Reviews

Ecstasy is Necessary: A Practical Guide by Barbara Carrellas

triciajuul's review against another edition

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adventurous informative inspiring fast-paced

3.75

zenlara's review against another edition

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5.0

I have a tremendous amount of respect for the author and how she approaches writing about a subject that could easily feel too esoteric to connect. She combines deeply intuitive wisdom with science, psychology, and a wealth of personal experience and invites the reader into profound exercises. I am not new to the subject matter, practice or author, but this came at the perfect time for me. With a pandemic that robbed me of many of my pleasure practices, the way the author talked about Radical Acceptance was exactly what I needed to hear to feel creative again.

SO GOOD

itisallmydoing's review

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

This book was incredibly interesting, and I'm not saying "interesting" as a noncommittal adjective. I have no idea where I got this book recommendation from. While much of it was grounded in sexual experiences, so many of the journal prompts and practices apply on an individual level or between people in any kind of relationship.

A word of awareness: The author does explore kink in several chapters with an extended section on branding and body modification.

leahcorduroy's review

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5.0

This book was amazing. Put it down and go think about it for a while before reading the next paragraph sort of amazing. It really helped me think about how to make intimidating risks happen for myself, instead of just hoping that I'll eventually find myself in the right place to trip on them. Even the chapter on communication presented ideas in a way that was different and useful. The book ended with a chapter on not just creating ecstatic experiences for yourself, but creating an ecstatic life. The author treats ecstasy as her spiritual practice...which isn't quite right for me. But I could see myself pursuing a spiritual practice of joy, and I really need to think about how that would work in my life. Meanwhile, I'm making ready to take a risk that I've been wanting to take for years...
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