IMAGE Book Club: Read an extract from Niamh Sheeran Ennis’ debut book, ‘Get Unstuck’

As Ireland’s leading change and transformation coach, Niamh Sheeran Ennis has become known for her practical solutions to life’s challenges and her ability to tell you not what you want to hear but always what you need.

A regular contributor to IMAGE.ie, founder of The Change Accelerator programme, and host of the Tough Love Energy podcast, Niamh is adding yet another string to her bow with the publication of her debut book, Get Unstuck, which is set to be released this coming Friday 11 November.

A book for anyone looking for a way back, Get Unstuck is a practical, helpful and reassuring book that will show you exactly what steps to take to create a new life, when your old one falls apart, through personal stories, practical tools and simple exercises.

Encouraging readers to ditch the drama and move from pain to power, this is the book Niamh was searching for in the aftermath of her first life-changing event — so she went and wrote it herself to help those feeling a little bit lost.

In order to give you a little taster, we’ve got an extract from a chapter entitled ‘Disconnected’ that poses the question, what exactly happens to you when you disconnect?

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When something challenging comes your way, your automatic instinct might just be to take charge of the situation. These life-changing events don’t have to be something traumatic, but they will most likely be something you weren’t expecting. You panic, you recoil, you shrink, you dim and you let your fire burn out. Quite literally, the wind has been removed from your sails and for a while you are in a state of shock.

It, whatever it is, has caught you by surprise. It wasn’t expected and it most certainly is not welcome. As the shock wears off, you slip into coping mode. Doing what needs to be done to get you through hour by hour, day by day and week by week.

Survival for you becomes all about doing. It’s how you know you’re still functioning because you’re getting things done. Simple things at first, like getting up, showering, eating, maybe even showing up for work or going out with friends. It’s all about doing and distracting. You’re taking control and in spite of all that is happening around you – you’re still here. Months, sometimes even years later, you reflect on that time as one where you displayed courage and resilience. And you did. You survived it.

But what you may not have so readily identified is that in moving directly into the ‘doing’, you retreated back into your head. You closed yourself off from your heart. You avoided feeling. Your heart was broken, you were disappointed, let down, sad, worried and wounded. You did not and could not allow yourself to feel. You did what you needed to do to get yourself through those first few weeks and months. But the problem here, and I don’t use the word ‘problem’ lightly, is that you totally switched off your heart and, in that moment, fully disengaged from yourself.

From that moment on, you were disconnected

The natural ease and flow between your head and your heart ceased. You closed off access to all those parts of you that reside in your heart; your feelings, emotions, ability t love and be loved, creativity, your purpose, your spirituality, your vulnerability and withdrew into your head space. It felt safer and you felt better able to protect yourself by feeling more in control. You were, at the same time, doing everything possible to avoid a recurrence of any future similar incidents.

Notwithstanding this, you were left feeling cold, isolated, alone and lost. It’s that sense that no matter what you do, or regardless of what anyone says to you, you can’t snap yourself out of it. You’re drained and you feel stuck. You lack any real direction and you simply haven’t a clue as to what you should do next or what it even is you want to do.

You look around you and all you can see are others jumping forward with their lives, doing fun and exciting things. This triggers you. They trigger you. Witnessing their successes increases your capacity to constantly compare your life and achievements with people you’ve never or will never meet and forever coming up short. You feel left behind.

To order your copy of Niamh Sheeran Ennis’ Get Unstuck right here.

Make sure you check back in later this week for a further insight into the life, times and writing process of Niamh Sheeran Ennis with our Author’s Bookshelf interview…