Review: Breathing Room by Leanna Tankersley

I’ve been sitting on my thoughts, letting them soak in good and deep.  Sometimes they need to percolate before they have the right strength and lose the raw edge.  The need more body and refinement.  Really, this post should’ve been up a week ago, but it just wasn’t there.  I’m not sure it is yet.

There are times when ideas and books get into your DNA and you can’t express the difference, but you know it’s there.  Think of a holy virus that starts small, but fills your being with a new way of living.  This is how “Breathing Room”, the new book from Leanna Tankersley, is feeling to me.

Never have I read so many chapters with my mouth hanging open and feeling as if maybe I’d been spied on without knowing it.  Maybe those who wear hand-crafted aluminum foil hats to keep out the thought monitors are onto something.  Or maybe, we all have a lot of the same thoughts, but aren’t able to define what nags at us on the tired, lonely, dark, or frazzled days when we want it all to just. go. away!

That feeling of holding our breath under water to make it through to the next day, we’ve all been there at some point.  We are pushing through for the next big inhale that will sustain us as we hold it again.  But there’s a fundamental problem.  Taking in a big inhale is not what we need to do.

               The opposite of holding your breath isn’t inhaling, it’s letting go.

Letting go!

Letting go of the frantic, the control, the desire to suppress grief, the holding it togetherness – all that exhausts us.  The letting go is what gives us room to breath, to accept who we are and FULLY LIVE!

Leanna blends honesty, humor and a mastery of literary devices in “Breathing Room” that makes it entirely readable, relatable, and revolutionary.  It’s filled with “me, too” moments as well as empathy expanding moments for those you may not have experienced.  The insights are thought provoking and may change your perspective on the private struggles of others – and yourself.

I was given an advanced copy of Breathing Room to read by Revell, a division of Baker Publishing, but my opinions and subsequent self-evaluation are entirely my own.  I would be remiss, though, if I didn’t tell you that you should read this and see for yourself.  Available now through your favorite bookseller.

Disclosure:  I was provided a copy of this book for review.  As always, all opinions are my own.  This post contains affiliate links.  Thanks for your support when you use them.