No Pressure, No Diamonds (ePub)

Is the popular narrative that anything is healable with the right attitude (or guru, guide, diet, treatment) ever truly helpful? And where do we find healing when no cure or easy answer exists?

At 35 and newly married, psychotherapist and Buddhist practitioner Teri Dillion suspects she knows most of the answers to a satisfying and meaningful life. But once diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) and told to get her affairs in order before facing total paralysis and death, she finds herself pertly booted off all lofty perches of smug psychology and easy equanimity.

In the months that follow, she sets out in dizzying pursuit of an unlikely cure, traveling deeper into the byzantine landscapes of alternative medicine and self-help in hopes of being a rare and miraculous survivor. As she grows increasingly disillusioned with toxic positivity and bypassing spiritual gurus, she is forced to knock ever-louder at the door of her own knowing---and attempt to define her own deepest faith.

In this inspiring and entertaining memoir about living with (and at times railing against) terminal illness, written to appeal to the healthy and the ill, disfigured, or downtrodden, Teri reclaims the mysteries of grace while gently reminding us of the fragile blessings of embodiment. Join her for the journey as she explores whether the most brilliant jewels of meaning can be found not in conventional narratives of triumphant recovery, but in what we painstakingly and lovingly carve for ourselves out of life's roughest blows. Can we ultimately lay claim to hope, resilience, self-love, and healing when the only way "out" is through?