Pam Butler - Return To Life: Finding Your Way Back to Balance and Bliss in a Stressed-Out World

PRAISE FOR

Return to Life

Return to Life is literally like 10 deep breaths of fresh air! Pam Butler writes from the heart and offers healing calm and soothing balms for the soul in every passage. Read this book and feel your stress dissolve and your soul soar!

Rudolph E. Tanzi, Ph.D.,
Author of The Healing Self, Super Brain and Super Genes

Return to Life is a powerful reminder that no matter how hard life gets, we can fully transform and enjoy a whole, balanced and happy life. Pam Butler shares the raw details of her lifes dramatic highs and lows and her powerful journey to wellness and loving herself.

Tara Stiles,
founder of Strala Yoga

Return to Life is a beautiful and essential resource for anyone who has experienced hardship or trauma, from depression, anxiety and PTSD to divorce, illness and loss. By offering up her personal stories along with simple, powerful techniques for finding peace, Pam shows that no matter what happens, you can live a life full of bliss.

Gabrielle Bernstein,
#1 New York Times Bestselling Author

Pam Butlers extraordinary book is like a balm for anyone and everyone who has experienced loss, pain, extreme life challenges, or is simply challenged by daily stress. Filled with wisdom, insights, and immensely practical strategies, the practices and suggestions that Pam teaches are helpful for anyone who feels the need to rebalance themselves, and find strength, stability and happiness again in their lives. As Pam shares her heroic journey of self-discovery in this book, she, at the same time, gives us the tools to discover our own Self.

Eddie Stern,
Ashtanga Yoga Teacher, Co-founder of Ashtanga
Yoga New York, the Brooklyn Club

Pam Butler has been a longtime friend of The Chopra Foundation who has embraced meditation and yoga to transform her life to be able to help others.

Deepak Chopra,
Author of The Healing Self

Copyright 2018 by Pam Butler

Published in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au
Published in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com
Published in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk
Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Design by Rhett Nacson
Typeset by Bookhouse, Sydney

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews without prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice nor prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for physical fitness and good health. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

ISBN: 978-1-4019-5083-5
Digital ISBN: 978-1-4019-5091-0

1st edition, May 2018

Printed in the United States of America

Dedication

To Brittany, my source of inspiration and strength
Thank you for all the laughter and love
you have brought into my life

To the memory of my dad, who encouraged me no matter what
and believed in me alwaysI miss you

If youve found your way to this book, its probably because youve experienced some hard times in your life. Maybe youve lived through a breakup or an illness; the death of someone close to you; or a period of high stress, anxiety, or debilitating depression. Maybe youve experienced all of the above at once. If youve ever experienced the kind of brought-you-to-your-knees moments that Im talking about, this book has been written with you in mind. My hope is that it can serve as a kind of guide for finding your way back from the brink, a place you can turn to for the advice, tools, information, and inspiration you need to get through it and more.

Return to Life grew out of my own fifteen-plus year journey encompassing illness, divorce, the deaths of people close to me, the near-deaths of some others, recurring periods of depression, lots of stress and anxiety, and even a PTSD diagnosis (more on all that in the coming chapters). These were hard times, but I am happy to say that I didnt just survive them; I overcame them and thrived.

Since those dark days many years ago, I have become an inspirational speaker, a certified meditation and yoga teacher, and a bliss coach who uses a unique combination of body movement and mind practices to help people examine their responses to stress and learn techniques to shift into a state of balance, well-being, and ultimately, bliss. But this is not a book about me. Its really a book about you. Everyone has his or her own story to tell. Some stories are more traumatic than others, and some people may even think that what I went through pales in comparison to their own experiences. They may even be right, but the larger truth is that there isnt a person on this planet who hasnt faced hardship. None of us is alone in this. We all know that life can be messy, complicated, heartbreaking, and worse. But what I believe is also true is that the darkest of times provide some of the best opportunities for light, opportunities to learn, grow, and change our lives for the better. As the great mythologist Joseph Campbell once wrote, It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life.

When were young, were taught how to walk and talk, read and write, but we arent taught what to do when life feels insurmountable. That is ultimately why I wrote this book. Many years ago when I was feeling lost and didnt know where to turn, this is the book I wish I had been able to find in my local bookstore to help me feel less alone and provide me with some guidance on how to make things better. This insights and tools in this book helped me return to life, and I hope they can do the same for you.

Before I went on my own journey, I had no particular expertise in transforming my life or living in bliss. But after a long and winding road, I found these things were possible for me, and the result has been a much more peaceful, much more purposeful, much happier life that I wouldnt trade for anything. If its possible for me, then its possible for you! Whatever life brings, you deserve to live in bliss. So lets get started!

Even when you think you have your life all mapped
out, things happen that shape your destiny in
ways you might never even have imagined.

Deepak Chopra

Shes dead! I was sure of it. When my baby girl was finally born, she wasnt crying. She wasnt screaming. She made no sound at all. And no sound was the worst sound Id ever heard in my life.