Free to Thrive: How Your Hurt, Struggles, and Deepest Longings Can Lead to a Fulfilling Life, (Hardcover)

We all have longings in life. A longing to be loved, accepted, valued, safe, and more. These longings can go unmet in our lives causing us pain, leading to frustration and anger, and behaviors such as addictions, self harm or loathing, lashing out at others and more. But God doesn't want us to live a life of being stuck in unending cycles of behaving in a way that pleases Him, then a situation triggers past unmet longings leading to frustration or hurt and  causing us to return back to our addictions or behaviors that are not pleasing to God. God wants us to thrive in life, living an abundant life.  Free to Thrive discusses why we continue in this cycle of unwanted behaviors. This book identifies the seven longings in life that when they are unmet can lead to dissatisfaction, frustration, and later addictions and unwanted behaviors. The authors, Josh McDowell and Ben Bennett are open and honest about their struggles and past experiences. They use personal stories along with other examples to show how we can examine our lives and identify the longing (s) that are unmet in our lives and then work at changing how we react to situations triggering these unmet longings leading us to return to our unwanted behaviors. They discuss how these longings are fulfilled  by God and how we can take steps to renewing our mind and changing our thought patterns. This book includes self examination questions, diagrams, tables, and further resources for help in identifying, renewing our minds, and changing our behaviors. I found this book extremely helpful and useful to me in learning the seven longings people have, identifying what longing (s) are unmet in my life causing hurt, frustration, anger, depression, anxiety and more in my life and a life that is stuck in a cycle of self destruction. At the end of each chapter there are self reflection questions. I haven't gone through all of them but plan on rereading this book, doing self examination, journaling, working on renewing my mind, and working towards changing my thought patterns and responses to situations leading to the thriving life which God has promised and wants us to live. Free to Thrive is not a quick read, it is a book to be read slower, thought about, worked through and reread again to fully grasp the contents and change your thinking. This book will be added to my tool box of resources for dealing with and overcoming my struggles with depression, anxiety, self esteem and insecurities. I highly recommend this book to anyone struggling in life with addictions, mental health struggles, feeling stuck in life or wondering why things seem to never get better. Free to Thrive is a useful tool to evaluating your thoughts, reactions or responses to situations and relationships in your lives. Pick up a copy today and take a step toward living a life that thrives. I received an advanced copy of this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.