Customer Reviews

Connections

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For those of you who know Gabrielle's work and for those of you who don't -- this book is an intimate, inspiring journey with a wise woman who will blow your mind and fill your heart. CONNECTIONS is Gabrielle's third book and I've heard more than a few people say that it's her best (although I'm not going to discourage you from reading the other two--they're great too) but with this book, you'll feel you have met the woman herself. CONNECTIONS is like having a wild, psychic mentor in your own back pocket. A hot, hip poet whispering in your ear. An alchemist turning the crap into gold right before your innocent eyes. This woman has a fire that lights a path through the thickest psychic forest, the height of cultural chaos, the strangest, craziest of times. And the really cool thing is, she'll show YOU how to keep lighting that fire yourself. This book is a love letter from a shaman-goddess you'll feel like you've known forever. And maybe you have. And maybe you are.

Roth is best known as the creator of the 5 Rhythms form of movement meditation, but she has supplemented and documented her teaching practice with recordings, videos, and several books. Connections is a short book but a thoughtful one, a series of half-slangy, half-poetic meditations on the concept of intuition, instinct, and inner knowing. Roth writes with the same instinctive flow with which she dances, flinging off memorable phrases like fast moves, touching on a galaxy of other writers and artists, weaving in anecdotes from her own life. This was a pleasurable and stimulating read, if not as good as her earlier book, Sweat Your Prayers.

This small book is very mighty and offers practical ways to access individual intuition and how to take intuitive thinking to the level of action. Roth is clever, funny and has a profound understanding of instincts and our instinctual nature. The book is awesome.

Gabrielle's way of seeing and expriencing life in 'Connections' is an extraordinarily divine tool that I cannot imagine living without. Each story is charged with humour and touching memories, soaring in a poetic beat that makes me want to move just reading it. I find her wisdom rich in resource, rooted in a truth that you don't find every day but you wish you could. Gabrielle gives me hope for the future. She sends an electric buzz down my back, recharging my intuitive nature, jacking me up for change, flexing my soul muscles and reminding me of what is truly important: awareness and motion.

This book is small, relatively short, and so deeply and richly written that it is best enjoyed in tiny bites. One day I was so rocked by one of the featured poems that I committed the verse to memory. Connections is as powerful as Roth's movement practice, yet as with the dance work, its accessible to anyone, from novice to veteran. The writing is clear, yet conversational. Its tone and mood shift but at its core, Roth shares with her readers an extended meditation on the persistent fragility of life and the strength that comes from that deep level of knowing. September 11, 2001 is a character in this slim book of considered musings. What Roth offers in this book is a path through numb, sad and grieving back to the breath and the heartbeat. Its a piece of writing to be treasured and shared.

This book is a loving smack in the face from your street-smart best friend, an eye-opening moment, when you realize that everything you've ever wanted in life has been within reach the whole time. Every sentence you read flip-turns the world upside down over and over again, until all the garbage falls away. It's unbelievably empowering. Roth's writing is rife with plain wisdom, and humor. She's wise beyond our times -- if only we all knew what was best for us, we would try to catch up with her.