Tuesday, October 28, 2014

CAUGHT IN A STORM by Salwin Anand: A Review


 
CAUGHT IN A STORM
My Journey of Hope
by
Salwin Anand
 
Some big life lessons in this little memoir. First and foremost, you cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens. When caught in a storm, you are the only one who can stir your boat to salvation.
 
"Miracles do happen and dreams have hidden messages".
 
Salwin Anand knows that all too well. Caught In A Storm is based on his true story, a story that changed the lives of everyone in his family. It all started with a precognitive dream on the night of March 2nd, 2012:
 
"an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety had set within me...my soul had departed my body awaiting before my lifeless self as I became a part of the universe around me...I could feel the angry waves smashing...lightning racing towards the ocean...the heavens roar...I began to travel, perhaps faster than the speed of light. Looking up towards the sky, my world had turned upside down. I was now caught in a storm."
 
Call it divine message or subconscious intuition, Anand's sixth sense knew that a life-changing experience would soon upset the harmonious flow of his uneventful life.
 
A Fiji Island native living in Toronto, devoted husband and father of two healthy and active kids, Anand's daily routine was a predictable repetition of activities and priorities involving family members. Driving to work, picking up his father from dialysis, dropping his kids to taekwondo classes, assisting them with their homework...the simple comfort of methodical gestures. An orderly universe, you might think, but one Anand could not control - "if you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans".
 
We plan our goals for the day, for the week, for months to come, even years, but do we really know the time we have in this universe? We have one life, one chance to understand our destiny, and yet we go after our past and our future, letting regrets and anxiety ruin our chances to fully enjoy the present.
 
News of a critical decline of his father's health (his demise was expected by doctors within a year) were just the runway leading to a downturn that would closely affect Anand's bill of health.  Overwhelmed with grief and pressed by the incessant responsibilities of tending to a terminally ill father, Anand ended up neglecting his own health. An oversight that was going to cost him dearly.
 
"Even death should not be feared by one who has lived wisely."
 
The sixth sense that had previously helped Anand access his future, in the form of a dream, turned out to be the helm he courageously and discerningly held to stir his own life to a safe haven - against the odds, against the doctors' unforgiving prognosis, against the debilitating pain of an aggressive ailment. Anand's close encounter with death unleashed an unsuspected amount of spiritual energy and from that source of inner power he drew the ability to heal himself.
 
For everyone out there leading a personal campaign against illness or spiritual dejection, Anand's memoir will be a beautiful reminder that we are all  born with a web of vital energy running underneath the surface of our physical body. It is possible to channel that non physical energy in order to heal ourselves - if only we decide to look beyond our worldly circumstances and accept, without fear, that hope is always possible.
 
4.5 out of 5 stars
 
***Review copy graciously offered by the author in exchange for an unbiased and honest review
 
 
About the book
 
CAUGHT IN A STORM
My Journey of Hope
by
Salwin Anand
Balboa Press; June 25, 2014
Paperback and ebook, 104 pages

 
 
 

 


2 comments:

  1. personal struggles are always inspiring, always nice to read a good one now and then as a reminder.

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    1. Thank you for checking in, Non Fiction Reviews! This is why I like to read inspirational non-fiction in between novels. This truly is a heartrending and thought-provoking book. It opened my mind to the chakra philosophy and to the power of positive thinking.

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