EP 445 - Overcoming The Self-Sabotage from Buried Trauma with Andrea Torrey Balsara

In this episode Mark interviews Andrea Torrey Balsara about her writing, her passion in inspiring joy through storytelling and energy healing, trauma, creativity and much more. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update and a word about this episode's sponsor. I THINK IT'S A SIGN THAT THE PUN ALSO RISES is available now in hardcover, mass market sized paperback, and audiobook. In the interview Mark and Andrea talk about: The very serious and troubling trauma Andrea had been living with for most of her life without realizing it and how it prevented her from trying to focus and work onThe sabotage that kept creeping up from her subconsciousBeing told the importance of writing her own stories, which led to taking some writing classesHow writing became a way for Andrea to express things that she was not otherwise able to express and the way it led her into a space where she could become fully creativeWhen the memory of the terrible trauma came back to Andrea and struggling with wondering if it really truly happenedHow it's almost easiest to allow yourself to go crazy than to think that you "were evil" or just making this all upNot avoiding the darkness in her Young Adult booksThe love that Andrea has for the teenage girl that she wasHow hard it is for a person hurting and going through such trauma just taking that next stepFinding herself within the character of a story of hope and finding the light in the darknessRecognizing that yes, horrible things happen in this world, but many gifts are also given to help get through itThe "heroes journey" of making one's life satisfying saying "this is not where my story ends"Andrea's novel THE GREAT AND THE SMALL and how it explores what it takes to enable the rise of dictatorship via very small personal compromises that a person can make along the wayThe value in looking for the light, looking for the hope, and the importance of people being the change in Andrea's novelBelieving in the capacity and the necessity to unite, and that the search for truth is a human right and responsibility that lies within each of usThe "10 Steps to Inner Peace" that helped Andrea through the darkness (and which is available for anyone to read via a download on her websiteHow evil itself isn't a thing, it's the absence of loveThe way that we can be that "leaven" in the breadThe studies that have shown that sending love to a plant can help it thrive (and vice-versa when sending negative energy)And more . . . After the interview Mark reflects on a few elements of the Andrea's message that resonated with him. Links of Interest: Andrea Torrey Balsara's Website InstagramLink to Andrea's TEN STEPS TO INNER PEACE PDF download Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link)Buy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsMark's YouTube channelElevenLabs (AI Voice Generation - Affiliate link)Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and LibrariesThe Relaxed Author Buy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover's MoonHex and the CityOnly Monsters in the Building The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die HardMerry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas VacationI Think It's A Sign That The Pun Also Rises Andrea Torrey Balsara is an award-winning children's and young adult author/illustrator, as well as an energy medicine practitioner and mental wellness and creativity coach. Her passion is to inspire joy through storytelling and energy healing, helping people-of-all-ages to walk "the Hero's Journey" in real life. She writes and illustrates for young children under her full name, Andrea Torrey Balsara, and for young adults under A.T. Balsara. Andrea is also a painter, an avid amateur explorer of quantum physics, and a keen environmentalist. She advocates for the humane treatment of animals and regularly volunteers at a donkey sanctuary where she uses energy medicine to help previously neglected and abused animals regain their health and vitality. The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0