Title: Pathways to Wholeness
Author: Janet G. Nestor
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 9781663244680
Pages: 135
Genre: New Age Meditation
Reviewed by: Rae Capri

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To step into the role of members and followers of the teachings of Christ, one must understand life would be simpler to maintain a pure soul. As we go through life, we experience negativity and toxicity, amongst other energies we must learn to figure out

how to remove from ourselves. The excessive weight we each carry happens to take shape throughout one’s life, becoming heavier as the years go by. When this occurs, it feels like we are being buried deeper and deeper within ourselves to the point of hopeless return.

Meditation is one activity everyone can do, along with praying, that would allow us a chance to find our true selves again. We must be willing and eager to do whatever it takes to free ourselves from everything and anything that doesn’t fuel our purpose. Taking the initial steps to get there would be a peaceful journey you can appreciate moving forward with your life. We must continue focusing on leveling above the commotion within our minds and become fully aware of everything around us.

In Pathways to Wholeness, author Janet G. Nestor encourages her readers to embrace their authentic spiritual nature by increasing their positive thoughts, as beneficial to everyone’s overall health. For those not aware of the Walking Meditation technique, it describes, demonstrates, and instructs as a peaceful walk with your mind and movement as one. This technique benefits individuals by opening them up further to their connection with nature and its healing power.

Take the time to embrace your surroundings, noticing while appreciating any changes that might have occurred during season changes. Knowing that our surroundings of nature are alive, just like humans, by the trees providing us the source to breathe, it seems fair to pay them respect as the relationship we share is mutually helpful. Relieving stress within our bodies requires us to develop a peaceful routine, as this would keep our soul light, our mind sharp, and our hearts warm and loving. Life is challenging enough with all the obstacles everyone experiences, which are out of our control. Our goal is to focus our energy on the things which matter most while having an appreciation mindset for even the smallest gifts of life. Nothing suits us best than embracing the possibilities of a healthier mind, body, and soul.

A few techniques are mentioned within this book, focusing on breathing and walking. By combining conscious awareness of your breath and each step you take, you can be open to the changes that begin to occur in your body. Stress is a horrible experience because it affects the body in ways that can cause lots of long-lasting damage. Once the understanding to add meditation into one’s life, reverse changes can begin. People are living their lives in depression and anxiety, which could stem from childhood traumas or an unsafe environment, so the body is constantly living in fight or flight mode. It was a great point, which mentioned that our world rapidly changed from agrarian communities to one based on advanced technologies, as it keeps us away from the realities of life. From these changes, we have lost the human connection with our fellow men and women, instead replaced our interactions with bots.

By slowly tapping back into our natural rhythm of life, we can then see healthier changes within our emotions and our overall life experiences. Sinking our feet into the soils of Earth, connect ourselves to nature, we can experience a transference of energies. Of course, as you continue reading, you will learn that energies are of great

importance. Janet has described, is our energy goes through a rippling effect even after we have experienced it. When our energy linger, it demonstrates how it affects our life, people around us, and our environment. We must be mindful of our emotions and to remember that negative energy spreads just as much as positive energy.

I learned a lot of new techniques on methods to meditate in comparison to the standard ways of doing so. The thought of meditating while walking has never occurred to me, but it seems doable, even for busy individuals. Our goal is to encourage more quietness of our minds and spirits because too much happens in life, leaving us mentally, emotionally, and physically unaligned. The book encourages us to plant and water our seeds. Although seeds represent our emotions, it also matters whether we plant positive or negative seeds. Positivity blossoms into something beautiful, while negativity wilts into something ugly. Meditation would allow us to calm our minds and focus on radiating positivity throughout our lives and spread the energies on to others. I enjoyed the idea that meditation isn’t only an activity done while still, we can be actively in meditation.

I highly recommend this book to others and for them to develop their own version of meditation suited to their specific needs.