"Rebirthing" By Jim Leonard And Phil Laut

"Rebirthing" By Jim Leonard
And Phil Laut

Rebirthing can be defined as a technique or therapy based on the belief that human birth is a traumatic event and that reviewing or revisiting this event, in some way, can have therapeutic benefits.

A wholistic view

The authors explore the rebirthing process and other related topics to help you understand why you are where you are, and to help you release all things that hold you back to arrive at a new way of looking at reality.

The book explains how the conditions that were in place when you were born affected you ever since: the amount of light that was in the room, the first human contact, the way you were made to breath for the first time...

Even though "Rebirthing" is not a positive thinking book (and the authors even state: "We are not advocates of 'positive thinking'; we are advocates of appropriate thinking") it does offer some useful information and a very complete set of affirmations that you can modify to suit your needs.

Useful bits and pieces

Apart from explaining the process of birth and its consequences, "Rebirthing" touches other topics:

The origin of all negativity: "The origin of all negativity is 'making something wrong'. [...] ...in any given moment you are experiencing exactly what you are experiencing. You can be grateful for that experience. Or you can compare what actually exists to an imaginary standard... [...] The former option is called 'celebrating it'. The latter option is called 'making it wrong'."
On emotions: "Emotions themselves are generally a result of resisting something. The emotion will only continue being an emotion for as long as you continue resisting it."
On who we are: "You can tell that you are not your mind or your body because you are experiencing your mind and body. You are pure Experiencer.
On breathing and how to use the circular breathing for the purpose of rebirthing.
Other topics: Goals, taking responsibility, discipline, gratitude, self-employment, acceptance, values and motivations...

The treasure

This book offers details guidelines on how to use affirmations effectively. The best of the section dedicated to affirmations is the 101 Affirmation Modes, which consists of a useful list of 101 types of affirmations that you can use for any area of your life - just fill in the blank.

You will also find affirmations for different circumstances, like affirmations about birth, affirmations about sleeping, affirmations about adolescence, affirmations about temperature...

While some of things mentioned in this book are very general and sound like "one-shoe-fits-all" discourse, I found interesting points of view to incorporate to my view of life, and of course - a great set of types of affirmations.

"The past and present are by their natures very different from the future. You cannot do anything about the past or the present because they already are the way they are. The future, however, has not been created yet, and it is your choices, thoughts, conscious and unconscious desires and actions that determine what your future will be."

Jim Leonard and Phil Laut

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