Naomi's Breakthrough Guide 20 Choices to Transform Your Life By Naomi Judd; Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2004 BOOK OF THE WEEK: In Naomi's Breakthrough Guide: downs, this book will show you 20 Choices to Transform Your how to focus on your ultimate Life, you will learn how a self- goal, know forgiveness, trust your proclaimed expert at making intuition, embrace risk, free your mistakes changed her life, and body and mind from worry, and attained life's greatest reward: resign as the General Manager of peace of mind. Through her the Universe. She does this by honesty, wit, and genuine blending candid personal stories generosity of spirit, the author and practical exercises with shares with you in this book her anecdotes about well-known hard-won wisdom and lessons friends and family, which she that transformed her life for the further bolsters with the wisdom better, and helped her turn of experience as well as cutting- potential breakdowns into life- edge research on health and the altering breakthroughs. psychology of happiness. Filled with the wisdom of a woman who survived and thrived read the summary from life's dramatic ups and INSIDE THIS SUMMARY: – The Big Idea – The 20 Choices to transform your life Published by BestSummaries.com, 3001-91, 11010 NW 30th St., Suite 104, Miami, Florida 33172 © 2007 BestSummaries.com. All rights reserved. No part of this summary may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, or otherwise, without prior notice of BestSummaries.com. Choice # 1: Peace of Mind Is the Goal better if you don't change the way you think about a problem. In order for you to get different results, People from all walks of life want the same thing you first have to change your thinking. No matter peace of mind. Peace of mind is not the absence of what's happened in the past, do not forget that you problems; it comes from your ability to deal with have the power to change what an experience them. It is both the first and ultimate choice that you means to you. Herein lies the potential for healing. will make in this journey of self-discovery and self- awareness. Choosing to have peace of mind entails that you Choice # 3: Life Is a Series of understand more of yourself, and what is standing in the way of your happiness and health. This Multiple-Choice Questions involves an opening of your eyes to the truth that is Dr. M. Scott Peck says in The Road Less Traveled all around you. Likewise, you should also strive to that people must realize that the entirety of their open your heart and mind to what really matters to adult life is a series of personal choices before you. Only when you consciously choose a better they are to be healed. Once they come to this way of relating to yourself and to others will you realization, then they become free; otherwise, attract more of what you desire, and discover they will forever remain victims. brand-new opportunities. Similarly, by understanding and accepting that your life is the sum of all the choices, good or bad, which you have made. No matter how trapped you Choice # 2: Change Your Mind, Change might feel in any given moment, you have the power to choose how to react to those Your World circumstances. Keep in mind that God gave Most people can't know or don't take time to think humans free will that is, he gave you about the effects of a major change in their lives. It opportunities to make choices. just happens. The saving grace, though, is that they can always get to decide what meanings to attach to Figuring Out What You Don't Want Helps You every change, good or bad, that happens to them. Make Better Choices Frequently, the only thing to do is to hang on tight Realizing what you don't want in your life can often and trust that the meaning will reveal itself later. help you see what you're supposed to do. This awareness involves looking at your core values As soon as you seek meaning in a challenge, and the choices that you have been making so far. instead of just crumbling away and closing yourself If there is a huge discrepancy between the in your room, you give yourself the power to choices that you have made and your true values, change. Remember, nothing in your life will get take heed and start re-aligning your life with your values. And even though emotional baggage from the past may bog you down, don't lose sight of the fact that you can choose to discard these ABOUT THE BOOK: unhealthy burdens in your life. Choice # 4: You Can Reverse Any Curse Author: Naomi Judd Experience is what you get when you fail to get Publisher: Simon and Schuster what you wanted. It doesn't really matter if you fail, Paperbacks as long as you learn something from your failure. Date of Publication: 2004 ISBN : 0-7432-3663-7 As George Lucas, creator and director of Star No. of Pages: 276 pages Wars, says, “It's OK to lose; just don't lose the lesson.” Learn to Sleep Well by Chris Idzikowski 2 of 8 Mistakes are a crucial part of one's evolution amygdala, receives information first and causes towards maturity. It's not what happens to you people to have an emotional response before the that counts; it's what you do with it that does. intellect, the neocortex, can get a chance to Once you realize this, you're on your way to respond to it. This is why you often can't control reversing the “curse” of your mistake-riddled your emotionality. It happens automatically. and horrible past. But hey, if you keep making the same mistake, it's time for you to really think In addition, many of your emotional reactions deep and hard of what's wrong in you. originate from some biological pattern created back when you were a child. For instance, people To begin reversing the curse, start off by who grew up with domineering and threatening questioning yourself how you got into that fix in mothers tend to respond defensively to women. the first place. The more you discover the Thus, once they see a “woman” their brain reasons behind your predicament, and the instinctively turns on the “Be Afraid” program. more you get to know yourself, the more illuminated your path will become. Then, you'll The good news is that you can regulate your begin to see options and solutions that seemed emotions by understanding how they originated. concealed before. The trick is to identify the pattern behind a particular emotional reaction. This engages the Bear in mind that it takes courage to make life- neocortex, and makes you objectively view a altering changes in your life. If you're in pain situation and see it for what it really is. This allows and feel scared, take comfort in the assurance you to respond appropriately and healthily. Once that it's part of the growing up process. In the you become more aware of your emotions and end, you'll not only change your life for the their triggers, you'll be able to make wise and better, but you'll also earn self-respect. better choices, and thus, improve your life. Choice # 5: You Can Be Anything Choice # 6: Become a Detective, and You Want, but First You Have to Investigate Your Past Understand What's Standing in One crucial step towards personal transformation is to look at your past, and determine how it Your Way shaped your personality and your perceptions. Before you can move forward from a bad For the beliefs that you hold today are often the experience, you need to see and understand result of your own unique memories and what's standing in your way. Emotional experiences. catalysts, past pain, and buried trauma can influence how you feel and react to present As an adult, the more you become aware of your circumstances. More often than not, it can even childhood, the more you can choose to separate direct you to make poor choices in from that early imprinting, considering that it's the relationships, finances, career, and in the other appropriate thing to do. In so doing will you be able vital areas of your life because bad to get a grip on how early influences affected the experiences can cloud your judgment and way you lived your life, and thus enable you to affect your emotions. This is the reason why it is make different choices. Remember, you can't essential to figure out what emotionally choose the family you're born into, but you can charged issues are keeping you back. take responsibility for the choices that you make later in your life. Emotion, Not Intellect, Drives All Behavior (Until We Become Conscious) Daniel Goldman, author of Emotional Choice # 7: Personality: It's All Intelligence, says that people have two minds: one that thinks, and one that feels. Simply put, Relative the emotional part of the brain, called the It's only natural for you to expect members in your family to think and act like you do, but that's just Learn to Sleep Well by Chris Idzikowski 3 of 8 not the way things work. You may not be aware Your strengths refer to the ways of thinking that you of this, but birth order has immense influence in bring to a given situation, while your passions your memories, experiences, and personality.