Title: ALL
STORMS PASS: The Anti-Meditations
Author:
Luke
Benoit
Date published: 2012 by CreateSpace
Date published: 2012 by CreateSpace
ISBN-10:
0615520138
ISBN-13: 978-0615520131
ISBN-13: 978-0615520131
Author’s Web Site: All Storms Pass
Available on Amazon: Amazon:
All Storms Pass
SUMMARY: Author and Life Coach Luke Benoit knows from personal experience what it feels like to
rise up from the ashes like the mythical Phoenix, and lives to help others do
the same. His book has helped me in my own dark times.
all storms pass
and happiness
will always be a decision
even when I feel like I can’t make it.
I can learn to
stay out of my own way
no matter what has happened to me
or where I’ve come from
or what I’ve done or not done
in the past.
and I can let
the good inside me
take and carry me
and let that shape be
revealed
to me
- All Storms Pass: The
Anti-Meditations by Luke Benoit
“You’re not going to get this book if you’re stupid,” said
author and Life Coach Luke Benoit during a chat about his new book All Storms
Pass: The Anti-Meditations. “You’re just not.”
I would love that on a t-shirt. Hope they come out soon.
Taken out of context, this statement may sound a tad
arrogant, but what author hasn’t thought that about their book and kept it
private? In context, Benoit was saying different people will get different
things out of his book and some may never get it. The way he said it is typical
of his straight-from-the-heart / take-it-or-leave-it style that forms the spine
of All Storms Pass which opens with this “Statement of Self-Esteem”:
“If anyone ever
told you that you were less than wonderful…they lied.”
Okay, so what about Hitler? Shouldn’t he have listened to
people who said he was less than wonderful? But this proves Benoit’s point. The
stout-hearted narcissistic sociopaths (aka “stupids”) of this world will never
seek wisdom, humility and healthy self-esteem. You won’t find them searching
their souls in a 12-Step or hiring therapists or “life coaches.”
Benoit has alchemized tried-and-true “recovery” maxims, pop
culture sayings and lyrics, and a dollop of his own raw honesty to create a
series of healing “poems” that move the reader and stimulate contemplation. On
the back cover, he acknowledges the book's similarities with classic meditation
books such as Melody Beattie’s The Language of Letting Go, but advises his
meditations are “very different.”
All Storms Pass has only been out a few weeks, and is
already gaining popularity as it garners great reviews, including one
Midwesterner who admitted Fear of Californian Superficiality before actually
reading it and finding resonance.
I also reviewed the book favorably, so it was a
pleasure to be able to pick Luke Benoit’s brain about the book’s process and
publication. Before we launch into the interview, Benoit expresses happy
exhaustion: “It’s like having a baby!”
Q: Are you from
the West Coast originally?
A: I was
born in Providence, Rhode Island. Prep School educated. Escaped at 18 to be as
far away from every part of my life as possible. I came to Los Angeles to go to
USC Film School and study screenwriting. But as the B-52's said, "Remember,
wherever you go there you are..."
Q: Where do you
live now?
A: Orange
County, California.
Q: Tell me
about the Anti-Meditations.
A: They
are called the Anti-Meditations because they are very different from
meditations that you would read in traditional meditation books. A lot of them are dark or challenging,
and some of them are like poems.
But they're never simple and they don't necessarily give you a simple
answer or tool for a "one day at a time" solution. Because sometimes I think life just
isn't like that.
Q: How did you
come to write this book?
A:
Well, All Storms Pass is
me. It just came out of me. It has my personality.
I had a lot of different trainings in Recovery and the
12-Step Program, and in mental health and personal therapy and reading and
reading and lots and lots of work on myself. I suppose it sounds big-headed but
it just truly a reflection of who I am.
Q: How long did
it take you to write the book?
A:
Two-and-a-half years. I didn't have too much of a plan. It was actually something that just
happened. I started writing these things down for people I knew and some
clients that I was working with, and then it turned into a real discipline, and
I was doing it five and six days a week. I was getting a lot of positive
reinforcement and feedback, and people kept telling me that I should put them
together and make a book out of them; and I really liked that idea and then
POOF there was a book. Although
there was nothing POOF about it at all.
It was a huge amount of work that went on and on forever but I always
loved it. Even during the whole
process. I just wished it was
shorter.
Q: Can you tell
me a little about what you were going through at the time you were writing?
Were you suffering at the time you were writing these Anti-Meditations?
A: I did
end up going through very hard times when I was writing this book. And it was strange when I was writing
them that they did turn into a kind of diary but most people didn't really know
or recognize that this was going on. It was almost like I was writing in
secret, you know?
Q: How did you get into Life Coaching?
A: I took
the training because it sounded interesting and like it might open up some
options for me. I already had a background in Mental Health and many years of
recovery.
Q: What’s the
difference between being a therapist and being a life coach?
A:
Therapy is based on a pathology model. The idea is that you are dealing with people who are sick
and who need to get well, generally from experts and outside healing. Life
coaching assumes that people are basically well and that they just need someone
to help them solve their problems.
Q: What do you
mean by “expert”? What’s the difference between an expert and a layperson?
A: Like a
surgeon. Not equal to the patients.
Q: Any favorite
passages?
A: It's
funny because I love almost all of them but sometimes I open up the book and
it's like I sort of don't remember writing them, and then I'll say, ”Oh,
yeah. I remember this
one." I really like All
Storms Pass. And I also really love The Self-Esteem Statement --that's just a
part of who I am.
Q: What would you say to people who might say there's othing
left to say about recovery? Why should they read your book? What can it give
them?
A: First of
all, Recovery is the bomb. The
12-Step programs are the bomb.
They have saved my life 20 times over and that's no exaggeration. But I'm not sure that I'd really call
this just a “Recovery Book,” even though it deals with a lot of Recovery tools and
issues. This is more a book about struggles and going through struggles and
people who have been in Recovery or a Program have had lots of that. I see this
book as something to enjoy just because you relate to it so much that you see
yourself in it.
Q: If you could
sum up in a word what you got out of this book, what would it be?
A: Self-esteem.
It made me feel like I was creative and smart. Because I knew they were good,
and people told me that I was good at this, and I could say: "Well at
least I am good at this and I am REALLY good at something.” And that gave me
hope and it empowered me.
It was a very strange experience yet very empowering at the
same time.
========================================================
This 2012 interview was originally published on my blog:
No comments:
Post a Comment