Authors – A Blog, A Magazine. It's JustsumInspiration!

Book Review: Rita Chowdhry Wants to Know “Are You SAAVI?”

Published on November 7, 2019November 26, 2019 by Roshonda BLeave a comment

Featured Image: Rita Chowdhry – Created by Roshonda – B Creative

Disclosure: This book was gifted to me by Rita Chowdhry’s publishing company in exchange for my honest review. All views concerning this book are 100% my own and not of anyone else’s.

In order to gain success, you first have to get SAVVI!

This is a term that acronym that author, entrepreneur and award-winning coach and trainer Rita Chowdhry discovered she needed in her own life if she indeed wanted to experience exponential growth in her life and business. The acronym SAAVI is also what she coaches her own clients to adopt in their lives as well.

So what does SAAVI mean?… SAVVI MEANS

S-Self Awareness (exploit your strengths and overcome your weaknesses)

A-Achiever’s Mindset (developing the right mindset to achieve your life and work goals)

V-Values & Beliefs (understand your values and belief systems and how they ultimately influence your performance)

V-Verbal Communication (learn how to adapt your communication for successful outcomes)

I-Inspire & Motivate (know-how and where to get yourself and others motivated and inspired)

Chowdhry learned the principals of being SAAVI 30,000 feet in the air on a plane ride to India to tend to a tragic family matter. That plane ride changed the trajectory of her life and while Chowdhry was in a state of misery getting on the plane, getting off the plane she was in victory, victory over the pains of her life that she’d constantly been indwelled in. It was a new day and it started by her changing her mindset regarding her personal world and the world of her clients.

In her book ‘Get SAAVI’ – Chowdhry speaks of the many fears and emotional barriers within her own life that kept her stagnant and unfulfilled successfully, she shares stories of her upbringing in Northern India, the community and her strong father who was a leader and trailblazer in his own right and how his ethics helped her to become a strong woman in her young early life. However, after her father died tragically in a taxi accident, Chowdhry’s life wasn’t the same. Dealing with her father’s death and her mother’s emotional downfall of losing a husband. Chowdhry became a worrier and unsure of herself as well as her future.

After her father’s death, Chowdhry and her family had to turn all their independence on their community to dictate and make decisions for her mom, herself and siblings. A lifestyle that Chowdry adapted too. Being, 30,000 feet high Chowdhry had, had enough and decided that she needed to do something different. This time she was going to take life into her own hands and steer it the way she wanted it to go.

While SAVVI had now become Chowdry’s newfound life. Her book details the story of a real family that she’s helped to adopt the SAAVI principal. A family composed of a wife, husband, and son that looked good on the outside in front of people but who were detached and suffering miserably behind closed doors. Chowdhry began helping the wife and everything changed.

I really loved this book because I wouldn’t have thought of it as adopting a specific principal entitled “SAAVI” but I do believe and am a FIRM believer of putting expiration dates on our past. For quite some time, just life Chowdhry (different circumstances) I too allowed the voices of others to dictate my life and keep me in a box. I was always afraid of speaking up, it didn’t matter how small or big the situation was, I couldn’t do it and therefore succumbed to other people doing it for me, which negatively impacted the outlook I had on myself.

I allowed people to run over me and I also allowed the issues of my childhood to dictate how my future would be, which lead me down a wrong path of unfulfilled relationships in which I allowed myself to stay in WAYYYY to long. The SAAVI principal is not just for “past” relationships but you can also use these principals going forward into your future.

Ultimately we are the “enemies” of our own life, which means the choices we make or choose to hold on too, determine our outcome whether we move forward, stay stagnant or continue to be the little 5yr old boy or girl whose now 30 yrs old and still reeling over the fact that your dad walked out on you and that’s the reason why you’re making the bad choices you are in life. NOOOOOOOO, yes those things affect us. It affected me when my dad walked out and was never apart of my life and I used that excuse for years to continue in a behavior that wasn’t great for me. But like Rita I had to decide differently and say, Enough is Enough! How am I going to change this situation around for the better?

You Can Only Play the Victim but For So Long! – Roshonda N. Blackmon
Tweet

If you want to be SAAVI and/or learn the principals that Rita Chowdhry has detailed in her book (because I just scratched the surface =) then you’d really want to get a copy! Rita’s story of tragedy to triumph is a REAL inspiration and the outcome of the family is truly amazing.

Get SAAVI, Get Successful & Get Moving into 2020 with a SAVVI NEW YOU!

Rita Chowdhry’s book ‘Get SAVVI’ is available right now for sale on Amazon!

Get SAAVI, Get Successful! – Rita Chowdhry, Author of ‘Get SAAVI’
Tweet

Book Review: First Came Happiness, Then Comes Lollipops! Jacqueline Pirtle’s New Book Offers Up, Parenting Skills Using A Tasty Treat!

Published on October 10, 2019October 22, 2019 by Roshonda B8 Comments

Featured Picture: Jacqueline Pirtle/Roshonda – B Creative

Disclosure: This book was gifted to me by Jacqueline’s publishing company in exchange for my honest review. All views concerning this book are 100% my own and not of anyone else’s.

I must say when I read the title of Jacqueline Pirtle’s new book ‘Parenting Through the Eyes of Lollipops’ I was a little taken back as I had no clue what the analogy behind the title truly meant. I mean, who doesn’t love lollipops! I definitely do….but as Jackie stated in her book, “She’s a little sneaky and she knows it!”

AND INDEED SHE IS…

Just as in her bestselling book “365 Days of Happiness,” Jacqueline is ALL about us feeling, sensing, smelling and tasting the things around us, whether they be objects such as a lollipop or breathing in the glorious air. Everything has an energy attached to it; we just have to open our arms, minds, and hearts to be aware of it.

This is how Jacqueline wants you to be when thinking about that lollipop and the meaning behind, I’m calling it first “her next bestseller”

“Lollipops have this incredible power to shift us to BE and live in a frequency of magic – because that is the energy they carry and the frequency they vibrate in.” Jacqueline Pirtle, Author – Parenting Through the Eyes of Lollipops
Tweet

Do you have a bag of lollipops? Because these little, yet powerful rounds of candy on a stick is what Jacqueline recommends you take with you into a “family disagreement” or a tug of war battle between the kids. Give everyone a sucker, allow them to lick on it a couple of rounds and then – not at one time, talk it out. I would have NEVER in a million years thought to take a lollipop into a disagreement with my hormonal daughter or overzealous son, but it’s something I’m definitely going to try the next go-round!

So, the cats out the bag. Now that you know a little about that sneaky title, grab your lollipops and let’s dig into this parenting thing, if you’re like me, I’m sure you can use a self-help guide to give you some pointers about parenting (ESPECIALLY TEENAGERS!), yesssss…that’s my life right now.

Even if you don’t have teenagers and you have little ones who are a year old, just starting school or even if they’re adults. Jacqueline has a chapter for it – even if you don’t have a child yet. The practices she teaches are from her own experience of being a Professor of Pirtle University (a university where she gained knowledge and lollipops from teaching her own kids).

I found Jacqueline’s book quite interesting as it’s not a book filled with “me” time locations and ideas for parents, whom are at their wits ends with their kids. However, it’s a book about parents actually listening and feeling the energy of their own child and giving them a space to be anxious and creative, while giving them a voice to be heard. This, in turn, takes the anxiety off of the parent and allows the children to just “BE” themselves.

“Let your children know, whether born or unborn that they too are wonderful and magnificent just as they are. Let them know that they are here in this life to “BE” themselves – nothing else.” Jacqueline Pirtle, Author – Parenting Through the Eyes of Lollipops
Tweet

For instance and what I found to be greatly profound is when Jacqueline stated “That does not Matter!” what she meant by that? She meant; put an expiration date on what did or didn’t, should or shouldn’t have happened in your own childhood and focus on making “new and profound” memories with your children.

It’s so easy to think about our not so good childhood, I mean come’ on none of us if we’re truthful about it, had a perfect childhood – that just doesn’t exist. What Jacqueline is saying is to basically forget about it, you were given a second chance to make and do things right with your children and THAT should be the main focus, not what didn’t go right but what we as parents can do to make things better.

As she said it best —

Let is all go like old dirt blows off a car when driven forward with speed. Leave a BIG BLACK TIRE MARK that says ENOUGHHHH!!! Let it ALLLLL GOOOOOOOO!!!

Me Letting the Past Goooo…..Leaving Tire Marks!

Parenting through the eyes of Lollipops also encourages “chatting” – not the silent chat or chatter you have with your child about random things, but a chat ALOUD about EVERYTHING and making this a common practice in your and your child’s everyday life. So, if they want to talk to the air, the sun, the moon, the sky the plants or even the sidewalk – Just let them “BE!” By allowing your children the freedom to speak verbally to everything, it not only builds communication skills in my book but according to Jackie who’s also an energy healer – these things are energy, an energy that carries information and knowledge. Cool right?

Another thing that’s encouraged is the inability to quit saying “No” – I mean don’t get me wrong, “No” is good in its respective place but when your child asks can they do something, think about what they’re asking – if it’s not invoking harm, then say YES!

I have to admit, when my children were younger I said NO to everything – “Mom, can we go outside to play?” No! “Mom, can such and such come over?” No!!! “Mom, can we play water gun fight in the house? OH NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! And all of that was for good reason because I either didn’t want to go outside, felt like my house wasn’t good enough for their school friend to come over OR I definitely didn’t feel like cleaning or slipping on water….Hello!!! So, their asking was always a HUGE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

However, Parenting through the eyes of Lollipops showed me that I was actually closing off my children’s creativity mode. Per Jacqueline’s book, she states that when children have ideas even when they are eyebrow lifting….find a solution to make the idea safe and make it work so the kids can still experience the importance of their idea. Our No’s are garnered by us either not wanting to do it or as Jacqueline stated, it comes from our own old beliefs and recordings of maybe when we were told no a lot as a child.

Jacqueline’s book offers 3 Pillars to Good Parenting and that’s:

The Harmonious Dance
It Is Never The Child
The Love Cycle of Parenthood

In each pillar Jacqueline discusses the importance of the parent becoming the student and the child becomes the teacher. There’s a lot we can learn from our children, they can teach us so many things only if we allow them to “BE” themselves and listen to them. In some respect, it’s not about having the power over them but allowing us to let go (when necessary) and allow them to be the soul beings they were created to be.

Jacqueline’s book “Parenting Through the Eyes of Lollipops” is another sweet, satisfying and soulful read by the author who challenges us all to think, feel, taste and smell the world around us. Whether you’re thinking about having kids or already raising some of your own, Jacqueline’s imagery of it all is well worth the read. Challenge yourself today to FEEL, TOUCH, SMELL, BREATHE & TASTE everything around you – including a Lollipop, in which as we’ve discovered is more than just a round sticky ball on top of a stick, it’s an energy piece that’s waiting to be explored, especially with your children…

I didn’t even touch all the greatness this book has to offer especially the chapters “Tweenhood & Teen hood” I couldn’t wait to get to this chapter…lol, “Feeling Good as My Highest Priority” & “Food Stories” but hey, that’s for good reason, I want you to grab a copy for yourself!! and oh by the way? Make sure you pick up a bag of lollipops as you read it! Jacqueline’s orders =)

Andd, this is not a wrap for this post – I’ll have an announcement soon, so be on the lookout!

Jacqueline Pirtle’s latest book ‘Parenting Through the Eyes of Lollipops’ was released in September 2019 and is available right now for sale on Amazon! Readers can connect with Jacqueline on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads. To learn more, go to http://www.freakyhealer.com

What’s It Like to Be Human, You Say? Anne Burton, Tell Us How In “Being Human – A User Guide!”

Published on August 22, 2019September 12, 2019 by Roshonda BLeave a comment

Featured Image: Anne Burton

Disclosure: This book was gifted to me by Anne’s publishing company in exchange for my honest review. All views concerning this book are 100% my own and not of anyone else’s.

I know what you must be thinking and Anne stated this in her book, “Why in the world would someone ask, what’s it like to be human?” I mean, don’t you know? – you are human, right?

Of course, I am! Otherwise you’d be reading something that a robot wrote, but no I’m very much human and hopefully, you are too, unless you really are a robot reading this…hmm…

Being human is a trait that we all should “know” how to do and do very well, because “being human” means, you’re just being yourself, right? but according to Anne Burton’s book “Being Human – A User Guide” being human is far more entailed than it sounds. The user guide was created by Burton and is based on her own learning experiences and personal journeys over the last 10yrs and our mind and actions play a big role in both. Things, Burton stated she wished she’d known when her children were babies.

“I wrote it because the contents of this book have helped me enormously and because I wish I had known about it sooner, when my children were babies, because there are things I would have done differently. I wrote it because I wanted to share what I have learned so far in this experience of being human.”
Anne Burton, Author – Being Human

There are many things that I’ve encountered in my life and I sometimes say, “If I knew then, what I know now” Mannn, I would do things so differently! If those issues are not handled, we take those negative vibes into adulthood and begin to act out in ways that are not normal and therefore use excuses for our behavior. Anne mentioned it in her book but I’ve always heard people say, “I was born this way” or “I can’t help the way I act” – but, no one is born a certain way or born to have a negative attitude, it’s a mind thing. Anne refers to this as the “Nature vs. Nurture” debate in which she states research says that experience and environment can change our gene expression and that genes can be switched on and off. I’m a believer that life and circumstances shape us, maybe our family background wasn’t so great, however; I’ve seen people not become products of those environments and “chose” a different and more positive path.

Being Human – A User’s Guide is what this is all about. The influences, behavior’s and experiences that either shape our life for the better or the worse. According to Anne’s book, we spend the first seven years of our lives (that’s from the time we’re born up until 7 yrs old) in somewhat of a trance. Information gets into our brain through our senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and feeling. We process it, make meaning from it and then our brain stores it without us even knowing its done such a thing.

That part was really powerful to me; it’s amazing because I don’t really remember when I was 3 or even 4, 5 or 6 yrs old. I remember bits and pieces or you can say glimpses of things during that period. Interestingly enough there are quite a few random memories that have come up out of the blue either from childhood or even early adulthood that I didn’t remember doing or knew my brain held on too.

Anne calls these experiences “Programs” where our brain takes our memories, experiences, sights, smells and sounds and create scenarios which tell us how to respond, act, communicate, make friends and even down to what we put in our mouth to eat.

Another program our brain is good at is keeping us in line with our HABITS!

Habits are those things that we do without even giving it a second thought, things that our brain knows we should be doing automatically and programs us to do it. Ever heard the saying “It takes 21 days to create a habit.” And I still believe that’s true, however, I do believe in most cases that if we do something repeatedly for 5 days, our brain picks it up as a daily routine and next thing you know, our body becomes in sync with that newfound thing and it’s a wrap, sort of. The more you do it, the more the habit grows. Ever felt funny about not doing something that you would normally do on a daily basis? It’s almost like you can’t function because something’s missing from your day.

Anne states that all these programs are run automatically, like an alarm going off at a particular time. There was something else Anne mentioned in her book, that made me do a little research on and that’s “left-brain thinking” – In Being Human, Anne believes that it’s this type of thinking that keeps us stressed out, rather than what I call – Living in the moment and letting some things go..

Now, I have to tell you, I didn’t understand or even know that there was such a thing as left-brain nor right-brain thinking, but there really is and what I found out was pretty interesting.

It’s said that people are either one or the other “left or right” brain thinkers – meaning one side of their brain is more dominant than the other side. According to Healthline; If you’re more analytical and methodical in your thinking, you’re said to be left-brained. If you tend to be more creative or artistic, you’re thought to be right-brained.

Per Anne’s book and the information I learned, I realized – I’m right-brained. How about you? The left and right brain thinking is just a little piece of what Being Human or as I’d like to call it, understanding how our human nature acts, responds and communicate with everyday life issues is only the half…

Anne also believes that we have six programs that make up our human operating system. Burton believes that these entities may need an upgrade or reboot to support the day by day processes of being human and to get us to where we want to be in our lives.

They are the Six C’s of Being Human:

Consciousness
Communication
Connection
Courage
Creativity
Compassion

Burton states that all these programs are linked together and dependent upon each other to work properly if one is more valued than the other, Burton states we could and will feel the detrimental effect of how the other ones respond. Therefore she advises that you work on each of them daily.

“I don’t know what you should do with your life or what you want to achieve only you know that. This is about taking care of aspects of your life that will help you whatever it is that you decide to do ”
Anne Burton, Author – Being Human

Being Human – A User Guide per Burton is not a book that’ll make you change in an instant. It takes time and with practice, you’d be able to make subtle changes to your mind as well as your environment. Look, we all have issues, maybe we didn’t have the best childhood or maybe your childhood was great and the pitfalls came in when you became an adult. Thing is, we all have something to work on, things that can make us do better, be better and live better but it takes the practice of trying to do the right things as well as make the right choices every single day. We may not be able to change where we’ve been, but we can definitely change where we’re going and that my friend is what Being Human is all about…

TO GET YOUR OWN COPY OF “BEING HUMAN – A USER’S GUIDE” YOU CAN VISIT AMAZON.COM

About Author Anne Burton

Anne Burton was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire in 1965. Before starting to write the BEING HUMAN book series she worked as an accountant in industry. Here she learned first hand how difficult change can seem and how the way that we live our lives has, for many of us, become disconnected from what we need to function well as human beings. This realization leads to her passion for understanding why we do the things we do and what determines how we experience the world we live in.