The Story Behind STAYING GROUNDED IN SHIFTING SAND
By Linda Ferguson
I wrote this book a couple years after Sept. 11th, 2001. When our country was in turmoil and we were just entering the war in Iraq, people had a lot of healing and anger to work through. I could see fear taking hold in people’s life.
Also during this time, I was going through a divorce and dealing with deep emotional scars I didn’t even know were there. I also lost my job during the early years of writing the book, so had that to contend with too. Needless to say, I was feeling the shifting ground personally and socially.
I had finished 3 national book tours for my first book and felt this nudge to start to address spirituality for everyday living to help people move through their fears, their stresses, and their life challenges. As I stepped through my own challenges and fears, I learned new ways of approaching life from a spiritual perspective.
Every time I had some big lesson to work through or shifted into greater spiritual awakening, I knew I needed to write something related to it in this new book to support others in their life transitions. So everything I’ve written, I’ve lived and seen demonstrated in my life (and in the life of so many others over the past 8 years).
I offer meditations and activities at the end of each chapter so that readers can practice a new way of being. It’s been fabulous to get reader responses that my book is right on target for where they are in their life, or that they used my ideas and it made a big difference in their life. There’s no greater satisfaction for an author than getting that reader feedback.
A key lesson for me dealing with the aftermath of my divorce and job loss was that when I did my healing and clearing work, my life shifted. I saw demonstrated repeatedly that we create our experiences and life conditions from the inside out. I learned how to let go of self-limiting beliefs, address how I was showing up, to shift my energy – when I did that I found the outcomes of my life shifted.
I learned the importance of paying attention to those moments of grace/guidance/coincidences – these help us move through our challenges and stresses if we allow it and are open to seeing it and welcoming it into our life. In this way we awaken spiritually and lead a more joyful, grace-filled life.
I used my job and life experiences and key spiritual lessons learned to develop my Transformational Empowerment process that I started using with coaching clients and in my workshops and seminars. It’s a concrete, practical way to make shifts stick that people need or want to make in their life to find greater joy and thrive. I outline this Transformational Empowerment process in the last chapter of this book.
One big message I’d like to get across to the world is to ‘walk the path of Love not fear’.
That’s my mantra now with this second book. Not only do we need to walk the path of Love not fear to Stay Grounded in Shifting Sand as a way to deal with life challenges and stresses, but to show up and step up to the abundance, beauty, joy and gifts we can experience every day. In this way we can truly experience the magnificence of Who We Are.
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Dr. Linda J. Ferguson is an author, speaker, coach, and seminar leader to support people leading a joyful and awakened spiritual life. Linda’s website, www.lindajferguson.com , contains videos, meditations, affirmations, and other useful resources for spiritual growth and personal development. Readers find inspiring and informative ideas in Linda’sblogto enrich their spirituality for everyday living- www.lindajferguson.com/blog/ .
Dr. Ferguson is author of two books “The Path for Greatness – Work as Spiritual Service” and “Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand- Awakening Soul Consciousness for the New Millennium“. Readers find the exercises at the end of every chapter valuable and practical. They can apply the ideas immediately in their life and see results. Linda has conducted three national book tours, presented at national conferences, and conducted worship services to inspired and appreciative audiences. Linda also leads Shamanic Journeys, spiritual study groups, and retreats for people who want to dive deeper into the insights and ideas offered in her books on spiritual growth and transformation.
Linda has developed a seven step process of Transformational EmpowermentTM, for personal mastery. She developed this powerful process of manifesting and creating positive life changes from her own life experiences, her work with her coaching clients, and her study of mysticism.
She uses the spiritual principles found in her Transformational EmpowermentTM process in her coaching practice so that her clients more effectively move through their important life changes. Her coaching provides a structured and consistent venue so that people can make positive changes in their life easefully and confidently.
Linda has been on radio interviews and has featured articles in Interbeing, a journal of personal and professional mastery. She also writes a weekly blog to support people’s desire to integrate their spiritual life with their professional life- www.managementhelp.org/blogs/spirituality/
Dr. Ferguson earned her Ph.D. from Indiana University (I.U.-Bloomington) in Organizational Behavior with a Masters also from I.U. studying Social Psychology. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in psychology and management. Linda did her coach training in 2004 from Coach Training Alliance, completed her certification in Team Coaching, and has CCE credits from International Coach Federation (ICF).
In 1994 she traveled abroad for six months to Asia, Australia, Israel, and Europe before moving to Virginia where she currently lives. Her personal spiritual practice includes daily prayer and meditation, Sufi Dances of Universal Peace, Integral Yoga, Native American Sweat Lodges and other Earth-based ceremonies.
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ABOUT STAYING GROUNDED IN SHIFTING SAND
Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand provides insightful stories and ideas to support your spiritual journey and help you answer your soul’s calling. Inside you’ll read how to step fully into who you are as an awakened soul being. You’ll read ways to apply spiritual principles for daily challenges and stressors of relationships, finances, work, or family. You’ll learn how to connect with the joy and beauty of who you are as a spiritual being through your various human experiences.
You’ll learn ways to shift how you experience your world using the affirmations, meditations, and visualizations provided in each chapter. A new process called Transformational Empowerment™ shows seven key steps for manifesting your heart’s desire and fulfilling your soul contracts.
You’ve already signed up to be an agent for spiritual transformation, in your own life and in the world. Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand is a spiritual guidebook to help you navigate through your daily stresses, spiritual tests, and challenging relationships. It also is a celebration of the joy you are here to experience as a conscious co-creator. Each chapter ends with concrete, meaningful exercises for you to use immediately!
The Story Behind the Book 