Writing and Writers: Luke Benoit

Writer’s Block airs every Tuesday, at 9 a.m. MST on KFUN/KLVF, streaming live at www.kfunonline.com

All Storms Pass, a writer’s look at life in bits and pieces

Luke Benoit

Life coach and hypnotherapist Luke Benoit, author of All Storms Pass, the anti-meditations, has written a book about getting through life, based on your own self-affirmation, not based on a lifetime of hearing other people tell you what's wrong with you. Reading some of the meditations on the air during the show on Tuesday, and getting his responses about why he wrote them, made me think differently about how I regard others.

Luke pointed out that when you put your expectations and judgments on someone else, you are as good as saying, "Unless you're like me, I don't accept you.”

"That's insulting to the other person," Luke said.

Put in that context it redefines relationships as environments of acceptance rather than quagmires of rationalized discontent.

In the interview Luke came across as kind. I suspect that is his nature. He said he never intended to write a book. The meditations were thoughts he compiled and distributed to clients and friends. Over time he was encouraged to put them into book form and make them available. He finally did it and the acceptance has been overwhelming.

"I go to book signing events and the books just disappear."

Perhaps that's because everyone can see themselves in the snippets of encouragement written on the pages of, All Storms Pass.

Here are a few that resonated with me.

Today, I will stop waiting for

all the stars to align

Today I will give up the wish and the fantasy that someday

the stars will align, that someday it will be perfect and

everything will fall into place.

Because maybe this is it, right now... and the Happy Destiny

is the road and not the destination and it's already here.

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Sometimes I blow things

out of proportion

Sometimes I take things personally

and it hurts more than it should

when I think that you've hurt me

and sometimes

I hurt more than I should

when you blame me

and I feel compelled

to fix it.

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There is "me"

and there is who you think I am

and there is who I think I am

and beyond this, there is

who I Really am,

the True Self I have forgotten.

Today, I will learn to tell

the difference.

The meditations read like free verse poetry. All Storms Pass is a book you can pick up any time, turn to any page, and find something that will inspire you to think better of yourself, and of the world.

From Luke’s website: Luke Benoit is a Life Coach and Hypnotherapist who lives and works in Orange County, California.  He has worked as a consultant in the areas of Recovery, Personal Growth and Mental Health for 15 years, and previously worked in the film industry as a screenwriter and producer.  He holds an M.S. in Education from California State University, Long Beach and a B.F.A. in Film and Screenwriting from the USC Film School.

All Storms Pass may be ordered locally at Tome on the Range, through most on line retailers and from the author.

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