Do You Want to Build an Unbreakable Life?
Do you like where you are in life? How satisfied are you with your career, relationships, and home life? What would you add to your life if you had unlimited time and financial resources? What if you could find a way to make those things happen?
At SMPsychotherapy, we’re committed to helping you create a life that has more of what you want and less of what you don’t. We want you to feel supported as you create the life of your dreams. Patient education is one of the ways we accomplish that.
This week, we’re recommending Unbreakable, the new book by Soribel Martinez, LCSW, as a piece of your mental health and wellness education. Unbreakable is a deep dive into creating a purposeful life that leaves you energized rather than depleted. What follows is a thorough review of the book and a detailed explanation of why we recommend it to our patients.
Connect With Your Purpose
Each of us is created with a purpose in life, and we have unique gifts that allow us to fulfill that purpose. Whether you’re meant to help others, create beautiful art, or take care of our planet, fulfilling your purpose is one key to living a balanced and happy life. In fact, people who live a purposeful life often experience better mental and physical health. In Unbreakable, you’ll learn strategies for staying connected to your purpose and ensuring you align your life and work with your values.
Master the Dirty Chair Process
A dirty chair is a negative space you wind up in when life gets difficult. It’s where you sit in negative emotions and think negative thoughts until you can’t see the good in your life anymore. Your dirty chair might be self-doubt, self-criticism, or grief. The dirty chair keeps you stuck in an unsatisfying space. The dirty chair process is one that Soribel created for evaluating your current situation, figuring out how you wound up where you are, and creating a plan for standing up, dusting yourself off, and moving as far away from the filth as possible.
Overcome Trauma
Traumatic experiences come in many different shapes and sizes, and we all react to traumatic experiences differently. Unbreakable deals with family trauma, relationship trauma, child loss trauma, medical trauma, and religious trauma. In each story, Soribel shares her personal journey of healing, hope, and moving forward. She reminds us that adversity was not meant to destroy you – instead, adversity can show you what you can achieve.
Define Success For Yourself
Feeling successful can improve your mental health, self-confidence, and relationships. When you feel good about the work you do in the world and the way you show up for your loved ones, it helps others as well as yourself. In Unbreakable, Soribel guides readers to define success for themselves. Maybe your success is starting your own business, maybe it’s raising a large family, or perhaps it’s a promotion at your job. You get to define success for yourself, and you are in control of how to get there.
Learn to Accept Support
Many of us feel we need to do everything ourselves. Women, especially, are often socialized to think of themselves as givers – always doing for others and never asking for anything in return. But what if you don’t have to do it all yourself? What if you could change your mindset so you are willing and able to accept help? What if you believed you deserved the same kind of support you offer others? Soribel will show you how to identify the right people to support your dreams, and how to teach yourself to accept the support.
Learn About True Self-care
Self-care is not candles, wine, bubble baths, and manicures. It can include those things, but true self-care is about caring for your entire being. Soribel encourages readers to find ways to improve their self-care that addresses physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs. An unbreakable self-care practice ensures you are physically healthy, emotionally supported, and spiritually connected to your true purpose.
Understand Forgiveness
Forgiveness is not about letting people get away with treating you poorly. Forgiveness is a gift to yourself. It is deciding not to let anger rule your life and finding a way to heal yourself so you can move forward and create an unbreakable life full of success, supportive relationships, and self-love. In Unbreakable, Soribel uses her story of religious trauma and healing her relationship with her father to help readers understand the power of forgiveness in their own lives.
Honor and Move Through Grief
Soribel bravely tells the story of losing her son, Jean-Carlos, at 36 weeks gestation just three days after an ultrasound showed him happily salsa-dancing. She will never know what happened, and she never asked God why. Rather, she found a way to turn her grief into purposeful action. Using her process, you can learn to honor your grief, give your body and soul what they need, and then find a way forward, so grief doesn’t pull you under.
Commit to Personal Development
Personal development is a commitment you make to becoming the type of person you need to be to create the life you want to have. If you want a successful business or a promotion at work, you must develop certain skills because your performance will reflect any growth areas you ignore. If you want to become a better spouse or parent, you will need to evaluate your current relationships, make a plan to learn new skills, and find resources to help you. Personal development is vital for success in work and life, and in Unbreakable, Soribel gives readers tools they can use on this life-long journey.
