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Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self
by
The Barnes & Noble Review
In Simple Abundance Sarah Ban Breathnach taught readers about the power of gratitude and passed on the wisdom that "all you have is all you need." In her new book, Something More, she explores the curious circumstance that many women find themselves experiencing today: They feel that they really ought to be happy, given all the wonderful thing ...more
In Simple Abundance Sarah Ban Breathnach taught readers about the power of gratitude and passed on the wisdom that "all you have is all you need." In her new book, Something More, she explores the curious circumstance that many women find themselves experiencing today: They feel that they really ought to be happy, given all the wonderful thing ...more
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Kindle Edition, 337 pages
Published
November 11th 2009
by Grand Central Publishing
(first published 1998)
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Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self
I never read "Simple Abundance" which preceded this book, so I have nothing to compare "Something More" against. I picked up this book at a swap several years ago, not even sure why I was drawn to it. Over the past month, I finally took the time to slowly read through it nightly before bed. This book deeply resonated with me. Sometimes a simple quote is all it took to unhinge my soul and bring to the surface issues that my mind seemed to wrestle with in my sleep. Sometimes it was the examples an
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I found this book while I was in the middle (or end) of a very bad relationship with someone I worshiped. That was the problem, I wasn't worshiping or even respecting myself.
This book opened my eyes and heart and helped me work not only out of and through that poisonous situation but also helped me to understand the meaning of the words loving yourself, respecting yourself, honoring yourself and boundaries: How to have them and stand by them.
My favorite part of the book: "Bad men come into our ...more
This book opened my eyes and heart and helped me work not only out of and through that poisonous situation but also helped me to understand the meaning of the words loving yourself, respecting yourself, honoring yourself and boundaries: How to have them and stand by them.
My favorite part of the book: "Bad men come into our ...more
I never did get into Sarah Ban Breathnach's popular "Simple Abundance," although I am re-reading it now, but this book was my daily rocket launcher into a vital and authentic life. It is unashamedly for women only.
Her writing style is quite full of feelings and she does get a bit carried away with enthusiasm at times, but that may be a good thing. The book started me on excavating my authentic self, and I'm 62 years old and thought I knew myself pretty well. With prompting from this book I got t ...more
Her writing style is quite full of feelings and she does get a bit carried away with enthusiasm at times, but that may be a good thing. The book started me on excavating my authentic self, and I'm 62 years old and thought I knew myself pretty well. With prompting from this book I got t ...more
Jan 02, 2008
Amy Leigh
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
spiritualismandwoowoo
on the surface, this is the sort of cheesy book that i buy in secret and read behind everyone's back. there are flowers on the cover. its subtitle is 'excavating your authentic self.' the only way it could be more embarrassing is if it came with a tea cozy and a purple t-shirt all packaged up in a floral gift box.
however. it's written by a smart, sensitive, and inspiring woman who's dealt with death and divorce and depression. it's about the ways women tend to give ourselves away to the other pe ...more
however. it's written by a smart, sensitive, and inspiring woman who's dealt with death and divorce and depression. it's about the ways women tend to give ourselves away to the other pe ...more
Jul 08, 2007
Diana Lowrie
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
someone wanting to explore themselves and embark on a journey of deep self-discovery
This book is a source to finding that voice of an authentic self. Written especially for women by a woman herself I think it depicts a lot of challenges we face going throughout life. Especially facing the challenge of finding our own identity not just an extention of an entity (be it family, wife, mother..). This book is a challenge and stirs up a lot of questions within a woman's soul that is both perplexing at time and full of joyful moments of ah ha's and wow I knew that but now I get it mom
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I think that Sarah Ban Breathnach wrote this book during a darker time in her life when she was still possibly bitter from her divorce. Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self is a follow up to her first book Simple Abundance, a book about finding your authentic self and what truly makes you happy. This is a daily (or almost daily) secular devotional on self-awareness. Something More tells us that this authentic self, i.e. our true happiness, lies beyond something more. So, wait....we're
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Apr 23, 2011
Kandice
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
non-fiction,
inspirational
All I can say is that authors should not use their books to bitterly lament their failed relationships/marriages, especially if they are trying to provide inspiration to others. While I've loved the other books by this author, she lost me on this one. Unless you want to read how angry the author is about her divorce and don't care about inspiration for your own life, then I'd recommend you skip this book and read her others. Simple Abundance is great and so is Romancing the Ordinary.
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There are two subspecies of humans, Breathnach notes at the beginning of her 1998 Something More: Excating Your Authentic Self--the resigned, who live in quiet desperation, and the exhausted, who live in restless agitation. Her goal in this book, a followup to her popular Simple Abundance, is to lead readers beyond these discomforting categories by helping each of us to discover the person we were really meant to be and thereby, to find our maximum level of satisfaction and joy. She does this v
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Essays of a woman discarded in later life by her husband. Sarah circles the drain of self-loathing and decides she needs Something More, in the form of Perfection, which can only be found in the perfect love of the perfect man. Until then she will become her Authentic Self, and ladles out substantial amounts of advice that proudly make her "the most self-centered woman in the world." (See page 325)
I read this book many years after "Simple Abundance", hoping to find additional vignettes for look ...more
I read this book many years after "Simple Abundance", hoping to find additional vignettes for look ...more
the book starts out as Sarah's routine run-of-the-mill details about Victorian living and stories of different women that have inspired her, but ends with one of the most brilliant anecdotal evidence through her experiences to inspire women of what "our" life is meant to live as and for. her words strike the innermost chord and the effect is both earth-shattering and enlightening.
i can't thank Sarah enough for her candidness and her bold authenticity, which continue to inspire myself to live an ...more
i can't thank Sarah enough for her candidness and her bold authenticity, which continue to inspire myself to live an ...more
I was disappointed in this book. I didn't come away from it feeling energized and uplifted, as I did from Simple Abundance. The thoughts shared by the author seemed a little...jaded, somehow. This could be attributed to the fact that she had gone through a very difficult time in her life--the ending of her marriage, etc., just before she penned it. Whatever the reason, the book left me wishing for...something more.
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This is a great book for critical thinking. Great for teachers. I own a very worn copy it is a book you can read again and again I have two books by breathnach and I will own everything she writes . she also wrote simple abundance which is a daily reader that i read just about everyday. this book was written for women but men can read it too !! We won't mind !!1
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Mar 02, 2008
Katharine Grubb
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
People seeking a life shift?
Recommended to Katharine by:
Mom
Shelves:
personalgrowth
So far, I can't really get into this. I've opened up pages here and there, but this one may be one that takes a while to read. I'll go about it through time. Update: I can't fininsh. There are too many other books I would rather be reading. I'll put this on the shelf to look at later.
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A few quotes:
"There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you." Zora Neale Hurston
"It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, but it is not possible to find it elsewhere". Agnes Repplier ...more
"There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you." Zora Neale Hurston
"It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, but it is not possible to find it elsewhere". Agnes Repplier ...more
It's amazing to me how few people know themselves.
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A few years ago, I was wallowing: wallowing in self-pity; stressed and burned out at my job and debating ending my current career and starting over; frustrated with the singles scene when I was a part of it, frustrated with the lack of men to date when I kept myself out of it.
I had regularly scheduled crying jags. When I voiced my dissatisfaction with being alone to my friends, they wished I could be happy on my own. When I voiced the idea that I wasn’t planning to marry and would spend my life ...more
I had regularly scheduled crying jags. When I voiced my dissatisfaction with being alone to my friends, they wished I could be happy on my own. When I voiced the idea that I wasn’t planning to marry and would spend my life ...more
This book is filled with little nuggets of wisdom, wonderful quotes, and some great advice. It seems it found its way to me, when I picked it up at Goodwill. My only conundrum now is whether I keep it to savour possibly reading again as I age and grow wiser (hopefully, anyway 😉) or to pass it on to someone else who might need the wisdom/advice in this gem of a read.
Inspired by spending too much time with this book.
Liked it, but not in a couldn’t put it down sort of way.
I've read Breathnach's Simple Abundance. Twice. I really enjoyed it and it definitely helped me lead a happier, more fullfilled life. "Something More", on the other hand, left me flat. Where the first book was lovely and insightful, this one just felt trite and uninspiring. I gave it a fair chance; I read the first 100 pages and just couldn't spend another minute with it. Perhaps because I am in a good place in my life I just don't see the point of most of the pointers/exercises/meditations; or
...more
From this book I learned that there's a use for all those magazines the spiders watch over under my day bed. For the exercises in this book, I cut out images and ad copy from those magazines to paste into the sketch book that the author recommends her readers keep while reading. Also learned that there is such a thing as a watercolor pencil and that they are tres cher!
This was my first foray into Sarah Ban Breathnach and I would say that she is an easy deep read (which is not easy to write). I'm ...more
This was my first foray into Sarah Ban Breathnach and I would say that she is an easy deep read (which is not easy to write). I'm ...more
I read this book when it was first published. It was life changing for me. I was becoming an empty nester with many challenges which had put me in situations that made me realize I was no longer in control of my kids lives. It was killing me inside with worry. This book taught me how to lovingly give my advice then let go of the situation and pray the kids would come to a good decision. So much anguish and stress was lifted from me. I am not saying i don't go too far sometimes with running off a
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Another reviewer said that this is the sort of book she would read under wraps because its skin screams self-help. Authentic self. It does sound cheesy!
I found so many beautiful quotes from this book.
Plenty of reviewers say Breathnach is bitter. I noted the bitterness myself once and laughed, because I have been there. It comes from letting others decide your boundaries for you. Make decisions for you. Reading this book has not helped me decipher who my Authentic Self is, but it has reminded m ...more
I found so many beautiful quotes from this book.
Plenty of reviewers say Breathnach is bitter. I noted the bitterness myself once and laughed, because I have been there. It comes from letting others decide your boundaries for you. Make decisions for you. Reading this book has not helped me decipher who my Authentic Self is, but it has reminded m ...more
Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self is a great read for looking at life through a different lens. Clearly targeted towards women who currently feel like "is this really it?" in respect to their lives, their relationships, themselves, Sarah Ban Breathnach provides us with the tools and insights to really dig and rediscover our inner goddess, our inner truths. She reminds us that the power lies within, both to change our physical realities but also to know that happiness happens from th
...more
Apr 12, 2008
Mindy Lankenau
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Women in difficult transitions
I had been married for 23 years... and my life was falling apart. I was spending most of my days (and nights) in tears - I was facing difficult decisions and this book was pivotal for my own self acceptance, awaking my understanding that I truly deserved more. I read the hardcover and had it on audio (cassette tapes, thats how long ago it was!)... and I knew the book by heart. My copy still opens to the tear stained page - 144, "The Souls Duty"
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OK - Well, funny how your needs for books change as life circumstances change! Being as I'm currently in the process of being single - this book now has much more meaning then it did previously! I actually needed some and most of her thoughts on self and starting over.
This was written after her divorce. I didn't enjoy it as much. It seemed like it was more for her then me. Not being divorced and all. ...more
This was written after her divorce. I didn't enjoy it as much. It seemed like it was more for her then me. Not being divorced and all. ...more
I love this woman/author. I loved going each day of the year with Simple Abundance and writing in a gratitude journal everyday of 2007. I asked to borrow that book again for 2009 and she couldn't find it but gave me this instead- I feel so blessed to have books like this in existence.
She leads the reader through an archeological dig to find the true self or soul. The activities seem like eye openers and I can't wait to get my hands dirty and try them out. ...more
She leads the reader through an archeological dig to find the true self or soul. The activities seem like eye openers and I can't wait to get my hands dirty and try them out. ...more
As I get older, I discover more of who I am, who I want to be, and where I'm going. I've discovered that I'm not there yet. Something More, causes one to think about self. Although a little too New Age for my taste, I do like a great deal of what Sarah Ban Breathnach has to say about life. Savouring moments, "stopping" time, enjoying, loving, living. I realize that I'm much closer to my authentic self than I was in my younger years. Too bad it takes so long to get there. :o)
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A book for women with a past
This is an excellent guide to find your authentic self, women after 40s are looking for something else, an spiritual path, a extraordinary woman’s path full of strong attractive women’s just like you that would take you to find your real you and decide to start to live a fantastic life for yourself after you live most of your life for others including children and husband
This is an excellent guide to find your authentic self, women after 40s are looking for something else, an spiritual path, a extraordinary woman’s path full of strong attractive women’s just like you that would take you to find your real you and decide to start to live a fantastic life for yourself after you live most of your life for others including children and husband
This book focuses on finding something more outside your current relationship. The constant permission to seek another partner is a consistent thread through the daybook format. As the content wasn't relevant to me, I found it boring. But I'm giving, "Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy" a try anyway.
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Readers also enjoyed
In addition to SIMPLE ABUNDANCE, Sarah Ban Breathnach is the author of THE SIMPLE ABUNDANCE JOURNAL OF GRATITUDE, SOMETHING MORE, and MRS. SHARP'S TRADITIONS. She currently resides in California. Please visit her website at www.simpleabundance.com.
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