Healing Into Possibility: The Transformational Lessons of a Stroke

By Alison Bonds Shapiro

Book Overview

Alison Bonds Shapiro suffered two debilitating and nearly fatal strokes in her fifties. Healing into Possibility chronicles her experience of learning, through trial and error, that her attitude would play the most important role in her remarkable recovery. In this touching book, Shapiro teaches simple principles that anyone can use when faced with illness, injury, or any other seemingly insurmountable problem to transform despair into hope and dead ends into possibilities.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932073248
• ISBN13: 9781932073249
• Release Date: June 2009
• Publisher: Hj Kramer/Starseed
• Length: 257 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A guide to surviving any challenge in life!

I have never had a stroke and I hope I never do, but at 58, I know from the past that more challenges await. Alison's book "Healing into Possibility" will be one of my handbooks at the ready when they come. I read the book in 2 sittings because, like a good suspense novel, I couldn't wait to see how she got out of the current predicament she was in. The profound lesson that Alison reminds us of is that in this present moment anything is possible. "Healing into Possibilities: The Transformational Lessons of a Stroke" is a book whose words and wisdom live and breathe in the moment.

Anyone who has had a brain injury or handled patients with such will recognize the experiences of th

Any library strong in personal growth - which should be many a general interest collection or new age library - will welcome HEALING INTO POSSIBILITY: THE TRANSFORMATIONAL LESSONS OF A STROKE. Anyone who has had a brain injury or handled patients with such will recognize the experiences of the author, who suffered two debilitating, nearly fatal strokes in her fifties and realized her attitude would be the key to how well she recovered.

Get Ready to Get Real!

Few can imagine the trauma of being able and healthy one day and practically immobilized by a crippling stroke the next. I can only imagine how I would react to such a situation. I would hope to have the stamina and resolve to look deeply into my life and find the blessings within the situation, which is exactly what Alison Bonds Shapiro has done. She has written the most beautiful guidebook for exactly this situation. Yet the truths of the lessons in this book apply not only to stroke recovery, but to every possible situation in life. This book serves as a grounding point for the beginning of any journey through personal tragedy and out the other side to wholeness and joy. With a conversational and direct style, Alison gets to the heart of what it means to be fully human on this planet, and gives clear and meaningful directions on how to utilize and maintain connection with the spirit that drives and protects our lives. This is a must read for any spiritual seeker, as well as for those who have had a stroke or know someone who has!

Healing into hope, creativity, and new life

HEALING INTO POSSIBILITY is a marvel. I have already bought an extra copy for a friend who had a stroke. Yet this new book by Alison Bonds Shapiro is, I believe, for everybody. Furthermore...get ready for this.. it is a page turner! I am speaking here as all of physician, psychologist, spiritual practitioner and close friend of someone with similar trials. I am also speaking as a scholar of the art and process of everyday creativity--a capacity we all have as our birthright, and which is every bit about how to live in the moment and to heal and thrive and find new richness and hope in all aspects of our lives. (I recently edited "Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature.") Healing into Possibility shows us how to cope with adversity, and shows clearly that it is not what happens to us, but how we respond that can make all the difference. Here is how we live and grow, make meaning of adversity, and even find true joy in our lives after all had seemed lost. Alison Bonds Shapiro takes us, in the most engaging way, through her story, her struggles, her triumph. We also meet her remarkable friend Rita who is, similarly, a model for us all. The "Eight Principles of Transformation" at the end are, themselves, worth the price of the book. While engrossed in pure "story," we also encounter some of the most hopeful and cutting edge findings of our times, including the latest news on neuroplasticity and stroke recovery--a potential once thought to be brief but which is present for a great many years--and the relation of healing to attention, mindfulness, effort, compassion, and much more. We also find the many ways we can not only help ourselves but help each other cope with and grow from physical or psychological crisis--whether parents, children, colleagues, students, clients, or friends. I cannot recommend this beautiful book enough. May it do fabulously well.

Inspiring no matter what your situation

This is an inspiring book. The stuff she says is applicable not only to stroke, but to any injury, or indeed, any difficult life-change. The writing style is direct, straightforward, even terse, but is always very readable. I would recommend it to anyone, no matter what their health circumstances. A caveat: Alison is a friend, and I knew her story before the publication of the book. (And I probably would not have had the pleasure of reading it if I hadn't found it through our friendship.) My wife and I co-teach a class in beginning Buddhist meditation, and we tell her story in order to illustrate the importance of mindfulness for dealing the difficult situations.