Just completed the draft manuscript for my third book for Arcturus Publishing in London. These books are my illustrated versions of Allen Carr's bestsellers 'The Easyway to Stop Smoking' and 'The Easyway for Women to Stop Smoking'. This new one is 'The Easyway to Control Your Drinking' and will probably hit the shelves by the end of the year.

I am also busy working on my own next title and I'm tremendously excited by this book, as it focuses on the aspect of my work which has been the turning point for many people who have done my workshops and involves learning to 'parent' yourself in times of crisis.

Too often, we look to others to provide us with appreciation, attention, support and comfort, yet deprive our own selves of these things. Not only this but when your inner child is not being nourished, he or she can create real havoc in your life. They'll do ANYTHING to get attention, including self sabotage! So, if things are going whacky in your life, looking within is the ONLY place to start

I am currently 3/4 of the way through the initial submission of 'Parenting Little IT - How to Heal the Little Kid who is Sabotaging Big You'. A submission involves sending off two or three sample chapters and an overview to the publishers and then crossing your fingers that they accept it! If not, I will do it as an ebook. This one is just too important to let pass by!

Stay tuned!

To celebrate the launch of the 20th Anniversary revised and expanded version of Living with IT, (see Book News blog here and BOOKS page on this site) I was interviewed last week for the Hobson's Bay Weekly (edition of paper coming out first week of June) about Living with It being seen as the 'anxiety bible' by many readers and the journalist asked me, if that was the case, what would be my 'ten commandments'
for anxiety ?

So here they are:

1. Thou shalt accept and not resist (which makes it worse) the fact of anxiety in thy current experience

2. Thou shalt allow the physical sensations to simply be without adding a story to them

3. Thou shalt be ever vigilant of thy thoughts, as thoughts are the creators of thy experience (and not the other way around)

4. Thou shalt cease idolising the problem and focus steadily on the solution instead

5. Thou shalt be a thousand times kinder to thyself

6. Thou shalt soothe, comfort and 'parent' thyself and shall desist from terrorising thyself

7. Thou shalt cease to make the external responsible for thy wellbeing and attend to it thyself

8. Thou shalt use thy anxiety to inform thou of necessary changes and make those changes

9. If thou makest a big deal out of it, it shall seem to be a big deal

10. Thou shalt not treat scary thoughts as if they are gospel

A friend of mine recently decided to face down some nervousness and take the plunge (or dip her toe in the water!) and explore Internet dating after quite a long period by herself. As a person who had used her time of solitude for some intense inner searching (and finding) over recent years, she was approaching this from a different perspective than she had in the past and had learned from previous experience of writing all the things she didn't want on her profile  to instead put a more positive (and non-judgmental) spin on her new one.

She decided that a good way to compose this was to phrase it in terms of a wish-liist - something similar to "If wishes came true - we'd share great, intelligent conversation, enjoy going to the movies and talking about them for hours, we'd discuss our favourite books and we'd travel to exotic far-off places - if only in our minds' and so on. A positive,clever way to talk about the things she'd like to share and totally non-threatening...or so she thought!

On the first day that her profile went up she received a message along the liines of: 'Me, me, me! I've never read a more selfish profile. You disgust me! Look at you - you're just a dried-up old trout' and so on.

Whew! Hard to not be stung by something as fierce as that but there are lessons in these things :
(a) People come into your experience for a reason. What was the reason he popped up?
(b) Had she really learned to not let another affect her own wellbeing?
(c) Could she see past the words to the heart of the person who wrote them?
(d) Did he convey something she disowned or feared in herself?
(e) Could she find forgiveness for this man?

In the end, my friend behaved with great integrity. She simply wrote 'And loving kindness to you, too'
And she saw the fear and hurt that were behind his words and wished him well. And then she blocked the sender.

So excited to have launched this new site and to be able to access it whenever I want (previously needed technical help to change things). This will enable me to add lots of new things as I come up with them, including the ART OF ANXIETY workshop DVD which is soon to be released (which I'm extremely excited about!) The person doing the editing sent me a special message when he first looked at the footage to say how much insight he was gaining just watching the rough cuts! This will be ready in early April and I have a special advance order price if you want to get in early! (See the HOME STUDY page for details). Once it's edited, I will also put an extract on the site so you can have a preview.

I want to say a few thank you's here firstly to www.weebly.com for creating such an easy-to-use way to create a free website (and I'm no tech-head) and with lots of support. I'd recommend Weebly if you want to build a site.

Secondly, a big thank you to my lovely friend Vayu Devi who tutored me through the first shaky steps and then I was off and running and finally to Madalen who handled the tech stuff at the end so that you can purchase directly from the site. Now I have done this site, I'm keen to do another so I will be creating another one in a little while which is dedicated to my other great love, my artwork and there'll be lots of lovely goodies on there too, to lift the spirits.

But first things first. If you're experiencing anxiety, hang in there. Help is on the way. It may all seem terrible just now because you THINK it is but actually nothing bad is happening. It just seems that way right now.

Anxiety CAN be history and you can make it so, much easier than you may think. You do need to put in a bit of work but it will be worth it and the sooner you get cracking, the sooner you will find your feet again. I'm living proof that anxiety need not be anything more than a speed bump on your path through life, where right now you probably think you've hit a permanent road block. You haven't. There are ways to steer yourself into a better place.

Try the IT Kit or if you can wait another month, get the DVD (See HOME STUDY page). If you're in Melbourne (or within reach of Melbourne) make an appointment for one-to-one counselling (See COUNSELLOR page) or check out my WORKSHOPS page which includes the exciting new venture for small in-home presentations THE 'AMONG FRIENDS' workshop and I'll be putting regular posts on here to help keep you on track.

I'm so proud to have been able to reach out to so many people over these years and there's still so much more to come. I'm honoured that you have joined me and I wish you all that you deserve - that is: to be enjoying life, rather than enduring it. If I can help you to make that happen, it will be a privelege.

All the very best, Bev