“Give Yourself Permission to Shine” - isn’t that the hardest thing to do sometimes?! That is a lesson I am currently learning. Everyone deserves to be happy. We are all unique and special. Our trials and tribulations might be different from others but they still affect us the same. We beat ourselves up over things from the past, taking on guilt for other people’s actions and never feeling good enough. We pretend to be fine when on the inside we are falling apart. “Give Yourself Permission to Shine: Through Faith I Found Love” is Grace King’s story. What a touching read. Growing up with a loving mother who happens to be a single parent, Grace had all the love any kid could ask for, yet the absence of her father contributed to a clear path for self-destruction.
As many of us might know (some all too well), we pretend that things like rejection (from our parents) don’t really bother us because we are “strong” and capable and we don’t need them. Then over the years things stack up and before we realize it, we are out of control. Grace had an eating disorder that affects many people of all ages and races, I am assuming mostly women.
As Grace reflects on her past, she comes to realize that her past had much more of an effect on her than she ever imagined. Now facing a struggle with herself and being bulimic, she tells her very honest story of her life with this condition. This mental illness can destroy you like any other addiction. When she wasn’t hooked on drugs she was completely powerless over her illness and wanted help. But it wasn’t until she really accepted the truth and began being honest about it did she have success.
I have to say that the end of the book surprised me as she was so honest about everything. I know that the hardest part of putting on a brave front is telling lies to everyone around you….feeling lonely, deceitful and unmanageable. Chapter 25 seemed to be added in after the book was written and it came as a complete surprise. Just goes to show how human this dear woman is!
This book is an inspiration. It was therapy for Grace to write the book and therapy for me to read it as my own struggle is not with bulimia, it is very close in nature. I was touched by her strength to write the truth. It must have taken so much courage to tell all the things that she once tried so hard to hide. After finding her faith in God, it made it easier for her to help herself and to learn to love herself again.
I more than enjoyed “Give Yourself Permission to Shine: Through Faith I Found Love” by Grace King and will surely reference Chapter 24 for many years to come in hopes of fully learning how to forgive myself and give myself permission to shine!
Give Yourself Permission to Shine: Through Faith I Found Love
Grace King
Balboa Press (2012)
ISBN 9781452548685
Reviewed by Jennifer Hass for Reader Views (10/12)
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