Karen Casey - Getting Unstuck: A Workbook Based on the Principles in Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow

Karen Casey captures the experience, strength, and hope that are essential to maintaining healthy relationships with each other and with ourselves.

William C. Moyers, author of Broken

You just can't go wrong with Karen Casey.

Earnie Larsen, author of Stage II Recovery and From Anger to Forgiveness

Karen Casey's honesty about detachment as a lifelong process brings comfort and encouragement. Thanks, Karen, for writing this book and for a lifetime of dedicated service that has made this world a better place.

Melody Beattie, author of Codependent No More

Veteran self-help author Casey's gentle advice is anchored in a strong spiritual commitment.... [She] recommends quieting the mind by letting go of your ego and looking for the lesson in every experience and encounter, whether positive or negative. Casey's voice is thoughtful and accessible.

Publishers Weekly

Codependence and the Power of Detachment should be required reading for all who seek to create healthy, balanced relationships in their lives.

Claudia Black, PhD, author of It Will Never Happen to Me

Codependence and the Power of Detachment is a remarkable book written in easy-to-understand language with great honesty.

Jerry Jampolsky, MD, founder of the International Center for Attitudinal Healing

All We Have Is All We Need is a gem of a book! So much wisdom and peace in every paragraph and sentence. These inspirational, quotable thoughts constantly affirm the incredible fruits of simply shifting our perspectivethrough the uniquely human gift of choice.

Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

My Story to Yours

Peace a Day at a Time

Let Go Now

Cultivating Hope

Codependence and the Power of Detachment

Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow

It's Up to You

Be Who You Want to Be

Serenity

All We Have Is All We Need

Fearless Relationships

Each Day a New Beginning Journal

The Miracle of Sponsorship

Girl to Girl

Keepers of the Wisdom

The Promise of a New Day

Daily Meditations for Practicing the Course

A Woman's Spirit

A Life of My Own

In God's Care

If Only I Could Quit

Worthy of Love

Each Day a New Beginning

First published in 2012 by Conari Press, an imprint of

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

665 Third Street, Suite 400

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2012 by Karen Casey, PhD

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN: 978-1-57324-548-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on request.

Cover design by Jim Warner

Cover photograph Exactostock/SuperStock

Interior design by Jane Hagaman

Typeset in Sabon

Printed in the United States of America

QG

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).

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I want to dedicate this book to all of you who have been loyal readers and supporters since my first book was published in 1982. I certainly had no expectation then that Each Day a New Beginning was charting a new direction for my life.

It's been a surprising journey, a sacred journey, and one that has steeped me in hope for the rest of my life, too.

The men and women who have traveled with me have sustained me in ways that I could never have fathomed.

And then there is my husband, Joe. He is the best in every way. He makes me laugh; he solves my computer problems; he accepts my defects, knowing that I am not perfect but I am always improving. He loves me just as I am, the same way I love him.

Blessings on all of you.

There are so many people to acknowledge that I don't know where to begin. But first, I must thank Jan Johnson for being present in my world for so many decades. She has been a supporter, a colleague, my publisher, and a good friend.

I want to acknowledge the significant women and men in my life, too. They have shown me the way to go. All the wisdom I have gathered over the years has come from their many voices. I am so glad I have been a good listener. Blessings on all of you.

I am so glad you have selected this book to read. It's a book about change, a book that will help you make the kind of changes that are necessary if you want to enjoy a life that's peaceful. It's a book that will keep the process for making the changes simple, doable, and at the end of the day, successful. I can promise you that.

It's the third book in the Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow series. In this workbook, I lead you very carefully through key ideas from the original book in case you haven't read it. Worry not; you will be brought up to speed. And if you did already read Change Your Mind and your Life Will Follow and its companion, It's Up to You, you might discover that this one is the most helpful of all. I say that because it leads you gently through the many ideas from the first book while directing you, in a detailed way, to dig into your own patterns of behavior and write about those areas that keep you stuck, discerning what caused the stuckness and developing strategies for getting unstuck.

Being stuck is common to caring people, and indeed, those of us who are trying to grow and change are, more often than not, caring people. Helping each other get unstuck is the next important agenda item. I see that as one of my assignments on this journey we are sharing.

The intent of this book, then, is not to eliminate the gift we have for caring about others but to help us see where we should draw boundaries between ourselves and the many others who are intentionally traveling this path with us. It's very easy to turn caring into control, and we must strive to avoid that. Therefore, this book specifically addresses how to care about but not control others. It helps you discover how to discern what is your business and what is not your business. It guides you to let your loved ones find their own Higher Power, teaching you, in the process, how to strengthen your relationship with yours. Accepting that outcomes are God's purview is another tool that this book highlights. Powerlessness, and the power of embracing this in our lives, is a key component of this book as well. And there are many more.

You receive good, orderly direction as we proceed. You can change. You can change any behavior that is hindering your peace of mind. I can promise you this based on personal experience. Gratefully, I have been a practitioner of these principles for change for many years now. Peace is the by-product of living this way, and healthy, interdependent partners in the home, on the job, and in the wider circle of friendships know that these principles work. Now you can join their ranks.