cover image Too Tired to Keep Running--Too Scared to Stop: Change Your Beliefs, Change Your Life

Too Tired to Keep Running--Too Scared to Stop: Change Your Beliefs, Change Your Life

Joyce A. Patenaude. Element Books, $21.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-1-86204-349-7

Despite its title, this isn't yet another directive to simplify one's daily life. The subtitle more aptly expresses psychotherapist Patenaude's message that inner convictions create a person's life, and that altering one will transform the other. She clearly illustrates how beliefs beget feelings, which in turn produce behavior, and she identifies the ""core belief"" underlying all others as a universal human sense of ""not-enoughness,"" a ""basic feeling of unworthiness,"" regardless of material wealth or accomplishments. Relying on many personal stories from her practice, Patenaude examines the childhood experiences and cultural views of gender, work and religion that, she says, create a ""blueprint"" for endlessly trying to become enough. But everyone is actually born ""enough,"" she contends, with ""a soul that is nameless and faceless and has a purpose."" Uncovering and following this ""true original blueprint"" for each person's life promises ""health, well-being, joy, peace, love, happiness, wisdom and fulfillment."" With several comprehensive exercises for readers to work through, Patenaude offers an engaging mix of psychology and spirituality, as well as a gentle, intelligent voice of hope and encouragement for ""getting off the merry-go-round"" of one common belief that, apparently, has far-reaching effects. (Aug.)