Grief, healing, spirituality, and empowerment; all of these are themes of Bloomington author Jasmine Shegog’s new book, The Power of the Reframe, released Sept. 15.
Written in only five days, Shegog’s book, published under the pen name J.J. Bundy, explores the concept of healing by reframing your mindset into one of proactivity, claiming healing starts with a choice to do so, rather than closure.
“I wrote the book The Power of the Reframe because if you can reframe whatever you’re stuck in, you can pivot to the next level,” Shegog said. “You’re not responsible for whatever happened to you, but you’re responsible for healing from it. So, I wrote this book to empower, especially women, to take hold of whatever they’re stuck in, and reframe it and move forward with their destiny.”
Having previously penned the children's books Silly Little Squabbles and Now I’m Really Mad — which teach about social-emotional learning — Shegog was looking to tackle similar concepts for the adult reader. It wasn’t until her mother and grandmother died four days apart that she found the right words.
“I was trying to write the book for months, but then after they died it was like something broke open where I finally found the missing key that I felt people needed to understand and move past whatever they need to move past,” Shegog said.
At its core, The Power of the Reframe is a book about healing, but it also dabbles in the idea of faith. Shegog believes the two are strongly intertwined.
“I feel like you have to first put it in your spirit. You have to first put it in your mind. And when you can do that, then you can, you know, the steps to the take to move forward,” Shegog said. “So I don't. I don't know how you can separate them yet. Maybe some people can, but I really think you have to have something bigger than you to hold on to when life is feeling like it's like swallowing you whole.”
Another necessity to the book’s healing process is change. This starts with being able to name your feelings and understand them. Once this step is completed, Shegog said, one can begin to make small changes, both in mindset and action, to slowly build to a rewarding result.
“I really just think it starts with the day to day,” Shegog said. “Honestly, one of the first things for me is just making my bed up every day. It seems so small, but [you’re] taking advantage of small wins to where you amp your brain up to feel like you're on the winning side already. And so, it doesn't make everything else seem so hard because the hard part of doing it is actually convincing yourself to do it. And a lot of times once you do it's like, this wasn't so bad, this is OK.”
Aside from the advice on healing and reframing they’re mind, one of the biggest things Shegog wants her readers to take away is that they are not alone.
“I want my readers to feel like they're walking with a friend, not somebody telling him this is what you are telling them, this is what you should do, but somebody who's walking through the things that they may be afraid to walk through yet,” Shegog said. “So, I wanted to be like a comforting story of sometimes you just need to see somebody that has done it to put it in your head.”
The Power of the Reframe by J.J. Bundy is available on Amazon.
