{"id":28303,"date":"2023-05-01T01:10:55","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T05:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/?p=28303"},"modified":"2023-04-26T16:54:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T20:54:16","slug":"book-review-7-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2023\/05\/01\/book-review-7-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review \u2013 Everyday Soul Dances: A Guide to Soulful Living in the Midst of Uncertain Times by Elaine Hoem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Book <\/span>R<\/span>eview<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

Everyday Soul Dances:
\nA Guide to Soulful Living
\nin the Midst of Uncertain Times<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n

by Elaine Hoem<\/span><\/b><\/h1>\n

Publisher: Balboa Press<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

284 <\/span><\/span>P<\/span><\/span>ages<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/h1>\n

Release Date: December 27, 2019<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The very first look at this book made me want to open it right up and get reading! The colors of the cover with the brilliant blue bleeding into passionate purple with its hint of bright red and a mysterious green \u2013 the dancer in the middle of the sunburst with all the colors of the chakra \u2013 there was such a positive vibe coming from this book! If I had seen Everyday Soul Dances: A Guide to Soulful Living in the Midst of Uncertain Times<\/em> at a bookstore, I wouldn\u2019t have been able to stop myself from taking it off the shelf and walking to the checkout and buying it immediately.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

However, I received this book as a promotional package to review for PaganPages.org. I knew nothing about this book, nor had I ever heard of Elaine Hoem before I took the book out of the package. It came with a thank you card, a lovely bookmark, and a business card from the author. I was quite impressed. It seemed so very friendly<\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Thank You card<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
The front and the back of the bookmark<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
The front and the back of the business card.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As you can see from the business card, there is a website for Everyday Soul Dances<\/em>; however, when I tried to access it, the page was unavailable. I tried numerous times, even switching browsers. Perhaps it\u2019s a pre-Mercury Retrograde problem! Or perhaps there are so many people now reading this
\nwonderful book and trying to access the website and the guided meditations that are featured there, that the site is overloaded with requests and unable to handle the heavy traffic. If this is the problem, hopefully it\u2019s quickly resolved, since it\u2019s clear that accessing these meditations online is part of the Everyday Soul Dances<\/em> experience. However, you can find these meditations in the Appendix, which starts on page 322.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This is a book of poetry and beauty. Chapter One is one long poem. If you don\u2019t read any other part of this book, read Chapter One \u2013 but do<\/em> read the entire book! Chapter One made me feel eager and enthusiastic. Have you ever gotten the feeling that you have found what you have been looking for? \u2013 even if you didn\u2019t even know what you were looking for? Or even that you were looking for it? As I was reading Chapter One, I had that exact<\/em> feeling.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The chapters are short and to the point. I think this is important in these days of Tumblr and Twitter and Tik-Tok feeds \u2013 even older people like myself don\u2019t want to read long, drawn-out accounts of anything. And Hoem changes the font to showcase just who<\/em> is speaking to the author \u2013 herself or the Goddess or the reader. As she explains in Chapter Three, \u201cThe Ways of This Book\u201d:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
(Hoem, 14-15)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She also suggests keeping a journal of your spiritual journey through the Everyday Soul Dances<\/em>, and throughout the book, there are questions for you, all titled \u201cContemplation\u201d, to answer and write about in your journal or discuss with others who are journeying with you.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There is so much to this book \u2013 Hoem writes about mantras, meditation, yoga, karma, dharma, the Goddess, the state of the world, anxiety and depression, addiction and recovery, forgiveness, undoing ancient beliefs and finding your most sacred self. The chapter about addiction is especially good. I love her term \u201cgolden heart\u201d \u2013 I love imagining a beating golden heart in my chest. I also love the mantras she introduces, \u201cHAM SA\u201d, which means \u201cI AM THAT\u201d and \u201cAHAM PREMA\u201d, which means \u201cI AM DIVINE LOVE\u201d. (Hoem, 289). I\u2019ve already started using them in my daily chanting. They have a wonderfully stabilizing and centering effect.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I am so happy that I was sent Everyday Soul Dances: A Guide to Soulful Living the Midst of Uncertain Times<\/em> by Elaine Hoem to review. I am afraid that I am not doing justice to this fabulous book \u2013 all I can say is that you have to read it \u2013 you have to do the journaling \u2013 you have<\/em> to do the meditations. I know I\u2019m going to keep trying to access the website until I can hear the meditations and not have to read them to myself but either way \u2013 they are a wonderful spiritual gift. You are only treating yourself by experiencing Everyday Soul Dances<\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

About the Author\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

EVERYDAY SOUL DANCES is Elaine’s first book. Her profession before becoming a writer was that of a Marriage, Family, and Child Therapist in Carson City, NV, and at Lake Tahoe. This work became an art form for her as she studied and lived the ways of Transpersonal Psychology and guided others to delve deeper into their spiritual selves.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This book is the culmination of her therapeutic work and her lifelong explorations in the realms of the sacred. By combining these two ways, one ancient and from the yogic traditions, and one contemporary, Elaine Has invited and encouraged others to find their own unique expressions of what they are in the fulness of their humanness and their spirit.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Elaine also has been a meditation teacher, a life coach, and a retreat leader. This book was inspired while living at Lake Tahoe. She currently lives in Reno, NV, and continues her own spiritual practices while encouraging others to find and live from their deepest truths. Her Soul Dances ways are inspired by the deep healing she knows is possible through psychotherapeutic work and the uplifting practices of living from our spiritual center. She also loves exploring the exquisite beauty of the natural world around her and finding her way to her sacred home in all her actions and interactions. Her focus in life is to nurture transformations for herself and others so that all may live from our highest truths and thus benefit our loved ones and our communities.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You can get more information about the Soul Dance ways by visiting her website: www.everydaysouldances.com<\/a>. or by contacting her directly at everydaysouldances@gmail.com. By doing so, you can sign up to receive her Everyday Soul Dance newsletters.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If you would like to experience the Soul Dance meditations, please go to www.everydaysouldances.com\/meditations<\/a>. There you will have full access to the nine meditations that are a part of the book.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Everyday Soul Dances on Amazon<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

**<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

About the Author:<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Polly MacDavid<\/b>\u00a0lives in Buffalo, New York at the moment but that could easily change, since she is a gypsy at heart. Like a gypsy, she is attracted to the divinatory arts, as well as camp fires and dancing barefoot. She has three cats who all help her with her magic.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Her philosophy about religion and magic is that it must be thoroughly based in science and logic. She is Dianic Wiccan but she gets along with a few of the masculine deities. She loves to cook and she is a Bills fan. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

She blogs at\u00a0<\/span><\/span>silverapplequeen.wordpress.com<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/u><\/span>. She writes about general life, politics and poetry. She is writing a novel about sex, drugs and recovery.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Book Review Everyday Soul Dances: A Guide to Soulful Living in the Midst of Uncertain Times by Elaine Hoem Publisher: Balboa Press 284 Pages Release Date: December 27, 2019         The very first look at this book made me want to open it right up and get reading! The colors of the cover with the brilliant blue bleeding into passionate purple with its hint of bright red and a mysterious green \u2013 the dancer in the middle of the sunburst with all the colors of the chakra \u2013 there was such a positive vibe coming from this book! If I had seen Everyday Soul Dances: A Guide to Soulful Living in the Midst of Uncertain Times at a bookstore, I wouldn\u2019t have been able to stop myself from taking it off the shelf and walking to the checkout and buying it immediately. However, I received this book as a promotional package to review for PaganPages.org. I knew nothing about this book, nor had I ever heard of Elaine Hoem before I took the book out of the package. It came with a thank you card, a lovely bookmark, and a business card from the author. I was quite impressed. It seemed so very friendly. As you can see from the business card, there is a website for Everyday Soul Dances; however, when I tried to access it, the page was unavailable. I tried numerous times, even switching browsers. Perhaps it\u2019s a pre-Mercury Retrograde problem! Or perhaps there are so many people now reading this wonderful book and trying to access the website and the guided meditations that are featured there, that the site is overloaded with requests and unable to handle the heavy traffic. If this is the problem, hopefully it\u2019s quickly resolved, since it\u2019s clear that accessing these meditations online is part of the Everyday Soul Dances experience. However, you can find these meditations in the Appendix, which starts on page 322. This is a book of poetry and beauty. Chapter One is one long poem. If you don\u2019t read any other part of this book, read Chapter One \u2013 but do read the entire book! Chapter One made me feel eager and enthusiastic. Have you ever gotten the feeling that you have found what you have been looking for? \u2013 even if you didn\u2019t even know what you were looking for? Or even that you were looking for it? As I was reading Chapter One, I had that exact feeling. The chapters are short and to the point. I think this is important in these days of Tumblr and Twitter and Tik-Tok feeds \u2013 even older people like myself don\u2019t want to read long, drawn-out accounts of anything. And Hoem changes the font to showcase just who is speaking to the author \u2013 herself or the Goddess or the reader. As she explains in Chapter Three, \u201cThe Ways of This Book\u201d: She also suggests keeping a journal of your spiritual journey through the Everyday Soul Dances, and throughout the book, there are questions for you, all titled \u201cContemplation\u201d, to answer and write about in your journal or discuss with others who are journeying with you. There is so much to this book \u2013 Hoem writes about mantras, meditation, yoga, karma, dharma, the Goddess, the state of the world, anxiety and depression, addiction and recovery, forgiveness, undoing ancient beliefs and finding your most sacred self. The chapter about addiction is especially good. I love her term \u201cgolden heart\u201d \u2013 I love imagining a beating golden heart in my chest. I also love the mantras she introduces, \u201cHAM SA\u201d, which means \u201cI AM THAT\u201d and \u201cAHAM PREMA\u201d, which means \u201cI AM DIVINE LOVE\u201d. (Hoem, 289). I\u2019ve already started using them in my daily chanting. They have a wonderfully stabilizing and centering effect. I am so happy that I was sent Everyday Soul Dances: A Guide to Soulful Living the Midst of Uncertain Times by Elaine Hoem to review. I am afraid that I am not doing justice to this fabulous book \u2013 all I can say is that you have to read it \u2013 you have to do the journaling \u2013 you have to do the meditations. I know I\u2019m going to keep trying to access the website until I can hear the meditations and not have to read them to myself but either way \u2013 they are a wonderful spiritual gift. You are only treating yourself by experiencing Everyday Soul Dances. About the Author\u00a0 EVERYDAY SOUL DANCES is Elaine’s first book. Her profession before becoming a writer was that of a Marriage, Family, and Child Therapist in Carson City, NV, and at Lake Tahoe. This work became an art form for her as she studied and lived the ways of Transpersonal Psychology and guided others to delve deeper into their spiritual selves. This book is the culmination of her therapeutic work and her lifelong explorations in the realms of the sacred. By combining these two ways, one ancient and from the yogic traditions, and one contemporary, Elaine Has invited and encouraged others to find their own unique expressions of what they are in the fulness of their humanness and their spirit. Elaine also has been a meditation teacher, a life coach, and a retreat leader. This book was inspired while living at Lake Tahoe. She currently lives in Reno, NV, and continues her own spiritual practices while encouraging others to find and live from their deepest truths. Her Soul Dances ways are inspired by the deep healing she knows is possible through psychotherapeutic work and the uplifting practices of living from our spiritual center. She also loves exploring the exquisite beauty of the natural world around her and finding her way to her sacred home in all her actions and interactions. Her focus in life is to nurture transformations for herself and others so that all may live from our highest truths and thus benefit our loved ones and our communities. You can get more information about the Soul Dance ways by visiting her website: www.everydaysouldances.com. or by contacting her directly at everydaysouldances@gmail.com. By doing so, you can sign up to receive her Everyday Soul Dance newsletters. If you would like to experience the Soul Dance meditations, please go to www.everydaysouldances.com\/meditations. There you will have full access to the nine meditations that are a part of the book.     Everyday Soul Dances on Amazon   ** About the Author: Polly MacDavid\u00a0lives in Buffalo, New York at the moment but that could easily change, since she is a gypsy at heart. Like a gypsy, she is attracted to the divinatory arts, as well as camp fires and dancing barefoot. She has three cats who all help her with her magic. Her philosophy about religion and magic is that it must be thoroughly based in science and logic. She is Dianic Wiccan but she gets along with a few of the masculine deities. She loves to cook and she is a Bills fan. She blogs at\u00a0silverapplequeen.wordpress.com. She writes about general life, politics and poetry. She is writing a novel about sex, drugs and recovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":28304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10005],"tags":[14516,14517,10095,10015,14481,14480,11064,10063,10075,14482,14404],"class_list":["post-28303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-14516","tag-balboa-press","tag-book","tag-book-review","tag-elaine-hoem","tag-everyday-soul-dances","tag-mantras","tag-meditation","tag-review","tag-soulful-living","tag-yoga"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28303"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28313,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28303\/revisions\/28313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}