Borderline and Beyond App Preview

Well, The Borderline and Beyond ebook and app are both on the way. The e-book will be the standard text, a duplicate of the printed book. 

However, the app will have a lot more "cool functionaliy."

The app is still under development. Since I like doing most things myself, I managed to develop half of it but there is no way to complete this without lots of knowledge of code. So, the workbook components of the app are being hammered out by a professional team.

The I-phone/Android App 

will contain-

* The Ebook in its entirety, divided by sections

* Emotional Crisis tips and simple exercises from the book, designed for each mood state you are in, from anxiety to anger. You'll just scroll, choose your problem or feeling, read and get quick and convenient help. (Of course, if you are suicidal or homicidal, you will need to call 911 instead.)

AND these components of the workbook:

* Two tests that self-score- The BSI- (Borderline Symptom Inventory) and the RAQ (Reality Awareness Questionnaire). Hopefully, there will be a way to record the scores of both tests, so you can watch your results improve over time.

*HOPEFULLY-- A place where you can journal and record your thoughts, just like in the journal.

In other words, you get the whole Borderderline and Beyond ebook for mobile AND lots of workbook functionality all in one for less than the cost of just one book.

I'll keep you posted as to its debut.
(I don't even know an estimated released date. My development team hasn't given me one.)

Stay tuned!

(If you'd like to stay informed when it's available, just email info@carmelheart.com)

Thanks!

Borderline and Beyond, Original- New Hope, Different Era

I'm blogging today to say a few words about Borderline and Beyond. I'm happy to have the original book and workbook editions back in print.

Some of you might remember the latest editions in 2001 and 2007, but the revised editions did not improve upon the original in any significant way.

Feedback has been that the 1996 edition surpassed the 2001 or 2007 revisions and so I'm bringing the books back in their original form.

Lots of progress in the field of Borderline Personality Disorder has been made in the past seventeen years since I wrote Borderline and Beyond. Back when I wrote it, the diagnosis was baffling in its very existence. Why take a chronically suicidal, emotionally fragile person and tell them they have an incurable personality disorder? What sense did that possibly make? It was like damning people to their own personal hell.

I fought back. If professionals weren't going to help me, I was going to do all I could to help myself. I worked really hard at it. The result of that work was Borderline and Beyond.

Today, people diagnosed with BPD are told that the chance of their making significant progress of recovery in the first year is good and that 80% of people with BPD eventually experience remission of symptoms.  Researchers and clinicians finally got on the ball and started to try to do something about the problem besides throwing their hands up in the air and blaming it all on the difficult patient.

There is much more hope for recovery from borderline personality disorder today. I'm glad I was one of many writers and bloggers who helped usher in an era of change. I was a "poster child" for people who actually got better and recovered from BPD.

Many clinicians do not believe full recovery from BPD is possible, yet I have changed and a great number of others have experienced recovery. Through using the principles and tools in my book, I have not been diagnosed with BPD in over fifteen years.

Therefore, I'm bringing my book back into print. It worked before- It can help again. I hope many who are struggling will benefit from it.

Here's where you can buy my books-

 http://www.carmelheart.com/#!portfolio/cjg9

and

On Amazon

Thanks,
Laura

Receiving the Carmelite Scapular

This past Saturday, I was received into formation by the  Discalced Secular Carmelites. This was a day I had prepared for all year. Each month, I had some material to read and a short list of questions to answer.  Then, once a month, I had classes and help with discerning whether being a Secular Carmelite was what I really wanted to do. I had to apply, have references checked and be interviewed by the Council to confirm my vocation.

I had an instant reaction of joy from the start at the idea of becoming a Carmelite. The year prior to that, I had read the biography of St. Teresa of Avila and I was also studying contemplative prayer and preparing to write a book about it. St. Teresa appealed to me because of her emotional intensity and spiritual fervor, but the more I got to know her, the more I saw what a balanced soul she had. After a tumultuous period, she emerged in equilibrium, detached from her emotions. St. Teresa began her unique style of contemplative prayer life while she was in her 40's. In all of her years before of a nun, she had difficulty with silent prayer until a midlife breakthrough helped her complete her process of total union with God.

I had just entered my forties and was having a pretty bad midlife crisis myself. I did not like what I had done with my life and where it had led. St. Teresa gave me hope and inspiration. I decided if I could accomplish only one thing in my life, it would be to grow as close to God as I could. I had spent years following different "spiritual paths" that ultimately led nowhere and I was determined this time to devote my life to Christ.

The large scapular is an outward symbol of that. We don't have to wear the large ones every day under our clothes, but we can and some do. In lieu of that, the smaller scapular or scapular medal may be worn, but after being received as a Carmelite, the only time the scapular should ever be removed is to take a shower. I even read somewhere recently that there are Carmelites who will not remove their scapular even in the shower. Whereas members of the confraternity and those who wear the scapular as a devotion receive graces and benefits, I have just joined an order and the scapular is my habit- although normally nobody knows I'm even wearing it.

I've been wearing a small scapular all year that a good friend of mine gave me, but the meaning of the scapular keeps deepening for me. Wearing the scapular is a symbol of the yoke of Christ. It is also a symbol of servitude, because the original scapulars were like aprons. The scapular is also a symbol of being under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I'm developing fairly slowly in my relationship with Mary but I do feel the connection to her through the scapular. Last weekend, my formation director gave me a small scapular that came from Mt Carmel in Israel. I have four scapulars and a scapular medal now. Tiny little squares of cloth have become precious to me because they remind me that I am precious in the eyes of God.

My Deepest Devotion- What the Sacred Heart Means to Me

Last October, I went to a Secular Carmelite retreat at Our Lady of Peace Retreat Center in Beaverton, Oregon. Each guest room at the retreat house is named after a saint and mine was called the, “St. Mary Margaret Alacoque room.” Since I had no idea who that was, I looked up her story in my Ipod and found out she had a critical role in spreading the devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I had been intrigued by that earlier in the day when I had picked up a Sacred Heart prayer card at the gift shop, so the meaning of my room seemed to be an odd coincidence. I started to meditate on the idea of what the “Sacred Heart of Jesus” really means. 

Of course, perfect love is a meaning of it, but it is not simply the abstract concept of love- It is embodied. I attended a Bible study last year and Father Bryce taught us about the concept of “heart” in the gospels. “Heart” was considered to be a place where mind and “gut” meet. In other words, the logic in our minds merges with the emotional, gut instinct and the resulting conviction is experienced in the heart. The sacred heart is the center of the circulatory system of his precious blood, all of which was shed for us, so the heart is also a symbol of core and total sacrifice. 

For the “Sacred Heart of Jesus” to be embodied also speaks of its deeply intimate nature with Christ. The devotion to the Sacred Heart started when the early Christians contemplated the Last Supper and how John laid his head on the chest of Jesus. As I contemplate those moments of the last supper, I remember what might have been my earliest memory, which was of my father holding me close to his heart when I was just a baby. I remember the deep peace I felt as I lay close to his heart. I realize that peace and close love is what Jesus wants for us to carry through each moment of our lives. 

In a world where people and families are so broken, they need the Sacred Heart of Jesus more than anything. Only His Sacred Heart offers what we need to feed us, sustain us and help us grow. Nothing else can do that. No one else loves as purely and deeply as Jesus did. Without merging our hearts with His sacred heart, our hearts will only love weakly and feebly. 

 In the year 700 in Luciano Italy, a Eucharistic miracle occurred. A consecrated communion host mysteriously turned into flesh. Twelve centuries later, the flesh is still free of decay. When technology advanced to the point it could be scientifically examined, the flesh was found to be a piece of human heart muscle. Why the heart? Jesus wanted us to know through this miracle how He loves us with all His heart. 

Why is my business called Carmel Heart Media? This is why- 

Sacred Heart of Jesus, on this day and every day, I consecrate everything I am, think, feel and do only to your Sacred Heart. Help me to be ever faithful. Amen. 

Luciano Miracle
Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus