Stark Raving Zen is the story of how one woman came home to her soul on a road trip from Minnesota to California, a journey both terrifying and beautiful. Her only physical companion through each stage of this sudden awakening was her dog, Arya, who kept her grounded through shocking revelations, heavenly and hellish visionary experiences, and an intuitive opening including a voice in her left ear that guided her, working to keep her safe as her mind unraveled.
This heroine's journey is also the story of Kristy Sweetland's life, including a childhood and young adulthood of trying to desperately control a chaotic family history filled with a parental legacy of addiction and mental illness that kept her psyche locked in a perpetual state of survival.
After an outwardly successful career in the field of veterinary medicine, (while inwardly falling apart), she finally hit the wall, left her twenty-year profession, loaded Arya into her car and headed southwest on what she thought was a trip to see a mentor and counselor in California. As it turns out her soul had wildly different plans. This riveting true story of a road trip filled with benevolent ghosts and gods, angels, demons, monsters, mythology, and guiding voices will keep the reader glued to the page for the duration. Through the volcanic gift of those ten days on the road in January of 2009, Kristy broke through her own chains forged of trauma, and finally came alive.
Kristy Sweetland is a writer, teacher and coach of transpersonal growth and transformation. She holds a master's degree in psychology and is professionally credentialled as a transformational life coach. Kristy writes exclusively on the subjects of freeing the human spirit, and healing and growth through creative expression. She considers Mother Nature to be one of her greatest teachers, and utilizes eco-psychology, animism, and feminine mythology in much of her work. Kristy has a private practice in northern New Mexico where she assists others through their own spiritual transformations. When not writing, teaching, or coaching, Ms. Sweetland can be found with her husband and cherished dogs, hiking the gorgeous canyons around her home, day-tripping to the glorious Sangre de Cristo mountain range, weekending to the Colorado Rockies, or scrambling around Ancestral Puebloan ruins in the Jemez Mountains. She also shares her life, if not her hiking adventures, with two magnificent indoor felines who appreciate being mentioned. Kristy Sweetland has previously co-authored a book with Nina Brown, called The Fascinated Observer.
