Bitchcraft
Owning your Power in a Complicated World
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Excerpt from Bitchcraft
Introduction Along with the good things in life—love, friendship, success, talent, personal power, and peace of mind—we face challenges as we navigate our way through our culture, climate, politics, religion, tradition and a host of other factors. How we react or respond to those difficulties depends a great deal on how we view life, the world, and our place in it. The way we think, what we believe, and what we do are influenced by our demographics: the family we’re born into, the resources we have access to, our educational level, our location on the planet, and how we process information and handle stress. To be who we are, to own our power, and move through life with a measure of clarity, contentment and resilience is, or ought to be, a privilege, as Joseph Campbell states in this quote: “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” But for many, it’s a privilege too often denied because of their race, gender, nationality, ability or religion. To embody the privilege of “being who you are,” we need skills. What kind of skills? My answer to that question is Bitchcraft. How to Use This Book The book is divided into six sections. Section one provides a definition for the word Bitchcraft and describes the methods and tools for developing your Bitchcraft skills. We will cover:
Sections two through six discuss each of the five SASSY qualabilities (qualities + abilities) in detail
Each chapter presents a challenge to overcome, provides a guiding light to help you move past the challenge, and ends with a selection of accessible practices to support and reinforce your Bitchcraft journey. You can read the book from cover to cover or skip around from chapter to chapter depending on which Bitchcraft qualability or building block you need for the day. Keep a copy on your bedside table and look at it before you get out of bed in the morning or after a refreshing nap. I suggest using these steps for a daily practice:
Keep moving forward. Throughout the book, I share the highs and lows of my Bitchcraft journey along with those of friends, colleagues and others whose stories taught me something important about this internal work. The following quote, attributed to Rumi, the thirteenth-century Persian poet, says it best: Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise, so I’m changing myself. Dr. Annie Elizabeth “Bessie” Delany echoed this same idea in 1995 at age 103: I thought I could change the world. It took me a hundred years to figure out I can’t change the world. I can only change Bessie. And honey, that ain’t easy either. Learning how to own your power in our complicated world is a lifelong practice. Embrace the process and focus on the journey, not the destination. |
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Available in paperback and eBook formats
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Praise for Bitchcraft
Beth Gibbs is a wonderful and wise woman who knows a great deal about owning your power in a complicated world. The techniques she recommends in Bitchcraft can empower you to show up and be heard, and to manage or accept any situation that comes your way, no matter how challenging.
--Nina Zolotow, author of Yoga for Times of Change and co-author of Yoga for Healthy Aging
This book is pure BITCHCRAFT! It inspires, guides and empowers readers to embrace their uniqueness, own their power, and pursue a joyful, grateful and fun-filled life.
—Monica Le Baron, award-winning author of Sleep Simplified
I wish I had read Bitchcraft when I faced “isms” during my school years or while keeping afloat in the corporate workplace. Beth Gibbs shares great advice in a down-to-earth manner. She sprinkles in many relatable anecdotes of frustrating or anger-producing experiences. The goal isn’t to rile up the reader but to empower them to be mindful of every action and reaction. Bitchcraft is all about serenity, joy, patience, gratitude and similar practices to tap into and live life to its fullest. I highly recommend this book for book clubs, student and youth groups, and anyone who has felt the pressures, challenges or alienation of being an “other.”
--Deborah Charnes, award-winning author of From the Boxing Ring to the Ashram
“Beth Gibbs’ Bitchcraft is a refreshingly personal and deeply human journey to self-knowledge and empowerment. Beth invites us to accompany her as she shares some of her most frustrating life experiences, as well as her responses. We get to watch her alchemize the pain of her life into accessible teachings that she generously shares. And we get to watch as she evolves her responses into a systematic, “SASSY” approach to life’s biggest challenges.
--Jivana Heyman, director of Accessible Yoga and author of The Teacher’s Guide to Accessible Yoga”
Beth Gibbs has tapped into something powerful with Bitchcraft: a way for women, and anyone who wants to be both powerful and compassionate, to own their destiny. This is not an overnight miracle program, but it is a way of being in the world that works––and the result of your efforts just might look like a miracle.
--Victoria Moran, author of Age Like a Yogi
As a midlife empowerment coach, I wholeheartedly endorse Bitchcraft. This book is a game changer for anyone looking to live an ageless next chapter, equipped with tools for inner growth and thriving with purpose and joy. Bitchcraft is unique in its approach to self-awareness and empowerment, and provides practical, relatable and fun tools steeped in the author’s yoga expertise. I will definitely recommend this guide to my clients who are “free-tired” and ready to embrace their SASSY Bitchcraft selves.
--Deborah Randolph Price, founder and empowerment strategist, DARE to ReImagine YOU! Coaching
Beth Gibbs is a wonderful and wise woman who knows a great deal about owning your power in a complicated world. The techniques she recommends in Bitchcraft can empower you to show up and be heard, and to manage or accept any situation that comes your way, no matter how challenging.
--Nina Zolotow, author of Yoga for Times of Change and co-author of Yoga for Healthy Aging
This book is pure BITCHCRAFT! It inspires, guides and empowers readers to embrace their uniqueness, own their power, and pursue a joyful, grateful and fun-filled life.
—Monica Le Baron, award-winning author of Sleep Simplified
I wish I had read Bitchcraft when I faced “isms” during my school years or while keeping afloat in the corporate workplace. Beth Gibbs shares great advice in a down-to-earth manner. She sprinkles in many relatable anecdotes of frustrating or anger-producing experiences. The goal isn’t to rile up the reader but to empower them to be mindful of every action and reaction. Bitchcraft is all about serenity, joy, patience, gratitude and similar practices to tap into and live life to its fullest. I highly recommend this book for book clubs, student and youth groups, and anyone who has felt the pressures, challenges or alienation of being an “other.”
--Deborah Charnes, award-winning author of From the Boxing Ring to the Ashram
“Beth Gibbs’ Bitchcraft is a refreshingly personal and deeply human journey to self-knowledge and empowerment. Beth invites us to accompany her as she shares some of her most frustrating life experiences, as well as her responses. We get to watch her alchemize the pain of her life into accessible teachings that she generously shares. And we get to watch as she evolves her responses into a systematic, “SASSY” approach to life’s biggest challenges.
--Jivana Heyman, director of Accessible Yoga and author of The Teacher’s Guide to Accessible Yoga”
Beth Gibbs has tapped into something powerful with Bitchcraft: a way for women, and anyone who wants to be both powerful and compassionate, to own their destiny. This is not an overnight miracle program, but it is a way of being in the world that works––and the result of your efforts just might look like a miracle.
--Victoria Moran, author of Age Like a Yogi
As a midlife empowerment coach, I wholeheartedly endorse Bitchcraft. This book is a game changer for anyone looking to live an ageless next chapter, equipped with tools for inner growth and thriving with purpose and joy. Bitchcraft is unique in its approach to self-awareness and empowerment, and provides practical, relatable and fun tools steeped in the author’s yoga expertise. I will definitely recommend this guide to my clients who are “free-tired” and ready to embrace their SASSY Bitchcraft selves.
--Deborah Randolph Price, founder and empowerment strategist, DARE to ReImagine YOU! Coaching
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