With a fresh voice and unique perspective, this book tackles a wealth of subjects that should resonate with anyone who is on a spiritual path. While the themes of Time and Paradox may sound esoteric at first, this book is filled with accessible, real-world wisdom we can all use to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and how we relate to the world around us. Think of it as a self-help guide projected through a lens of spirituality.
The author examines familiar themes of emotions, identity, and relationships, but does it with a sensitivity and perspective that I found both memorable and inspiring. For example, when talking about how our past experiences color our present existence, he states: "Your emotions are pieces of you from a lost time. We learn to recover those bits of ourselves by traveling with our emotions back in time, learning to see how we interpreted past events in our lives."
The author makes this book highly accessible and relatable by frequently using his own personal and very human stories of love, loss, and connection. He also regularly cites movies, TV, and other pop-culture references as metaphors for many of the themes and concepts he explores throughout the book.
This book has a lot to offer. We all have a lot to learn about ourselves and this book really helped me look at myself and my world differently.

A thought provoking and interesting read, it wasn't exactly what I thought it would be and though it was readable but I just struggled to get into it after putting down, picking it back up again was very hard!


Many thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my free ARC in return for my review.

For anyone who has experienced discrimination due to their faith this is an excellent read. We're taught that having faith includes being kind and loving to others. So what happens to a little boy who is bullied in his new school and life for not being the 'right kind' of faithful? The author's journey in and out of faith is an important one. I highly recommend this book.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this arc. The book was informative, and interesting. I really found this book thought provoking.

While there's nothing new here, what is offered is well presented and thought out and potentially helpful. Garlinger "gets it" and this will likely resonate with spiritual seekers and others. Good stuff.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

Awakening Your Inner Child

Patrick Garlinger states that as a child he experienced first hand discrimination based on the fact that his parents were Catholics, and they had moved to Utah, where he (as a first-grader) was shunned because of their faith. He states that none of the Mormon children would play with him, nor associate with him on any level, and it was then that he not only spurned God, but he also kept people at arm’s length, having learned that differences in spiritual beliefs could lead to rejection and shame.

He discusses the pain, shame, and all the self-doubt he had bottled up within far into his thirties, stating that he went on many soul searching retreats to learn how to heal his inner child. He states that when we accept that our emotions are information about our past, not our enemies, pain and reactivity become a treasure map to healing, and to access that information, we must listen to the language of emotions by feeling the sensations, accompanied by memories and images, as they ripple through the body.

He explains that this process goes by many names and takes different forms; New Age seekers might call it soul realignment or healing the shadow; Shamans might call it soul retrieval; and Psychologists might refer to it as healing the inner child, whom we are learning to reparent. Additionally, he states that this is the process of retrieving and healing the parts of us that remain hidden, beneath our placid exterior, or that you foist upon others in a never-ending cycle of drama, and that our emotions are pieces of us from a lost time by which we learn to recover those bits of ourselves by traveling with our emotions back in time, learning to see how we interpreted past events in our lives. And by seeing our emotions this way, we can start to journey with our pain to the moments when it was installed deep within us, to those back rooms that we typically like to keep locked up tight. Thus, we can began to repair our unresolved emotions.

The author states that in order to begin our healing journey, we also need to began to love our body, and he offers several means by which we can do so, such as rekindling our connection to the natural world beginning by slowing down and allowing our bodies to touch the earth, meditation, and many other techniques offered in this book.

He discusses our energy, past lives and generational karma, core beliefs, forgiveness as our superpower, the power of apology, and other areas of self-awakening.

This is a great book for one on a path of letting go and rediscovering them.