Leo Booth - Say Yes to Your Sexual Healing: Daily Meditations for Overcoming Sex Addiction

Praise forSay Yes to Your Sexual Healing

It is undeniably true that sexual addiction is affecting our society and every type of relationship;marriage, special commitments, friendships, personal feelings of self-worth, and our connections with God or Higher Power. It is also the source of toxic guilt and shame.

Sexual addiction reveals itself in a variety of behaviors: internet porn, adultery, voyeurism, phone sex, and compulsive use of pornography... to name a few.

Where does it come from?Well, like other addictions it is the result of emotional brokenness that affects the body, mind, and spirit. The goal of treatment and healing is to develop, over a period of time, a healthy expression of sexuality; this often includes therapy, meditation, and prayer.

Rev. Leo Booth, with his experience of counseling sex addicts for many years, is reflecting his insights in this powerful book Say Yes to Your Sexual Healing, where he boldly addresses what sex addicts must face in order to recover.

This book offers gentle and nonjudgmental meditations for healing and recovery. I strongly recommend Say Yes to Your Sexual Healing for sex addicts, their families, and friends.

Jess Montgomery, M.D.,
medical director/Sant Center for Healing

I enjoy and appreciate Rev. Leos spiritual wisdom into sexual addiction; his insights will help many.

Ron Arrington, M.S., LCDC,
clinical director/Sant Center for Healing

Rev. Leo Booths nurturing and encouraging meditations will help those afflicted with sexual addiction live one day at a time in their pursuit of growth and healing. Each meditation provides a daily message of inspiration and hope that is so important to recovery.

Stephanie Carnes, Ph.D.

Say Yes to Your Sexual Healing is a very worthwhile tool for everyone in the sex addiction world. Rev. Leo Booth speaks from his heart to our hearts with clarity, pathos, and at times humor. It is a practical book which I shall recommend to our patients at Psychological Counseling Services.

Ralph H. Earle, M.Div., Ph.D.

Also by Leo Booth
Say Yes to Your Spirit
Say Yes to Your Life

SAY YES
TO YOUR
Sexual
Healing

DAILY MEDITATIONS FOR
OVERCOMING SEX ADDICTION

LEO BOOTH

www.hcibooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Booth, Leo, 1946
Say yes to your sexual healing : daily meditations for overcoming sex addiction / Leo Booth.
p. cm.

eISBN-13:978-0-7573-9599-4 eISBN-10:0-7573-9599-6

1. Sex addictsMeditations. 2. Sexual addictionMeditations 3. Compulsive behaviorMeditations. 4. Devotional calendars. I. Title.
BL625.9.S49.B66 2009
204.32dc22

2009002914

2009 Leo Booth

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

HCI, its logos, and marks are trademarks of Health Communications, Inc.

Publisher: Health Communications, Inc.
3201 S.W. 15th Street
Deerfield Beach, FL 33442-8190

Cover design by Larissa Hise Henoch
Interior design by Lawna Patterson Oldfield

Contents

I n the early 1990s I started an inpatient program for sex addiction in Southern California. Soon I heard of a recovery service on Sunday mornings that our patients could attend. Some went to see what it was about and came back awed. The service, they reported, was inspiring and helpful, and it integrated the 12 Steps. Soon most of the patients would go no matter what their faith of origin. The Episcopal priest who led the services was warm, funny, and insightful. Most important from a patients point of view, he seemed to understand and appreciate the difficulties of sex addiction recovery. Early recovery for sex addicts presents many spiritual challenges, and this service helped many start the sorting process most have to confront at that stage. Sundays in inpatient settings tend to be off days. But gratefully for our patients, Sunday was one of the weeks high points.

That is how I came to know Rev. Leo Booth. His reputation preceded him, and I learned it was well deserved. I have watched audiences enjoy his wit and his abilities. I know how his writing has helped many. And I have witnessed what many do not know. He has extended himself to help others in ways that can only be described as service. In 12 Step tradition, service has an important nuance. This is where you do the work to help out, like everyone else, without the expectation of being noticed or recognized. Plus he is one of those who have had the courage to reach out to those whose struggles extend into the realm of human sexuality. In many ways this book is the natural extension of these themes I have come to know about in Rev. Leos life.

And that fits the purpose of the work in which you as a reader are about to engage. Our task is to move from obsession into focus. Our very neurobiology requires that we have the humility to realize that it is an everyday effort. So if you wish to make a sexual shift in your life, you start with the basic humility that everyone has the struggle. No pill, no profound insight, and no quick formula will reengineer your sexual neural circuitry. Only concentrated effort does it. Every day presents its sexual challenges. How we respond is the medium by which we change how our brain works.

It is one of our most important tasks. The brain categorizes sexual stimuli 20 percent faster than any other stimulation we have been able to measure. It is one of the fastest nonchemical ways we have to access the pleasure centers of the brain. Our species is wired for sexual intensity because it was a matter of survival. When that goes awry, it creates a world of hurt. As a reader who acquired this book, you probably already know that part. Even more important is that our sexual decisions shape culture. Research shows that violence, mental health, attachment to others, and the ability to raise emotionally healthy children all start with how men and women treat each other sexually. Sometimes we lose sight of that as we sort through our own sexual labyrinth. It is more than just you. Each of us adds to our culture and species with each decision, every day.

So this book in many ways is a guide to those daily encounters that individually and together are so important. But it is also a journey with a very experienced, helpful guide, whose humor and wisdom keep us focused. Like all of these journeys, there will be difficult moments. But as the days accumulate, gratitude will emerge. Your focus will create new sexual realities and a better life.

Patrick J. Carnes, Ph.D.

W hen Leo Booth called to say he was writing a book called Say Yes to Your Sexual Healing, I immediately went back to a meditation he had written, My Name Is Shame, in Meditations for Compulsive People.

With his permission, I have used and adapted this meditation in several lectures, and Ive always considered it nothing less than genius. Leo entered the world of shame in a new and insightful way, touching not only upon sexual abuse but upon a religious rigidity that forced shame into the shadows.

His new meditation book, Say Yes to Your Sexual Healing, is even more profound. This book gives testimony to the hundreds of men and women who trusted his wisdom and shared their stories, knowing their words were safe with him and yet would be used to help and heal others. The actual quotations from sex addicts hes counseled are masterful, and he takes the reader