Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash
As you know, I’ve been on quite the personal journey lately. It’s honestly been a journey that’s taken several years, but it really kicked into high gear when I was laid off from my corporate job at the end of August.
Books have always been a passion and safe space for me, especially when I’ve gone through difficult times. I’ve read a lot of great and not-so-great books during my lifetime, but I’ve found some really good gems in the past few months.
I’ve started getting emails from publishing and publicity companies to review books, which makes me so happy. Since my first book sent for review was so good, I was so excited to review a new book. When I got a request to review a new book Confessions of a Bone Woman: Realizing Authentic Wildness in a Civilized World by Lucinda Bakken White, I knew by the title alone that I wanted to check it out.
Those are like all the buzzwords I’ve been hearing and reading lately all wrapped up in one book. From working in a corporate culture for most of my career to being laid off, I was looking for some new answers.
Whenever I’m looking for advice or a different perspective, I almost always turn to memoirs. Even if someone else’s journey doesn’t exactly jive with me, I always come away with some little nugget to adapt into my life. With this book by Lucinda Bakken White, there were several nuggets.
I really related to and empathized with her journey of trying to go back to her roots after trying and succeeding in “having it all.” She did all the things you’re “supposed to do” to have a successful life, but she was unhappier than ever.
Instead of giving up and giving in to her situation, she decided to do something about it. She ends up becoming fascinated with animals and their bones, and they help her find her true self again.
I know it sounds a little strange, but I absolutely loved it. Her tales both before and after her journey began were very relateable, honest and vulnerable.
“I shed the external personas I had created and no longer served me, and developed a deep rapport with my inner self,” she said in a press release.
If you need some help on your journey or if you’re just feeling stuck in your life somehow, I’d highly recommend this book by Lucinda Bakken White.
It helped me reframe my line of thinking about my career and my life. There’s no one way to find success and be successful. Even if you follow the preconceived notions of success by material standards, that has no bearing on your inner happiness.
I also really enjoyed how the book was laid out. Several of the chapters were named after various animals, and I really enjoyed how she weaved tales about the animals into her own journey. I feel like it helped me understand her more and relate to what she was saying in a different way.
It’s definitely not your typical self-help, self-discovery or even self-love book, but it does touch on all of those topics and more.
Here’s one of my favorite quotes:
For nearly two decades, I had been working on self-discovery. I knew my shadows, insecurities and fears. But I had not slain them yet. Feeling once again like an unlovable outcast, I also began to see that I was ruled by the opinions of other people. By letting their personal judgements, beliefs, and perspectives define my self-worth, I was disrespecting my own inner voice of authority.
How powerful is that?!
Though our journeys are seemingly nothing alike, there are definitely parallels between the emotions and the realizations that she experienced and the ones I’d like to experience in my life.
This book isn’t all about success and having an easy life. Far from it, actually. It’s about Lucinda Bakken White’s journey to find and reconnect with her inner wild woman, which definitely wasn’t a quick and painless process.
Through all the hardships and heartache, it’s worth it in the end because she relearned who she was, not who she was told to be.
* I received a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
