About the Book
In Finding Joy Beyond Childlessness, Lesley Pyne uses her life experience as a childless woman, the experiences of other childless women from all over the world--who she calls her storytellers, and her skills as a coach and NLP Master Practitioner to gently guide readers through their pain to help them get to the other side to find their joy.
Finding Joy Beyond Childlessness helps you:
Understand why the story you tell yourself is important and how to change it if it's holding you back.
Learn different ways of moving through the grieving process including, letting go, connecting with your feelings and body, self-acceptance, and exploration through writing.
Recognize the importance of gratitude and teach you how to find joy again.
Explore how you've changed during the process and gently show you how to find fulfillment now and in the future.
With clear and practical advice and exercises, Lesley will gently guide you to that fulfilling life you deserve, which is yours for the taking.
Lesley Pyne spent the first 50-plus years of her life putting everything she didn't want to feel in a box, including her grief following multiple failed fertility treatments and the loss of both parents. Now she says confidently 'I absolutely love my life, the adventures I'm having, and I'm excited about what will happen next.'
Praise for Lesley and Finding Joy Beyond Childlessness
With a combination of professional assuredness and survivor's empathy, Lesley Pyne offers reassurance and inspiration to women facing a life without children. Through the honest telling of her story, and the stories of other childless-not-by-choice women, Lesley guides readers through the challenges of making peace with an unanticipated life path, and offers exercises and suggestions to inspire transformation. Like a trusted friend, this book dishes up frank advice with a healthy dose of compassion.
-- Lisa Manterfield, author of Life Without Baby: Surviving and Thriving When Motherhood Doesn't Happen
"There's nothing quite so daunting as personal reinvention in the wake of trauma and loss. In sharing her story and the learnings of others who patched themselves up the hard way, Lesley Pyne gently guides readers down a path to discover and embrace one's true self."
-- Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos, Author of Silent Sorority
'Lesley's work has been an inspiration to me, and I know this book will help many people find new purpose and passion for their life without the children they always dreamed of having.'
-- Jessica Hepburn, author of The Pursuit of Motherhood and 21 Miles: Swimming in search of the meaning of motherhood.
Review :
'With a combination of professional assuredness and survivor's empathy, Lesley Pyne offers reassurance and inspiration to women facing a life without children. Through the honest telling of her story, and the stories of other childless-not-by-choice women, Lesley guides readers through the challenges of making peace with an unanticipated life path, and offers exercises and suggestions to inspire transformation. Like a trusted friend, this book dishes up frank advice with a healthy dose of compassion.'
-- Lisa Manterfield, author of Life Without Baby: Surviving and Thriving When Motherhood Doesn't Happen
'There's nothing quite so daunting as personal reinvention in the wake of trauma and loss. In sharing her story and the learnings of others who patched themselves up the hard way, Lesley Pyne gently guides readers down a path to discover and embrace one's true self.'
-- Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos, author of Silent Sorority
'Lesley's work has been an inspiration to me, and I know this book will help many people find new purpose and passion for their life without the children they always dreamed of having.'
-- Jessica Hepburn, author of The Pursuit of Motherhood and 21 Miles: Swimming in Search of the Meaning of Motherhood
'When I gave up on having a longed for child I never ever imagined that anything good could come from it, never. I certainly didn't believe that not getting what I wanted most could lead to self-love, self-compassion, a change in how I would love and care for myself, new meaning, a greater awareness of my values, and so much more (I was wrong). The notion that I could be happy without the longed for child seemed laughable on that day when the reality of my childlessness moved from a temporary state to a permanent one.
If you are suffering the despair of childlessness, it may seem like finding joy is unlikely; however, please don't be so sure--dare to read Lesley Pyne's book, Finding Joy Beyond Childlessness. It will offer not just hope, but a whole lot of wisdom, guidance, courage, compassion, understanding, and a tangible road map to finding your unique joy.
Lesley dares greatly in Finding Joy Beyond Childlessness; she, the brave and beautiful butterfly that she is, tells us her very personal story of being childless not by choice and how she emerged from a cocoon of despair and how exactly she got from despair to emergence.
As a therapist it can be a challenge to feel like I am reading anything new in a self-help book, a bit jaded I suppose--however, in reading Finding Joy Beyond Childlessness, I found myself wishing that I had it to turn to when I needed it most.
All these years later, well emerged from my own pain cocoon, I still learned much in Lesley's book about how the childlessness wound lives on in me, and I was reminded of my tendency to personalize my infertility story ('this just happened to me', which clearly isn't the case, which Lesley well illustrated) and how that very story exacerbated the narrative of me as a victim.
Thank you, Lesley, for this success of a book and for all the resources you've provided in it for myself and others who share this unique journey.
-- Tracey Cleantis, M.A., LMFT. author of The Next Happy: Let Go of the Life You Planned and Find a New Way Forward, and An Invitation to Self-Care: Why Learning to Nurture Yourself Is the Key to the Life You've Always Wanted, 7 Principles for Abundant Living
