Editor’s Note:
The winners for this giveaway have already been chosen:
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Especially when we’re going through challenging times, it can feel tempting to try to control the future—but this doesn’t change that much lies beyond our control. Try as we may to avoid the unknown, the future remains uncertain.
How do we navigate change knowing that nothing is guaranteed? How can we develop inner strength to grow, heal, and evolve?
Healer practitioner Staci Boden answers these questions in her new book, Turning Dead Ends into Doorways: How to Grow Through Whatever Life Throws Your Way.
From the book flap:
“With compassionate honesty and a practical sense of humor, healing practitioner Staci Boden shows her readers how to navigate change without clinging to false notions that if they just do this or think that they can determine what happens next. How to let go of false expectations and still make excellent choices. How to grow and heal no matter what life throws their way.”
I’m grateful that Staci has offered two free copies of Turning Dead Ends into Doorways for Tiny Buddha readers!
The Giveaway
To enter to win one of two free copies of Turning Dead Ends into Doorways by Staci Boden:
- Leave a comment on this post. (If you’re reading in your inbox, click here to do that.)
- Tweet: RT @tinybuddha GIVEAWAY: Turning Dead Ends into Doorways http://bit.ly/SBYrFX comment and RT to enter!
You can enter until midnight PST on Monday, November 5th. If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can still participate by completing only the first step.
The Interview
1. What inspired you to write Turning Dead Ends into Doorways?
Someone once told me that writing a book is an opportunity to participate in a larger conversation about something that matters to you.
For a while, I’ve noticed how some spiritual beliefs equate healing with achieving a positive outcome. I’m all for positive outcomes. At the same time, I’ve seen people hurt by the message that learning a lesson or thinking a positive thought can create a specific reality.
I grew up with a legally blind mom, family living with chronic illness, and friends who survived sexual abuse. As a healing practitioner, many clients have arrived feeling stuck or overwhelmed regarding health, work, and relationships.
When we’re doing everything we can to heal and we don’t achieve a certain outcome, we feel like we’re doing something wrong. We feel like we’re wrong.
I wrote this book because the blame and shame and exhaustion that comes from trying to make life look a certain way only further cements pain. I wrote this book because even though we don’t always get what we want, healing belongs to everyone.
Healing can be a positive outcome andan inner quality we cultivate along the way, like strength or patience. My book explores how we might all grow through life so we feel more whole and capable inside, no matter what reality appears on our doorstep.
2. You refer to your healing work as Practical Spirituality. What does Practical Spirituality mean to you?
My training is in earth-based and women’s spirituality ways. I’m an energy worker. Practical Spirituality grew as a bridge for learning how to navigate the unknown in daily life for people unfamiliar with that world.
Practical Spirituality embraces the mystical with pragmatic arms. If we can’t embody peace while negotiating traffic, then we’re truly stuck. Through connecting with eight inner teachers and synchronicity, Practical Spirituality helps us develop our own unique healing ways.
3. What does it mean to grow a conscious relationship with the unknown in daily life?
The reality is, we can never predict what’s around the next corner. We may not know small things, like what’s for dinner, or big things, like if we will meet a soul mate or remain healthy. The unknown is a tangible yet mysterious force that permeates daily life.
Yet relying on control to deal with the unknown doesn’t always work, and often, control ends up controlling us.
If instead, we start developing a more conscious relationship within ourselves and with whatever part of everyday living is calling for our attention—health, finances, trust, relationships, strength, fertility—we can learn how to navigate the unknown of daily life in a more empowered way.
4. Your book introduces eight teachers for navigating the unknown in daily life—fear, awareness, choice, body, intuition, energy, intention, and surrender. Why eight, and how are these teachers?
Over the years, I noticed individuals and groups grappling with core issues around fear, awareness, body, intuition etc. As I sat with how a reader might learn to navigate the unknown in a book, core issues coalesced into eight areas of focus.
Each of these eight areas is a realm of wisdom. After awhile, I realized these eight areas are universal relationships we can connect with constantly. They teach us. Anything can be a teacher in our lives, and certainly, these eight aren’t meant to be definitive. They are relationships that I felt called to write about first.
5. You talk about the idea of “co-commitment” as a way to relate to people without competing for power in Chapter 5 about choice. Can you tell us a little about this?
Sure. We’ve been raised in an either/or view of the world where winner takes all. This forces us into prescribed roles of victim, persecutor, and rescuer. Check out a reality show, and you’ll see victims and persecutors everywhere!
If we can resist the temptation to make each other wrong and recognize that many realities exist at once, we create room for more authenticity. We can speak up and get creative about meeting needs. We shift out of victimhood and into empowerment.
For example, as a mother of two teenagers, I wash a lot of dishes. I can get resentful thinking I’m the only one doing dishes, my kids don’t appreciate me, and really, I do everything (hello, victim)!
Alternatively, I can tell my family that I’m feeling tired and I need some help with dishes. As we discuss options, I might even realize the kids have been contributing in other ways, like by taking out the trash and walking the dog. Recognizing multiple realities facilitates win-win resolution in relationships.
6. In Chapter 7, you explore intuition and offers suggestions to help us access it. Why do you think this is such a struggle, and what’s one thing we can do to overcome it?
We live in a fear-based culture where we’ve been taught to overdevelop our minds. Fear and mental chatter create static that interferes with accessing intuition.
One approach to accessing intuition would be to explore fear. As you start to identify different kinds of fear, you can sort through them. This will help relax mental chatter for intuition to emerge.
Another way to access intuition is to identify one strong sense (hear, see, smell, taste) and start noticing what it may be communicating throughout your day.
7. What does it mean to navigate and follow energy?
Learning how to consciously hold, follow, and navigate energy is a way of life. For me, it’s a wild, faith-restoring ride where I get to partner with the mystery and explore meaning every day.
By definition, following energy means staying behind it. This is easier said than done because being in control by getting ahead is our cultural ideal.
Learning to pull your attention back in order to follow something—a relationship, a project or even a wish—cannot be done through the mind alone. You learn to navigate energy by practicing navigating energy. That’s why I ask readers to focus on an intention throughout the book, as a beginning place.
8. You’ve written that intention is the “root and the tip of a choice to love fiercely.” What do you mean by this?
An intention is a word or sentence that represents a heartfelt wish or meaningful inner quality. Contemplating an intention includes recognizing the root of something important in our lives. As if we’re having a conversation with our soul. An example might be “world peace” or “thrive.”
It’s not enough to just think about an intention. Fueling an intention with action is what awakens it as a guiding force in our lives. How will you support world peace or learn to thrive?
And so committing to an intention by relating with something deep inside that also feels bigger than yourself becomes a way to grow self-worth. Embodying the root and tip of an intention represents a choice, and an opportunity, to practice fierce love.
9. You wrote Turning Dead Ends Into Doorways in real time, sharing how the eight teachers informed the book through daily life happenings. Why? How was that?
Synchronicity helps me navigate life, and since I ask readers to let go and engage the unknown, it also seemed only fair to join them there through book writing.
Within that, I was unprepared for what arrived with each chapter teacher in beautiful and shattering ways. An earthquake punctuated a point, birth made a surprise re-entrance into my life and in the last month of writing, my teenage daughter was diagnosed with a rare form of adolescent cancer.
I don’t know if noticing synchronicity while writing the book helped my daughter’s cancer come to light, but if so, I’m very grateful. Thankfully, my daughter has been in remission for over a year and a half now.
10. What’s the main message you hope readers take away from this book?
Personally, I’m ready for a (r)evolution where we take the blame and shame out of healing so we can all access it more freely. I hope people find the book to be a strong and loving guide for consciously navigating life.
But ultimately, it’s not about me. My intention is to get behind each reader’s intention. And so I’m really enjoying hearing from readers directly about what the book means to them.
Thank you, Tiny Buddha and Lori Deschene, for how you foster community and inspire us to grow in so many ways!
Learn more about Turning Dead Ends into Doorways on Amazon.
FTC Disclosure: I receive complimentary books for reviews and interviews on tinybuddha.com, but I am not compensated for writing or obligated to write anything specific. I am an Amazon affiliate, meaning I earn a percentage of all books purchased through the links I provide on this site.

About Lori Deschene
Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha. She started the site after struggling with depression, bulimia, c-PTSD, and toxic shame so she could recycle her former pain into something useful and inspire others to do the same. You can find her books, including Tiny Buddha’s Gratitude Journal and Tiny Buddha’s Worry Journal, here and learn more about her eCourse, Recreate Your Life Story, if you’re ready to transform your life and become the person you want to be.
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Thank you for the chance to win what looks like a fantastic book!
Looks like an interesting book and a great read! Thanks for the drawing.
Thanks for sharing.
Hope is what we need to navigate negativity and loss in a world where happiness is celebrated as a commodity. Thank you for your book, I’m sure it will assist many on their life journey, including me.
Looks like a book that would help a lot at this point in my life.
What a lovely interview -I’m definitely going to be checking out the book. Thanks for sharing such great stuff -just discovered your site & so glad I did!
Just loved the cover and the the interview! And also the 8 areas. I’d love to develop my intuition and access it. Guaranteed to be a great read. Thanks for informing us about it 🙂
This book looks so good! Can’t wait to read it!
This book sounds great! The last couple of years has brought me hitherto unknown stress and grief. What I thought was my lifeline – control – exploded in my hands. I’m looking forward to using this book to help me reevaluate and renovate my “new” life – enjoying every next step of the way. Thanks for the chance to win a copy!
This book sounds like it would be helpful for me now as I navigate some life transitions!
Great interview! The book looks like a perfect read for someone like me or others who feel stuck in their lives. I’m 34, college educated but stuck in current circumstances due to temporary health issues. I feel like my life is literally upside down but I know there’s a good reason for this.It takes a lot of work to stay positive and being patient esp. when you’re in undesirable circumstances; and seek answers to the many questions of why?
Life is filled with constant road blocks, doors and windows closing that make us feel trapped in and feel we have nowhere to go but down or in. This sounds like quite the inspiration to learn to navigate the rough waters we call life in a positive productive way. We all need that guidance. I would love this book for the many members of my family that are looking for a new way to do life when faced with the inevitable obstacles it constantly seems to present. Thanks for writing it!
I love this post. It couldn’t have came at a better time for me in my life. From this post alone, and the post from Tiny Buddha help me everyday. I really appreciate anyone that takes time to share wisdom with the masses. Hopefully I’ll be able to win one of the two books. Regardless I’ll support and buy a copy.
Peace and Love
Shawn Cruz
I would love to read Turning Dead Ends Into Doorways.
Love to read everything on this blog.
I would love to win a copy of this book. Thanks!
Another wonderful post, and what a very interesting and thought provoking book this appears to be. Would love to win a copy – either in hard copy or e-book to read and learn from. Life provides us many lessons, it is our opportunity to recognize these and grow. Many thanks!
Seems like an amazing book; would love to have a copy of this book to refer to as i go through challenges and turning points in my life. thank you,
Looking forward to knowing more about this book and its messages!
This looks like a very interesting and amazing book. I don’t think many people realize the effects of the energy around us and within us. If we are able to channel our energy towards goodness then that influences others to channel their own inner happy energy. I would love to read this book, even if I do not winner a copy, I am planning on purchasing it! Thank you Tiny Buddha and Staci Boden for opening my eyes to another way of looking at life:)
It seems like a very inspiring book, would love to read it.
I’m looking forward to absorbing and learning from Staci through her book…it would be great to win ….regardless I am going to read it.
Seems interesting…looking forward to some new insights…thanks for the introduction to the book
I could sure use this book. These last 3 years have been very tough for me and I’m trying to get out of this tunnel my life has gone into. I’m learning with other books and Tiny Buddha to keep going going toward the light. I have lost the job I cared about, my wife left me and I’m taking care of our three kids. We then divorced with me having to give everything up to keep the kids out of her bad choices. Shortly after that my parents died in a car wreck. I’m still looking to get back into a job I like and life. I have gotten off the antidepressants and I am eating natural foods to clean my system out, but I’m still depressed. Man I know it sounds like this is made up, but the Universe has poured some bad darkness on me. I keep going, but I’m getting tired and have no idea which way to go now. My life is really not the way I had hoped for. Maybe this book could help, don’t know. Thanks.
Dear Lori,
thank you this post and the opportunity to win. It’ s always great to get inspired!
Thank you, Staci, for sharing your expertise through this book. I, too, am in the middle of a series of major life transitions. I am slowly learning how to loosen my grip and approach things more positively. Reading the interview, I’m very interested in reading this book and think it will push me farther in understanding how. I appreciate the opportunity to win it!
2012 has been a big turning point for me, on a personal level (divorce) and professional level… Even when I think I am fine, I still cannot shake old memories and feelings. thank you!
I enjoy your articles daily. I love to read this. Looks inspiring!
The book looks fabulous from what I read on Amazon, and the interview here. I would LOVE to win a copy. 🙂
Great interview. Staci’s book sounds like a “must read” for me. Thnaks for the post Lori.
This looks like a good read! Thanks for the opportunity to get a copy!
Looks like a book I could use right now. Thanks for the opportunity, and thanks for your site. I just found it the other day, and already it’s been a huge help. : )
Thanks for this chance to win a copy! This would be a great read for me as I transition from college to the “real world” and try to figure out where my life will take me.
Definitely a book I could use. Thanks!
Definitely in need a a doorway right now.
I would love to read-thank you for sharing 🙂
wow, this really spoke to me!”It’s not enough to just think about an intention. Fueling an intention with action is what awakens it as a guiding force in our lives. How will you support world peace or learn to thrive?” would love the chance to own a copy of your book, Staci!
Beautiful book! Thank you so much!
Amen to this! “When we’re doing everything we can to heal and we don’t achieve a certain outcome, we feel like we’re doing something wrong. We feel like we’re wrong.” Looking forward to reading this book.
A book perfect for my life right now. I will read it no matter how it comes into my life.
Perfect fit for me! Wish this had been available years ago. I will have to get this book.
I would love to introduce this at my clinic!
I have been going through major life transitions over the past 2+ years – separation, moving (twice), leaving my job and only source of income… all the while I’ve also been learning about healing for myself and to help others. This book sounds like just what I need to read.
Staci, I find that letting go of the need to control can be so freeing. I recently became very ill, and it let me become so present and aware of what my body needed in each moment. I carry this awareness with me now, in my healing stages, and it has helped me carry on. I’d love to learn more about your thoughts too and I am thankful for the chance to win your book!
Life is so beautiful in all stages. Thank you for sharing this, I look forward to reading it!
The title and beautiful cover of this book caught my eye right away. How generous of you to offer this giveaway. I hope I am one of your lucky winners! Namaste my beautiful and inspiring friend! {{hugs}} ღ
So many times I told myself “It’s a dead end!No way, I won’t be able to find any solution.” But there is always a way out. And here I am – still alive and kicking . What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger!! All situations are our teachers and it’s up to us which approach to take – a positive or a negative , and result will be exactly according to our choice. Would love to have such book as an every-day-guide to my higher self to help me to feel more “whole and capable inside ,no matter what reality appears on our doorstep” like you said Staci. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us!! Your book is a real life savior!!!
Looks interesting. Would love to read.
This sounds like a wonderful book but you had me at the first sentence about writing a book to participate in a larger conversation bout something that is meaningful to you.♦ I had never thought of it in just that way. If the first sentence of the interview is that menaingful to me I can’t wait to see what the whole book has to say.
Thank you for the opportunity to win a copy of this book!
Looks great, i’m sick of dead ends!