My dear bookish friends!
Today I have something very special for you: A Q&A I got to do with Emma Eker, life coach and author of Liberation, a “meditative and spiritual approach on how to thrive in the face of adversity”!
As we all know, the world has been in a state of exception for about a year now, and so are most people’s lives. With home schooling, home office, lost jobs, less or even no family visits at all, and more hardships, how can mental health not suffer? Emma Eker’s book deals with how to deal with when life throws you lemons.
“Framed by an incredibly moving and rousing story about entering rehab at the age of 28, Emma Eker’s Liberation is a story of breakdown to break through and everything in between. This solution-based memoir, with its easily digestible teachings and guidance will help the reader to forge a deeper connection with themselves and move through challenges and suffering. Liberation demonstrates that with a change of thinking, we can relinquish all mental barriers and truly thrive.
Liberation allows the reader to free themselves from self-imposed and perceived external constraints. This book acts as a guide, helping an individual to move from impossible to I’m-possible. This book is about showing up as your very best Self and living your very best life. A must read for these times.”
For this post I was able to ask Emma some questions, and she was so lovely and aswered them for us! Big thank you, Emma!
Emma, you quote the great Sufi poet Rumi saying, “The Wound is the place where the Light enters you.” Do you think finding something positive in negative experiences is important? And is it something you always try to do?
It’s not so much about ‘trying’ to find something positive as much as it is about trusting Life – trusting that whatever situation you find yourself in is for the highest good, no matter how crappy it feels. As for me, at the time of writing, I am moving through a difficult challenge in my life and as much as I’d like it be over, to be different, it is what it is and although it pains me, I trust that all is happening perfectly and it will all come good in the end. If I continue to add worry and anxiety to the current situation, I will just exacerbate it.
You say you always loved writing. Did you ever think you’d become a writer one day though? Was it something you pursued, or did it just ‘happen’?
I’m not sure I thought I’d be anything in particular ‘one day’. I’ve always been a bit of a drifter – there was never any blueprint (at least not consciously) that I’ve been working from. So, no, I wasn’t aware this would be part of my destiny and even when I started writing, I had absolutely no idea that it would become a book. So in that respect, it absolutely did just ‘happen’.
You have written a chapter about ‘Fitting in,’ and your own struggles regarding it while growing up. What would you tell your younger readership who struggle with their personal identity – is fitting in something important in our society?
No, I do not think that fitting in is important, quite the opposite. There is space for everyone and everyone has their unique shape which fills that space. The greater intelligence that created us, did not do so for us to attempt to be carbon copies of each another. We each come here with a unique set of gifts, traits, quirks, ways of seeing the world, experiences etc. that cannot be duplicated and we must be allowed to shine our individual lights in a way that contributes to the whole, in a way that enhances our communities and humanity. ‘Fitting in’ was detrimental to my sense of self and well-being and potentially the highest contributor to my breakdown.
We’ve been living through a pandemic for more or less a year now. Mental health struggles could be more than ever present in many people’s lives. How do we keep our calm in the face of ‘crisis’ – this crisis or any other – do you have some tips for your audience? How do you deal with it?
We need to keep bringing it back to our Selves. There is chaos in the external and therefore, focussing on it will cause dis-ease within us and potentially high levels of anxiety, worry and fear which will exacerbate the situation and contribute to the overall feeling of unease. What you focus on grows, so when the ‘outside’ feels so precarious, divert your focus inward – maybe some meditation, listening to your favourite music, watching your favourite movie, cooking your favourite food, speaking with people who uplift you or listening to inspiring, ‘positive’ teachers. Understanding that we are always in an experience of thought is a game changer. We always feel our thinking so if you’re running negative thought through your mind, holding onto the ‘old story’, you will experience more of the same. Thought doesn’t grab you, you grab thought so you can either hold on or let go, the choice is yours.
I would also go back to my answer to the first question. No matter how difficult or painful you find a situation, trust Life. Everything is transitory and this too shall pass. We have the option in every moment of our lives to feel joy, freedom, bliss, peace – we just to make the choice. It’s a simple and as difficult as that.
Mental health used to be a taboo topic in society, but has more and more been breaking through its barriers over the past years. Why do you think that is?
Big question with a potentially very long answer. The truth is, I think people are waking up; Waking up to the fact that life as we have known it has been really rather pathetic in relation to the potential of human life. We’ve all been trapped in a system (within systems) that have us feeling somewhat imprisoned and slaves to the status quo. People have had enough and simply cannot operate this way anymore, so far from the Truth of who they (we) are.
These are not mental health issues that we have seen, these are callings for Liberation, for the human being to live fully, expansively, fully alive and on purpose, radiant, happy, joyous and free. We need to remember who we are, away from limitations and limiting self-beliefs. We are limitless beings with incredible gifts and abilities, it is time for us to remember and embrace this truth. We must remember and re-member.
Leading on from that, do you think mental health problems are more common nowadays than they have been?
I do not think I’m qualified to answer this question. Maybe the human has always been suffering without the forum to make it public in the past. Maybe humanity were more accepting of the ‘status quo’ way back when, without the inclination to question or consider the potential for the ‘difference’. Maybe conditions / environment were not as conducive as they are now to take a deep dive inward and allow the mind to wonder and wander. As I say, I cannot know, but this unease with the ‘way things are’ can be a very positive occurrence if we are focussed on creating something better – both personally and collectively.
If you would have to give a takeaway message from your book, maybe summing it up in one or two sentences, what would it be?
You are perfect exactly as you are. You are a child of God and your very being is a blessing to humanity. Know this, deep within your cells, and go forth and shine your light. You are needed.
Who should read your book?
Who shouldn’t? 😉
And finally, if you could meet your own teenage self today, what would you tell 14-year-old Emma?
Read up to my last but one answer –
“You are perfect exactly as you are. You are a child of God and your very being is a blessing to humanity. Know this, deep within your cells, and go forth and shine your light. You are needed.” I would add – “you are loved beyond measure and supported more than you know. Always, in all ways.”
Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?
I believe the best is yet to come. Humanity is in the process of great change and although the past year has been incredibly challenging and deeply unsettling on many levels, I for one, am very excited.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share, it is a gift and a pleasure.
Author Bio
Emma Eker is a life coach and author from London. Trained in Psychosynthesis Psychology (PG Dip), Emma has worked as a coach for over 14 years, helping individuals understand how their experience is created in order for them to realise they are in control of their own experience – far more powerful than they imagined.
Emma is passionate about the human experience, evolution and helping people to live in alignment with who they are – moving away from restrictions, limitations and negative self-talk in order to live a life fully expressed. Liberation is her first book.
This was so enlightening; I have read through Emma’s answers a number of times now and I still take awake a great feeling of empowerment every time.
Reading her book Liberation felt the same way, and I highly recommend it if you are struggling with your mental health – or anything in life, really. It teaches you a way to deal with it all, even when some times feel hopeless and scary.
Thank you so much for Amber from Midas PR for my paperback, and for organising this Q&A!
You can buy a copy of Liberation by Emma Eker via her website or Amazon.
Thank you all so much for reading!
xoxo
Noly
