When in a downward spiral…

Synopsis

A one-bedroom apartment with creeping damp.

Depressed cat, complete with litter tray.

Neither was part of Claire’s five-year plan.

Nor, for that matter, was divorce.

Left with a comfort eating habit that’s costing her a small fortune in ice-cream, and panic attacks flooring her in front of the supermarket meals-for-one, Claire turns to her mum and Mindfulness in the hope that one of them can help her find real happiness.

She thinks she’s cracked it… but then her past comes creeping back.

Now she has to work out what really makes her happy or risk a life where Ben & Jerry are the only men who matter.

My review

Never did Claire imagine that her current situation would ever be hers… she is living in a one – bedroom apartment with a cat that honestly doesn’t like her, her husband not only left her, but is now together with a woman carrying his child. While Ben& Jerry were a good temporary consolation, Claire now has to figure out what will make her happy again because living in fear of another panic attack is not a good way of living. With the help of her mom, Claire discovers how Mindfulness can help her finding her peace again. And thanks to the classes, she meets new friends, all in search for the same thing. But when her past catches up with her, Claire has to face the most difficult decision ever.

When I started reading this book, I thought it would be a case of ‘woman sees marriage falling apart but after a struggle finds eventually the perfect man and they live happily ever after’.
But the more into the book I got, the more I realized this wasn’t that kind of book ( now, don’t misunderstand me, I adore reading such books! 😀 ) and that ‘the spark’ this author is talking about isn’t the spark you get when meeting a love interest.

Claire is the kind of woman every one of us could be. I mean, who hasn’t filled herself with junk food when having her heart broken?
But what made me pity Claire the most was the way her heart got broken… Marriages fall apart all the time, but reading how her husband not only cheated on her with their business partner, but also got the other woman pregnant, while they were trying themselves to have a child. That is just something I cannot comprehend and made me hate Ben from the very start.

I have never been a woman doing some mindfulness myself, but I can surely understand how it can help to get your things back in order. And seeing how it affected Claire, well made me even think to give it a try myself.

Of course, this is not a magic potion, as Claire also knows, but she gives it a chance, and she is working on all fronts to get her life back on track.
And seeing how she slowly is managing to get there, even on a slowly pace, made me admire her.

Seeing how she is able to find her inner peace again, making new friends like Sarah, warmed my heart. Because of one devastating event, Claire now is focusing on what would make her happy. And even if not everyone understands that, if that works for you, who are we to judge?

But… and yes, there is a ‘but’… when the past comes back and turns Claire’s world back upside down, I wanted to shake some sense in Claire’s head! I couldn’t understand why Claire acted the way she did after all the growth she had gone through.

Nevertheless, this was a wonderful and even inspiring story about finding yourself again, the old you but also discovering a new you. and no matter how dark the clouds were or are, the sun will reappear again and will shine even brighter than before!