a warming thought.
Welcome to my blog and I hope to see you there often!
Thanks, Regan 🙂
And thanks to Jaclyn of course!
I miss your beautiful posts, Sharon. I hope you’re not done writing 🙂 Have a wonderful weekend!
Thank you, Jaclyn. I’m definitely not done writing. I’ve just been super busy and lacking in inspiration to be honest.
I hope you’re enjoying the weekend too.
xxx
Hi Sharon, I like your website and your writing. Keep it going! Have a nice weekend.
Thank you, Gráinne 🙂
As you may know, it was one of your images on Facebook that had a link to The Moonlight Sonata. Beautiful. Helped relax me big time last night. And loved the picture!
Where do you get the pics? Do you take/make them??
I love your blog. Read some, can’t wait to read the rest 🙂
Thanks, Ciara! Glad you like it 🙂
Fabulous blog! I wear my scars proudly, they make me who I am and they have blessed me with wisdom.
Thank you for sharing your stories. 🙂
Thank you so much, Morgan!
I’m glad to see you’re doing the same.
This is what life should be about – sharing what has made us stronger in order to help and inspire others who are going through a rough patch.
Ok…I think I’ve read everything now. I absolutely love your voice when you write. You are definitely on my list of interesting and fascinating people. Glad I found you. Or you found me. Not quite sure which happened first
Fair play to ya! Think there are over 60 posts at this point…
Thank you so much for following, commenting and encouraging. It means a lot.
It could have been the beautiful Jaclyn Rae who introduced us…
Most likely. Love her stuff, too. Thank you, also, for checking out my black on white. It is alway great to be read by someone you know who gets it. And I just hit 180 posts…yeesh…time to put together a book 😉
I was thinking the same! Now, how to go about getting published…
I just started homeopathy for an undiagnosed chronic illness that has taken my life away and I am so more than hopeful. I truly see it as a panacea that our government will never acknowledge out of greed. I am so happy for you and your recovery. Life is so exciting and getting a second chance makes me want to live such a better, deeper existence than I was before.
I just came across some of your wonderful blogs, Sharon, also on homeopathy. I am very worried now as I treat my-self as a lay person with homeopathic remedies. I read from one practicioner that a lot of harm can be done if one uses the incorrect remedy or takes a remedy for too long, which I will have done many times. I also use multiple remedies at once.
Hi there,
Don’t worry too much. I also self-treat and sometimes use more than one remedy at a time. However, it is best not to overdo a remedy as that could “prove” the remedy- give you the unwanted symptoms that you’re trying to get rid of.
I hope that helps.
Best of luck,
Sharon
can I just talk with u .. u know I too have the same problem of overimagining… and am suffering from FPP (fantasy prone personality).. can u suggest me some good tricks to avoid it dearly.
Hi
Your institution has a collaboration with the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, which I hope you will re-assess in the light of the following information :
The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation was founded by Eknath Easwaran as religious 501 C organization, availing of tax breaks under the law. This Guru who claimed to offer spiritual salvation to thousands, was a bigamist and dead beat father in India. He perpetuated the feudalistic misogynistic attitude which has decimated the lives of many women in India.
Eknath Easwaran taught meditation at the University of California, Berkeley and is featured in the Berkeley Historical Plaque project
I urge you to investigate the legacy of Eknath Easwaran. The address of BMCM is : Blue Mountain Center of Meditation in Tomales, 3600 Tomales road, California 94971.
My mother was sexually abused by Eknath Easwaran, as a young student at the Morris College (now Naik Government College) in Nagpur, India. He was well known for demanding sexual favors from girl students. In the fifties and sixties a woman in India had no choice other than to be silent about abuse.
Eknath Easwaran came to the United States on a Fulbright fellowship to the University of Minnesota. His uncontrollable libido apparently led the Fulbright authorities to revoke his fellowship, forcing him to return to India.
A resourceful person, Easwaran then married his American wife Christine, his third wife, without even informing his second wife (with whom he had two children) leaving her in dire financial straits. This ensured that Easwaran got a visa to the United States, although he had to wait it out in his family home in Kotagiri (Niligiris). To circumvent a complaint that his Indian wife made to the United States Consulate in Mumbai, Easwaran applied for the visa from the US Embassy in New Delhi.For years after he left India, the very mention of his name would provoke derisive laughs among his colleagues and students at the Morris College.
In the US, Easwaran attempted to sexually molest his female disciples in the California ashram that he founded (San Jose Mercury News –April 30, 1989 ) One of his closest associates at the ashram and chief spiritual mentor, Steve Rupenthal has been arrested for soliciting child sex at a Chicago airport. You can verify this from the Point Reyes Light(May 2004) newspaper report. This are the reported cases of sexual abuse at the center.
Eknath Easwaran, left India in a hurry in 1958 specifically to evade an order of child support passed by the Sessions Court in Nagpur, and upheld by the Nagpur division bench of the Bombay High Court. The following web links will give you some background of Eknath Easwaran:
Web links:
A split at the Razor’s edge by John Hubner (San Jose Mercury News, April 30, 1989)
https://www.ire.org/resource-center/stories/7262/
Stephen Ruppenthal arrested at Chicago O’Hare airport
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/il-court-of-appeals/1422975.html
As a backgrounder please do read “Holy Hell : a memoir of faith,devotion and pure madness” (Amazon) which recounts in minute detail the brutal sexual abuse at the ‘spiritual center’ run by an Indian Guru.
If you do investigate Eknath Easwaran’s background, it will be a small restitution for all the women whose lives he has savaged in India and the USA.
Thank you
Pratik Joshi
Hi there,
Thank you very much for highlighting this.
And I’m very sorry to hear about your mother!
Could you please let me know where on my blog the association is with the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation? I don’t remember linking to it but maybe I did.
Kind regards,
Sharon
I could really relate. Loved it. Nicely written 👏
Ah thank you very much, Renie. Much love ❤