This book will teach you how to take control, overcome and actually use problems as a ladder to personal and spiritual growth. Through applying some clear thinking and simple meditation techniques we can develop more space and clarity in our mind and learn to view the challenges of life in a more playful and less serious way, taking the power away from problems and channeling it in to transformational growth.

• An inspiring guide to make life a little easier, less stressful and more meaningful.

• Use your problems to develop your inner qualities and find lasting happiness from within.

• Practical solutions to daily problems, including chapters on overcoming stress, dealing with anger and solving relationships problems.

• Learn how to meditate everyday even if you have a busy life.

• Includes summaries, exercises, meditations, space for notes – all to help the reader get really involved and produce lasting results.

• Learn to develop your own practical plan for spiritual growth through transforming daily problems.

The main focus of this book is to provide the reader with a practical understanding of how to use difficult situations, like illness, money, work or relationship problems, to develop personally and spiritually. Just by learning to think, feel and act in a constructive way in the face of adversity it is possible to transform daily problems in to life affirming and learning experiences.

Hard times are never meaningless if we know how to transform them in to opportunities to develop special inner qualities and become a more whole, healthy and happy human being. This book aims to provide the reader with the skills to begin this special journey.

Through studying Buddha’s teachings many people, have learned to live with and transform serious adversity in to the spiritual path. Obviously we do not have to experience adversity to develop our inner qualities but it is almost impossible to avoid the ups and downs of everyday life, so we can use them to power our spiritual path.

‘Everything is a Blessing’ is about becoming a better and happier person. But in contrast to many quick-fix self help books it looks to the spiritual traditions of East and West, the path of ‘others’ rather than the path of ‘Self’. Lasting personal growth is not achieved by solving problems for our own benefit, but following a more broadminded, spiritual and longer-term approach.

Extract from the book

Introduction to Everything is a Blessing

The big difficulties in life like serious illness, relationship or money problems can be a real blessing in disguise. Many spiritual traditions teach that we can actually use our problems to facilitate personal and spiritual growth and eventually develop a level of inner happiness and wisdom that is beyond all suffering. This kind of stable inner happiness does not come easily, it has to be worked for and it takes time to develop the inner strength and wisdom to be able to skillfully transform our daily problems in to the spiritual path. But genuine inner happiness is something worth striving for and something that will last way beyond this life. If you try to put the techniques described in the book in to practice on a day to day basis at the very least you will become happier, more content and better able to deal with the pressures of daily life and hopefully over time you will also become a kinder and wiser human being, something that our world really needs.

I have tried to make this book as practical as possible. There is a brief summary at the end of each chapter together with a relevant exercise and meditation and a blank page to make some personal notes. One way to really use these ‘extras’ effectively is to just read one chapter per week, but read it two or three times and make some notes on the blank page about the things that are really useful and relevant to your life and try to apply any techniques or wisdom from that chapter throughout the week. Also read through your own notes and do the meditation everyday if you have time, even just a few minutes meditation can make a big difference to your day.

Another method would be to read the whole book first and then re-read it more slowly and methodically and again try to use the exercises, techniques and meditations. Do whatever works for you! I have also highlighted certain phrases throughout the book which might be helpful for reflection or meditation. If you find yourself lacking enthusiasm just flick through the book choose a phrase that hits the spot and go meditate, discuss it with someone or just go for a walk and chew it over, eventually your mind will change!
Use this book to create your own detailed plan for personal growth and inner transformation. I can only make suggestions based on my own and others experience, make your own mind up and only use the techniques and ideas that you think will really produce results for you. If you just read this book like a normal book after a few weeks you will have forgotten most of the good advice and no lasting change will have occurred. Treat it more like a course of study, make lots of notes about what you think could be really helpful and develop your own ideas from these. Don’t think of it as academic study but treat it as a new beginning and enjoy the exciting process of planning your journey of spiritual and personal growth.

Hopefully by the end of the book you will have developed a plan for inner change that you can realistically apply to everyday life and that can be developed as the months and years go by. This way lasting inner change is within your reach.

This book contains a combination of some of the techniques I have learnt from Buddhism, personal experience and advice from friends and teachers. I can only say that if you sincerely apply some of these ideas to your life for a few months and see what impact it has on your quality of life then you will also know from your own experience what the future might hold if you continue to develop your mind. This is not a book about Buddhism because I am not qualified to write one, so if you find some of the ideas helpful try reading an authentic text (see links to meditation/Buddhism). Wishing you good health and great happiness.

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Reviews

The emphasis of this book is about understanding and appreciating the lessons we can learn from the experiences we have in the here and now. It is about changing the way we perceive our trials and tribulations, whether to do with our health, relationships, finances or whatever. By altering our perspectives and expectations at will, we can control the real source of unhappiness, which is an uncontrolled mind. There are various exercises and meditations to help and there are useful summaries at the end of each chapter, as well as highlighted inspirational sentences.

Pilgrim, June 2006

The jacket copy claims that ‘Lasting personal growth is not achieved by solving problems for our own benefit, but following a more broadminded, spiritual and longer-term approach ……

Everything is a Blessing provides you with the skills to begin this special journey’. The book does exactly that. Vennells' book is both charming and valuable - so valuable, I've bought two copies so I can lend it out without the risk of losing it.

Now for a couple of curmudgeonly quibbles. First, Vennells has been ill-served by a lack of technical editing; the manuscript has several misspellings that a spell-checker won't catch ("there" for "the" or "their", for example), and run-on sentences are more common than correctly punctuated ones.

Second, Vennells does not deal with an aspect that would have been within the scope of his book: What if the problems we suffer over aren't ours? How do we accept and celebrate the challenge if it's a parent, child, spouse enduring emotional or physical agony? Vennells provides us with the tools to work this out for ourselves, but the book would be stronger for a chapter addressing this subject directly. On to the rave.

I've read a few self-help books in my time, but this is the only one I've ever talked about with no reserve or irony. I am ill-equipped to know if the Buddhist practices and thought Vennells offers are travesties or rehashing or inspired applications, so I won't speak of that. I will say that Vennells charmed me utterly with his open enthusiasm, simple presentations of deep spiritual truths, suggestions for achievable goals and workable plans and doable exercises.

Vennells begins as he means to go on, with an introduction suggesting more than one way of using the book and urging the reader to do ‘whatever works for you’. He ends with two appendices, one giving contact information for Buddhist meditation groups and one listing books on Buddhism.
Although Vennells is a Reiki healer and a practicing Buddhist, his primary credentials, to my mind, are his ongoing ordeal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and his confession that he continues to experience the negative feelings his book opposes. He isn't writing as an expert handing down advice from a superior position, but as a fellow student scribbling helpful notes in the margins of a text.

There is a great deal of repetition in this book but, given that each chapter is best studied and worked through by itself, repetition is appropriate.

The most appealing aspect of EVERYTHING IS A BLESSING is Vennells' attitude of friendly concern. He concedes the difficulty of what he suggests. He admits his own weaknesses. His compassion and good will shine through his technically flawed prose, leaving readers with the feeling of having been spoken to directly by someone who genuinely cares about them and wants to help them heal and succeed. I haven't had that feeling since Mr. Rogers passed on. Run-ons and misspellings are a small price to pay for the wealth of practical advice and encouragement in this book.
Thanks, Mr. Vennells. I like you just the way you are.

Independent Review, Marion Allen, June 2006

This book is about becoming a bigger and better person through our hardships, it is not a quick fix self help book but tries to enlighten us by introducing us to beliefs from other cultures, both east and west. It provides you with the skills needed to begin a special journey.

PlanetStarz.com, June 2006