The Only Way Out: Forgiveness - The Path to Peace & Happiness Paperback - 2012

I spent many years searching externally for answers to the perennial questions: Who am I? What am I doing here? What is my purpose? What does it all mean? But I was looking in the wrong places. I presented myself to the world as a self-confident, all-knowing, opinionated person who seemed to know where he was going. Little did anyone know that beneath this false faade was a little boy lost. Because I was wracked with self-doubts and insecurities, I looked to pleasure-seeking, self-gratification and addictions to dull my fears and cover up the pain. After years of futile searching, none of these distractions answered my questions. Indeed, they only led to more pain and self-doubts. In 1989, at the age of forty-six, I plummeted into deep depression having concluded that nothing made sense and my bogus, inconsequential life was going nowhere. Nearly two years of traditional therapy didn't help much and my gloomy outlook placed huge stresses on my marriage which eventually disintegrated. On the night my marriage ended, in my rage and despair, I cried out to God for help (which was an interesting thing for an atheist to do!). As a result I had a profound spiritual experience. This was a turning point that steered me towards a radically different path to the one I'd been following. A journey within my own mind to find the answers to the above questions. I've found we're all on a voyage of self-discovery, whether we realize it or not, and our life's experiences are a result of the choices we make. Inexorably we make wrong choices driven by egocentric forces within our minds. While the purpose of these choices is to primarily satisfy our own selfish needs, they always come back to bite us through guilt and self-punishment. Fortunately, we always get another opportunity to correct our mistakes and make different choices if we so desire. This is my second book and it focuses on the extraordinary healing power of forgiveness. My first book, THE POWER, THE MIRACLE AND THE DREAM - A Beginner's Guide to Lasting Happiness, introduced the idea we are more than we think we are and there is a power within our minds that can solve all of our problems. This book further explores tapping into that power to bring peace and happiness into our lives and to everyone we touch, through practicing true forgiveness. Don De Lene Melbourne, Australia