Embodying Soul: A Return to Wholeness
An Introduction and Invitation to the book by Keri Mangis
Why I Wrote This Book
When I first began this book, I was in a place in my life we in the spiritual community often call a Dark Night of the Soul. Several ventures of mine had ended, and I wasn’t sure what was next. I felt I understood what my skills and strengths were, but I couldn’t seem to find a way to put them to use in the world in a way that would be recognizable to others (i.e., safe) as well as satisfying to me. Plus, I was tired of trying so hard, and making (seemingly) no progress. I was having an identity crisis (isn’t this what all mid-life crises are at the core?)
With guidance and support, I dug past the surface questions until I arrived at my core questions: Did my soul choose this life? If so, why? And was my soul disappointed in me for not finding the right path?
This was how the Soul Realm perspective began. I thought if I could see my stories through her eyes, I might see things I missed. And I was right about that. Not only did I gain new perspective, but I began to realize that I was living my life exactly how she’d always wanted to: with a lean toward adventurous new beginnings, and the opportunity to slip into many different human “skins” — roles, identities, titles — to see what there was to learn. She never expected me to “figure it out.”
This realization filled me with gratitude and much forgiveness toward myself. So much healing happened during the writing of this book. Rather than seeing my life as a series of false starts and premature endings, I saw it anew as a rich journey of new beginnings, continued growth, and soulful evolution.
When I realized the immense healing that came through seeing our stories through our soul’s eyes, I knew that this book was no longer simply a personal memoir, but a collective one. All of us have stories in our lives that we don’t quite understand why they happened, or what we were supposed to learn from them; but our souls do, if we only stop to ask.
Why Now?
In a Gallup poll taken in November 2016, 77% of Americans view our nation as divided. Yet we don’t need polls to know that this is true. We can feel the division, especially in the wake of the 2016 election — in our workplaces, in our families, in our neighborhoods. But one of the things I took away from my spiritual studies is that “what is here is elsewhere, what is not here is nowhere.” In other words, the division we see is ultimately pointing to the division that exists within each one of us as individuals. It’s the division between the lives we are leading and the ones we wish we were, between the words we want to say and the words we actually speak, between the joy we think we should have and the joy we actually capture. It is this division — the split between our souls and ourselves — that we are called now to heal. Only while on a road to healing ourselves are we equipped to heal the wounds of our fractured nation.
On one hand, this book carries a timeless message of female empowerment, one that has been rising and speaking out for decades. On the other hand, this book carries a potent and timely message. While we have made much progress, many of the rights and freedoms we have fought for as women are under threat. From health care to equal pay to paid leave and so much more, women will largely be hurt in the quest to further the goals of an archetypal toxic masculine.
For more on this topic, see this piece, here.
Now, more than ever, women must find our voices and speak out. We must find the courage to stand up for what we believe in. But we can’t do any of this with integrity and authenticity until and unless we first reunite with our soul. And the best way to get in touch with our soul is to speak with our soul, as I have done in this book.
Why Me?
For years, I tried to find a skin — a role, a relationship, a title — which I could wear, that would make me permanently happy and content. In this book, I share my desperate journey to shrink down, cut off, or otherwise mold myself to fit inside each of these skins. But the struggle created an untenable situation within my own body, one that forced me to address all that was being ignored.
I had to turn inward and decide: Am I someone I can live with, faults and all? Am I someone with whom I can be happy? Am I someone I can honor and adore just as I am?
I can thank my own Endless Curiosity for not allowing me to give up and disappear into the folds of society. It is a testament to her importance in my life that I have embodied her in my story as a wild wolf. For I learned that her nature, like that of a real wolf, was very seldom invited inside the places that actually needed her most: schools, churches, and businesses, even yoga centers. But I eventually learned to love my Endless Curiosity even more than I coveted approval and belonging. Now, Endless Curiosity is with me everywhere I go. Her wild nature can be intimidating, but it is also often the catalyst for change, conversation, and above all, wild, soulful creativity.
I don’t want to just “let it go” or grow a thicker skin. Over the years I’ve let myself be more vulnerable, more fully seen for Who I Am. Now, I am living porously — no boundaries, no apologies. Any skins I try on from this point forward, I will wear as they were meant to be worn: soul-side out.
Why this approach?
Good stories always linger longer than how-to books. Most self-help books are written from coach to student, at the level of the brain. My story is written human-to-human, or perhaps more accurately, soul-to-soul.
Also, perusing the self-help and improvement sections of bookstores, there are very few written as true memoirs, but rather include small snippets of life stories. This means that people who pick up these books aren’t let in on the entirety of the inner struggles that got these authors to where they are now. This can lead to disillusionment when they come across these same struggles on their own. When I consider my growth, I believe swapping true, heartfelt stories shaped it. The more I could see myself in others, and them in me, the more I naturally turned towards more acceptance and sustaining self-love.
Here is more about my journey of writing this story:
So instead of self-help I decided to show my growth and journey through memoir, and depict my inner journey using elements of magical realism. This included the arguing voices of my emotions, the almost overwhelming hunger of my curiosity, and the constant push and pull with my soul.
Embodying Soul: A Return to Wholeness — A Memoir of New Beginnings, is a memoir. But it is also an invitation for each reader to take a journey to the center of their own soul, to ask how their soul views their life, and perhaps to inquire if their emotions are working against them, as we often believe. It is an invitation to slip beneath one’s outer skin to find out who you are at the core. It is an invitation to come to a place of living with courageous, unconditional self-love, in alignment with truth.
You can begin reading the book right now on Illumination Book Chapters!
If you’d rather have a signed paperback, use code “medium” on this page to buy your copy at 20% off!
Prologue
Keri Mangis
Award-Winning Author & Wholeness Advocate
Check out my interview in The Edge magazine!
Founder: KeriMangis.com
Author: Embodying Soul: A Return to Wholeness — A Memoir of New Beginnings, which has received the following awards:
2020 IPA Award Winner — Mind, Body & Spirit
2020 Maxy Awards Finalist — Nonfiction
2020 Eric Hoffer Book Awards Finalist
2020 Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal in Non-Fiction Spiritual and Supernatural
2020 New York City Big Book Award Winner — Mind, Body & Spirit
2020 The Independent Author Network Book of the Year Awards -Winner of the Outstanding Spiritual/Inspirational Award
Award Winner in the New Age: Non-Fiction Category of the 2020 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest
2020 TopShelf Book Awards Finalist: New Age, Spiritual/Supernatural
