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CHOOSING JOY IN THE MIDST OF
CRISIS
By DOLLY MAE
Reviewed by Cecilia Ray
Former owner of Vision Quest Center
If you find
your life is not all you want it to be, Choosing Joy in the Midst of
Crisis holds the potential for helping you figure out where you may be
going wrong. The entire book is built around a technique Dolly Mae learned
from her teacher, Rajni. According to her, choosing joy is a matter of
choosing love rather than fear.
Beginning
with the story of her own life and the loss of 25 million in assets, Dolly
grabs the reader’s attention. Though she doesn’t give a lot of
detail about how the situation arose, she does paint a clear picture of how
it felt to dread the arrival of the mailman and the devastation of
receiving a continuous flow of foreclosures. Faced with this, she reversed
her attitude and became joyful. So strong was her belief in this way of
living in joy that she refused to pursue an opportunity to recover her
losses because it would have kept her captive in the situation.
Critical to
the understanding of her message is the chapter on the Law of Triadic
Creations. With easy-to-understand illustrations and examples, Dolly
teaches the reader how to put a situation into two different triangles, one
of love and one of fear. Here is where one can see how the choice affects
the situation. Each example is worked through the love triangle and the
fear triangle. She outlines how one can be in a place of love and shift to
fear because of old beliefs or patterns. The underlying message is that anyone
can choose joy no matter how devastating his or her life may appear at the
moment.
A strong
point Dolly Mae makes is that we are living in a fear-based culture that
perpetuates victimhood and provides rescuers. The consequences of becoming
victims in this system are illness, disempowerment, and denial that we are
the creators of our lives. In addition, we make God responsible for making
things okay. In this process, Dolly says, God becomes both rescuer and
persecutor.
Throughout
the book are many thought-provoking statements backed by examples. Consider
this, Dolly Mae says: the time may come when we no longer need our immune
system. When we learn to love enough, we will no longer create the illnesses
that kill the body. After each example, she goes into a brief explanation
of her beliefs on the subject. The book covers a large array of
circumstances, all from the perspective of her basic theme —
choosing.
For those who
like practical information, there is a list of ten ways to choose joy.
Though they are not new, they are good reminders of how we can pull
ourselves out of the victim-rescuer-persecutor triangle. As a counselor,
Dolly Mae has drawn on years of experience to give examples that support
her principles.
Choosing
Joy in the Midst of Crisis is
one of those books that can be read in short spurts or from cover to cover.
It relates to the reality in which most people live and addresses common
problems. Dolly’s straightforward approach leaves little room for
excuses justifying a victim role. Definitely a self-help book for the
person who wants to change, Dolly Mae’s Choosing Joy in the Midst
of Crisis is a believable and inspiring guide to getting through
situations by consciously choosing joy.
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