From Amazon
Diagnosed with breast cancer at age 32, Crawley is a cancer survivor who insightfully and effectively eases a woman's fear by helping her honor the divine spirit within. Highly recommended by Jack Canfield, editor of the bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul series, women who fear, have, or know someone with breast cancer will experience this book as if having a heart-to-heart with a best friend. Crawley leads with "101 Ways to Honor Yourself as a Woman," reminding women to do self-indulgent activities such as receiving a professional massage or treating themselves to a pedicure. She offers inspiring suggestions to discover one's mind, body, and soul: "Ask people who know you to share with you what they feel is special and beautiful about you. (Children are great for this one!)" She insists on the necessity of living life as a "receiver" and not just a "giver," establishing a new women's movement called the "Honor Movement." Crawley introduces her revolutionary theory about women who "do it all" without the balance of the divine feminine spirit: "I believe that breast cancer is merely a symptom of what is occurring for women, and all humankind. In my opinion, breast cancer is just a name given to the enormous disease that women at large are experiencing." Readers will also find detailed suggestions on creating a 10-step healing plan, ways to support someone recovering from breast cancer, and clearly illustrated positions for giving themselves a visual breast inspection. This take-charge book offers new perspectives into illness and disease prevention, but is cozy enough to join you and a cup of your favorite herbal tea. --Cate Bick
Book Description
Doing it all? Always the giver? Can't take time out for yourself ?
This book could save your life!
--Eliminate the guilt
--Discover 101 ways to honor yourself as a woman
--Learn the ten most common emotional and psychological patterns of women who get breast cancer
--Explore how dis-ease manifests into disease
This book could save your life!
--Eliminate the guilt
--Discover 101 ways to honor yourself as a woman
--Learn the ten most common emotional and psychological patterns of women who get breast cancer
--Explore how dis-ease manifests into disease
From the Publisher
When I first met Stella Togo Crawley, it was hard to believe that this was a woman who had once been a breast cancer patient. She was glowing with good health and espousing the riches and pleasures that life has to offer. Her determination and tenacity are truly incomparable to any other person's I have known, and I admire her mission to spread the word that "healing in the world begins with healing oneself." Her book, IN HONOR OF WOMEN, is a testament to the generations of women who have come before us and to those that will continue to strive for the future years to come.
R. Su
Ballantine Publicity
R. Su
Ballantine Publicity
From the Back Cover
"Stella Crawley brings inspired hope into a fearful situation. May her gentle comfort reach the hearts of women everywhere."
--Marianne Williamson
"A phenomenal book that beautifully displays the power of the feminine spirit. It teaches women to discover self-love and improve self-esteem like no other book! A must-read for any woman who wishes to live a happier, healthier life!"
--Jack Canfield
Coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestselling series
--Marianne Williamson
"A phenomenal book that beautifully displays the power of the feminine spirit. It teaches women to discover self-love and improve self-esteem like no other book! A must-read for any woman who wishes to live a happier, healthier life!"
--Jack Canfield
Coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestselling series
Chicken Soup for the Soul
"In Honor of Women gives you the insider view to transform fear into faithfulness, sickness into health, depression into delight. Stella has written a book that will help you regain your composure and psychological sanity and establish your full body wellness."
--Mark Victor Hansen
Coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestselling series
Chicken Soup for the Soul
"Stella Crawley's book is a beautiful testament to the courage and strength of women, and to the wonder of life."
--Louise L. Hay
Bestselling author of You Can Heal Your Life
"Can inspire women--and men--to live and participate fully in their lives. An excellent resource!"
--Bernie Siegel, M.D.
Bestselling author of Love, Medicine and Miracles
About the Author
Stella Togo Crawley was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 32. Her interviews with more than 200 breast cancer survivors revealed that "giving too much is a common thread. An author, speaker, and consultant, Crawley is dedicated to helping women relearn the lost art of receiving. She currently lives in California.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
This book gives voice to the tremendous unconscious dis-ease of women, and a disease gued them for many generations. Herein lies a revolutionary approach to preventing breast cancer and a better understanding of the rhyme and reason to its madness.
In the ten years of the Vietnam war, 54,000 U.S. soldiers died. During that same period, 330,000 women lost their lives to breast cancer. Currently, 2.6 million women are living with this disease. It is estimated that 180,200 women were diagnosed in 1997. One woman dies of breast cancer every twelve minutes--estimated at 43,900 deaths in 1997 alone.
Researchers speculate that the increase in the incidence of breast cancer since 1940 may be due to the rising prevalence of breast cancer risk factors, such as the modern reproductive patterns of women having fewer children and delaying their first childbirth until a later age (American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts and Figures, 1997).
It was this information that inspired me, as a survivor, to do my own personal study and identify other possible patterns. In Honor of Women takes a close look at ten specific emotional and psychological patterns, or "commonalities," of more than two hundred breast cancer survivors. Although women today are mothering fewer children, overmothering and overachieving seem to be common threads among women who have breast cancer. Many of the commonalities are a result of beliefs that have been passed on through generations.
It is important to recognize that the purpose of bringing forth this information is to empower women, and identify ways in which we may learn to honor ourselves and therefore gain a higher sense of self-esteem and self-worth. There seems to be a false sense of heroism based on our giving so much of ourselves away--whether it's to a job, a marriage, a relationship, or by simply denying the needs of the self. Many women who have been diagnosed have said, "How can this be happening to me? I give so much."
Based on my own healing and the many gifts I have received as a result, I strongly believe that this disease has delivered to us a beautiful message that has not been acknowledged by the mass consciousness.
Like many other survivors, I gave far more than I allowed myself to receive. My sense of self-worth was based on how much I was doing for others and I completely ignored my own desires and needs. My sense of "being" was overrun by all my "doing." Although I was diagnosed at thirty-two, the commonalities are the same across the board when it comes to women of various age groups. (I did, however, find some interesting indicators of why the highest percentage of women who are diagnosed are middle-aged.) The message that I have learned and embraced is to honor myself, to balance giving with receiving, to fill my cup first so that I can give tirelessly and effortlessly, and to "be" in the moment instead of in the "next."
The spiritual meaning of breast cancer is giving away our divine feminine and nurturing self. During my five years of research and development for this book, I found that women who are diagnosed and begin to truly honor themselves have a better chance of survival than those who don't. Within these pages you will find stories written by survivors that clearly outline and support these findings. And women who fear getting this disease have an opportunity to feel more in control, as fear itself has a chapter of its own.
This book is about the divine feminine spirit, and the power and strength we are born with. Women are the link between Spirit and life, yet there is so much dis-ease within our hearts. It is time to shed the guilt, the "shoulds," the "coulds," and the "woulds"--the same way a snake sheds its skin. it is time to reclaim our divinity and wear it like a new outfit. Our hearts deserve to be heard and to be happy.
In the ten years of the Vietnam war, 54,000 U.S. soldiers died. During that same period, 330,000 women lost their lives to breast cancer. Currently, 2.6 million women are living with this disease. It is estimated that 180,200 women were diagnosed in 1997. One woman dies of breast cancer every twelve minutes--estimated at 43,900 deaths in 1997 alone.
Researchers speculate that the increase in the incidence of breast cancer since 1940 may be due to the rising prevalence of breast cancer risk factors, such as the modern reproductive patterns of women having fewer children and delaying their first childbirth until a later age (American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts and Figures, 1997).
It was this information that inspired me, as a survivor, to do my own personal study and identify other possible patterns. In Honor of Women takes a close look at ten specific emotional and psychological patterns, or "commonalities," of more than two hundred breast cancer survivors. Although women today are mothering fewer children, overmothering and overachieving seem to be common threads among women who have breast cancer. Many of the commonalities are a result of beliefs that have been passed on through generations.
It is important to recognize that the purpose of bringing forth this information is to empower women, and identify ways in which we may learn to honor ourselves and therefore gain a higher sense of self-esteem and self-worth. There seems to be a false sense of heroism based on our giving so much of ourselves away--whether it's to a job, a marriage, a relationship, or by simply denying the needs of the self. Many women who have been diagnosed have said, "How can this be happening to me? I give so much."
Based on my own healing and the many gifts I have received as a result, I strongly believe that this disease has delivered to us a beautiful message that has not been acknowledged by the mass consciousness.
Like many other survivors, I gave far more than I allowed myself to receive. My sense of self-worth was based on how much I was doing for others and I completely ignored my own desires and needs. My sense of "being" was overrun by all my "doing." Although I was diagnosed at thirty-two, the commonalities are the same across the board when it comes to women of various age groups. (I did, however, find some interesting indicators of why the highest percentage of women who are diagnosed are middle-aged.) The message that I have learned and embraced is to honor myself, to balance giving with receiving, to fill my cup first so that I can give tirelessly and effortlessly, and to "be" in the moment instead of in the "next."
The spiritual meaning of breast cancer is giving away our divine feminine and nurturing self. During my five years of research and development for this book, I found that women who are diagnosed and begin to truly honor themselves have a better chance of survival than those who don't. Within these pages you will find stories written by survivors that clearly outline and support these findings. And women who fear getting this disease have an opportunity to feel more in control, as fear itself has a chapter of its own.
This book is about the divine feminine spirit, and the power and strength we are born with. Women are the link between Spirit and life, yet there is so much dis-ease within our hearts. It is time to shed the guilt, the "shoulds," the "coulds," and the "woulds"--the same way a snake sheds its skin. it is time to reclaim our divinity and wear it like a new outfit. Our hearts deserve to be heard and to be happy.
