an unforgettable metaphysical memoir about

INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA HEALING, SHADOW WORK & THE BATTLE TO RECLAIM MENTAL HEALTH

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Samantha didn’t grow up in a normal family.

Her grandmother, Gaia, was a prominent metaphysical teacher who preached a philosophy of Love and Light. But Samantha’s life with her mother was starkly different—marked by confusion, complexity, and abuse.

As an adult searching for her place in the world, Samantha begins to unravel the darkness of her past while observing the chaos that still lives in her mind. When she becomes a mother herself, her mental health struggles and buried traumas resurface, leading her to a profound spiritual crisis and crossroads.

What choices will she have to make to heal her wounds and finally break the cycle? What truths will she uncover along the way?

It’s Not All Love and Light is a deeply personal memoir spanning seven generations of women, told through the eyes of the transitional character striving to end the inherited pain. Drawing from intergenerational trauma research and healing practices, Samantha challenges her ancestral narratives and invites readers to confront their own shadows—transforming them into Light and Love.

A lifelong writer, Samantha has been weaving words since childhood—as a poet, songwriter, journaler, storyteller, and copywriter. It’s Not All Love and Light marks her debut as a published author. She plans to continue using her voice to raise awareness about mental health and trauma healing, and to one day become an equine therapist, blending her love of animals and emotional healing.

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  • Lesson #1: Speaking and owning your Truth paves the path to freedom and healing.

  • Lesson #2: You have the ability to rewrite your narrative, but you first need to find the courage to pick up the pen.

  • Lesson #3: Love and Light can only be fully experienced when we recognize and honor the Shadow.

  • Lesson #4: You can be your own loving parent. A lack of external love is no reason to deprive yourself of it internally.

  • Lesson #5: Don’t force connections with people you feel you need to earn love from, regardless of their relationship to you. Family is who you choose.

  • Lesson #6: Oftentimes it’s the littlest things that reveal our deepest trauma wounds.

  • Lesson #7: The things we avoid will continue to show up until we heal them.

  • Lesson #8: No matter how wise someone else is, no one knows what’s best for you more than you do.

  • Lesson #9: To be in alignment with your truest, highest self, you have to be brave enough to develop your own belief system.

  • Lesson #10: To break unhealthy trauma response behaviors, we first need to be courageous enough to realize these coping mechanisms no longer serve a purpose in our survival or well-being.

  • Lesson #11: When you can learn to identify all the reasons for a failed relationship, you can learn to make peace with it.

  • Lesson #12: Sometimes loving yourself looks like setting painful boundaries.

  • Lesson #13: In order to have deeply fulfilling relationships, we must be able to be our own authentic selves.

  • Lesson #14: When old habits are no longer working, try something new.

  • Lesson #15: Sometimes before things can get better, they have to get darker. In those darkest hours, you are faced with two choices: save yourself or drown.

  • Lesson #16: Grief doesn’t get any lighter. We just get used to carrying the weight.

  • Lesson #17: There will come a time in your trauma healing journey when the best thing you can do is let go of anything or anyone holding you back from your progress.

  • Lesson #18: Our adversities can ultimately be our greatest strengths.

  • Lesson #19: The trauma healing journey is not one of victimhood; it is one of empowerment.

  • Lesson #20: To truly know Love and Light, one must first examine, embrace, and transform their Shadows. In between the messiness and pain, there is measureless joy to be found.

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