Women, Perfection, and Our Imperfection is Worth the Journey to Finding Ourselves

Kelly McNelis' new book Your Messy Brilliance is right on target for the topics that are out there with women in their world now. She writes with clarity on a wealth of topics that will take the reader on a journey back to themselves and a journey that will teach the idea that being imperfect is ok and actually brilliant. She writes that all women are unique with gifts that they must recognize and use to uncover the strengths that lie in all women.

Our society is obsessed with perfection. McNelis writes that when we try to be something that we are not, it absolutely does not work for us. She writes of her own life experiences and uses her experiences to teach lessons in her book.

Your Messy Brilliance is divided into sections that cover the tools that McNelis wants all women to use to discover their own "messy brilliance" and to live life on their terms. The seven tools are curiosity, awareness, acceptance, intuition, choice, manifestation, and what she refers to as the infinite roadmap that women can follow. McNelis writes that women should discard the myth of perfection and be themselves in order to be successful in living a productive life. She writes that a woman's own stories in life are the key to discovering who she really is. Yes, life is messy when you consider all the stories that you have in your life. "No matter the degree of misfortune or suffering that has touched us, we are being called upon to open our hearts to all of it. We need to recognize that there are no rights or wrongs-but there are effective and ineffective choices in how we choose to react to our circumstances." This is the lesson that Kelly wants all readers to take from her book.

Your Messy Brilliance was published by Enrealment Press. It has an ISBN of 9781988648019. The book is written for women, but men and boys might learn a thing or two about the women in their lives.

Sociology professors on college campuses now are deluged with subjects that women want to address. There is a new movement that is different from past women's movements. Women want their power to be a power of being themselves. Kelly McNelis' Your Messy Brilliance is exactly the message that women want to hear. they do not have to be perfect. This book is also perfect for assigned reading in high schools across the country.

*Assign Your Messy Brilliance for individual reading or use as a chapter book for discussing individual chapters for a long study of the concepts in the book.

*Divide the class into groups-both male and women in the groups. Yes, boys and young men should also read this book in order to improve relationships with the women in their lives. Assign one of the tools from the chapters to each group to discuss and prepare a presentation to the class.

*Brainstorm in groups for ideas on how to use each one of the tools. The first tool is Curiosity. What are the girls/women in the class curious about in their lives? what are the boys/men in the class curious about? How can they use this tool to discover their imperfections to become their true selves?

*Braintorm in discussions for each tool. The tool of Choice will create good discussions in class. How do our choices create good lives?

*Mcnelis includes a list of things to do when using the tool of the Infinite Roadmap. Use her suggestions to braintorm ideas in a class discussion after reading the book. She suggests that the reader look back at their favorite ideas and practices that they read about. Choose favorites and take a class poll of the favorites.

*Use McNelis' idea of creating a "praise file". Fill it with the compliments that you have received and re-read them often. Brainstorm with the class about the compliments that they have received. Are the compliments well-received?

*Brainstorm the gifts that each member of the class believes that she/he has.