Welcome to author Jacqui Burnett!
I'm so excited to share that I've read Jacqui's book! It's a captivating story of her life and quest for love. I was drawn in from page one by her writing and the incredible story of all she's endured - including facing death. It's an enlightening peek behind the doors of a "perfect" family and how one woman sought love and found herself after many trials and tribulations.
Jacqui Burnett is an adventurer – both in journeys of the Spirit and in the world of financial strategy. Raised in South Africa, she is qualified in business studies, which has enabled her to help numerous businesses achieve their strategic and financial goals. However, Jacqui has always pursued a parallel interest in spirituality, which has guided her into her writing career.
Jacqui wrote her memoir, Life’s Not Yoga, in a quest to make spiritual sense of the traumatic life events she has experienced. Inspired by her discoveries on her life journey, Jacqui created the Dare to Be Love platform, which quickly attracted an audience of over 43,000 followers also seeking answers on how to deal with life’s challenges and trauma. The Dare to Be Love platform is a space for readers to share and learn how this connection is made through LOVE. Here, she also shares her inspirational thoughts, poetry and personal life stories told through the lens of her unique Dare to Be Love self-enquiry practices.
As an impassioned student of life, Jacqui continues to practise and promote living a Spirit-led life of courage, kindness, compassion and LOVE.
Jacqui has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of South Africa in Industrial Psychology and Economics, and an MBA from the University of Witwatersrand, including a semester abroad at Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) Erasmus. Jacqui is also a certified Integral Coach through New Ventures West, and trained as a yoga teacher with Yoga Tree, acquiring both these certifications in San Francisco, California.
This memoir, Life’s Not Yoga, is Jacqui’s first published book.
My social media links:
Website: https://jacquiburnett.com
Facebook: @jacquiburnettauthor https://www.facebook.com/jacquiburnettauthor
Instagram: @jacquiburnettauthor https://www.instagram.com/jacquiburnettauthor/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquiburnett
To Buy: https://jacquiburnett.com/buy-book/
What would you say are your strengths as an author?
I’ve developed some daily practices to strengthen and support me as a writer.
One is to silence my ego and surrender to my Spirit. That way I can integrate body, mind, and soul, and listen, allowing my creative voice (Spirit) to express itself through me. I achieve this through silent meditation. This process requires me to watch my thoughts and acknowledge the emotions attached to each thought. From this space of silence, I can see that my thoughts are just thoughts and that the attached emotions are only real if I give life to them in the present moment. I then let go of the thought and the attached emotion. Once I have achieved this, I get off my cushion and write from an integrated and open space.
It’s the ego that likes to come up with limiting beliefs like ‘writer’s block’. Through my daily practices, I can ‘get out of my own way’. This way I can access the words that want to flow through me and onto the page.
How often do you write, and do you write using a strict routine?
At the heart of it, I am writing all of the time, every day. I don’t only see the act of sitting down to write, as the only form of writing.
My meditation practice has taught me how to watch my thoughts, and so as every day progresses, I write these thoughts down or record them on a voice note to ensure they stay with me, even if they are very disorganized. I never know if I will use the content, but if I don’t get it out, it blocks new thoughts and therefore any new content. So, this is my only strict routine.
When it came to writing my book, or when I write a blog, I am very focused on a broad-based end result. I carve out time, commit to myself, pitch up and ask for whatever support I may need, from others or myself. This keeps me honest in order to move towards what I want to achieve.
To sum up, I set an intention, trust my intrinsic value and then I don’t let my ego get caught up in anything that does not serve the writing. When it does, I have compassion for myself, take the lesson from the experience and get back to doing what I love.
Five years from now, where do you see yourself as a writer?
I see myself having completed at least two of the four books I still want to write in this lifetime.
I see a movement of people equally inspired to bring peace and abundance into the world by spreading their stories of healing, as I have in my memoir, Life’s Not Yoga.
If you could offer one piece of advice to a novice writer, what would it be?
Take time to notice what you want to write about and get the words out in one way or another, even if this is just in notes scattered all around. In time they will come together exactly as they are meant to.
Don’t make excuses, don’t be surprised by the timeline and don’t be shy to share your work. Ask for help or input, and listen deeply to what others have to say.
When I first started on my book, Life’s Not Yoga, not only did my book have a different title, but I expected a different outcome. Once I set the general broad-based vision and moved towards it each day in some small way, the writing took a life of its own and I was then able to put it together in a way that made sense.
I achieved this by trusting my writing with others, be it my online community on social media, blogging, sharing it with friends, family as well as experienced writers. I found a way to trust my own ability to discern what was helpful or not.
When I felt uncomfortable about others’ opinions, I knew it was an opportunity to go deeper and allow it to challenge and improve my writing. Despite this discomfort, I believe my writing was elevated in a way that now allows readers to not only enjoy the experience of reading my memoir, but also to connect to themselves in the process. When I felt comfortable about others’ opinions, even when I disagreed, I knew it was okay to let the writing stay as it is and publish the content.
Trust the process, do the work and be prepared to stumble.
Oops, that was more than one J
What would you consider to be the best compliment a reader could give your book?
I love this question. When the readers can see and feel themselves on the pages. When their story becomes as relevant as mine. I love it when readers share how my writing gifted them some understanding and healing of their own life stories.
Wilma’s review below of Life’s Not Yoga sums it up.
I read Jacqui Burnett’s book 3 times.
The 1st time I was a character in this book - I read it slowly, almost acting the part. I was a lot like Dan.
The 2nd time around I read with empathy for Jacqui…. As I read, Jacqui was unwrapped. She is a whole lot of courage, love, spirit, tenacity, and honesty coupled with a steadfastness in what she believes to be right. She is beautiful.
The 3rd time, I learned that this book was a tool for ME. It was like a manual on how to work through the crap that I thought I had my hand on. I backtracked and started sorting out my crap by unwrapping it, and putting it back together in a way I would never have, had I not read Life’s Not Yoga.
It teaches us to discover or rediscover who we are and to step up to the plate – to be just who we are without any excuses or reservations. To BE LOVE.
I now see beauty in the madness, and I laugh at it. Jacqui’s book has equipped me to face my past emotional, painful stories, which includes coping with Cancer.
I would recommend this easy, gripping read to anyone, whether it is reading for learning or pleasure.
My review of Life's Not Yoga could be a book too as each time I’ve read it, there were new awakenings, fresh eyes, a wide-open soul, a heart-pumping love and a clear conscious as I understand me. Xx - Wilma, Goodreads Review and Rating, 10 July 2021
Most days, I get similar private messages from readers around the world. This is when it all makes sense to me. It’s this compassionate connection between reader and writer that makes the writing worthwhile.
What are you working on now?
I am currently working on marketing my memoir, Life’s Not Yoga, and the Dare to Be Love message.
Daily, I create and post content for my social media followers, who like me, I see as Spiritual Revolutionaries, inspired to see, and bring more peace into the world.
Towards the end of the year, I plan to start working on my next book.
"Some people travel to India to find themselves, others to the USA! Life's Not Yoga is a compelling UPLIFTING must-read memoir. Through her story Jacqui Burnett shows us how to stay present in the face of our pain and fear, to overcome anxiety, heal our inner child and build a brighter future." - Natasha Dom, @sashadomyoga
She was born into a perfect family, but by age 16 Jacqui Burnett wants to kill her father.
Decades later Jacqui believes she's left her turbulent childhood past and the trauma of multiple near-death experiences behind her.
On the surface, she has everything she’s ever dreamed of – a solid education, success, and a wonderful husband.
What Jacqui doesn’t know is that she’s about to lose everything.
She was about to step into a board meeting but instead she slid from her office chair and cowered under her desk, sobbing. As managing director, she was meant to announce a year of outstanding results; instead, she was paralysed.
In a desperate search for answers, Jacqui travels to America. Alone in the Rocky Mountains, her life starts unravelling and the truth of her chaotic childhood begins to emerge.
Amidst confused attempts to find love and meaning, Jacqui has to face death one more time, along with an avalanche of unexpected obstacles, before rising from the ashes to heal.
To Buy: https://jacquiburnett.com/buy-book/
"Life's Not Yoga bounces between stream-of-consciousness and the exasperation of 'moving-on' and honest to goodness declarations of frustration at her own life choices. Burnett opens to her readers in the most admirable and courageous of ways, and I would be remiss as an empathetic reader if I did not acknowledge how difficult that must have been. Jacqui Burnett is a superb storyteller. Her life has not been easy, and it is an honor to read the prose of an incessantly curious and deeply courageous human being who seems to have made a lot of sacrifices to pursue her dreams. – Meg Orton, For the Love of MEG Book Reviews
"Equal to the power of Jacqui’s circumstances is the power of her voice (her written word). It is one of the most commanding voices of any memoir I have read, filled with clever observations that ring true. Thank you, Jacqui Burnett, for being so courageous to share and thus providing 'an educational tool for readers also wanting to live a life of joy'. - Natalie Wittwen, Stillness in Motion
"It’s Jacqui’s engagingly frank voice and fierce self-enquiry that drives this fast-paced gripping tale through all its spirited twists and turns.” - Nina Geraghty, Writer and Developmental Editor
“On one level, this is a tale of looking for love in all the wrong places, but on a deeper level, it’s a story of how adversity, viewed through the lens of insight and wisdom, leads to hope and redemption. The miracle is that she comes out the other side alive - and willing to use her life story to inspire others to survive and flourish.” - Giles Griffin, Writer and Writing Guide
This memoir is for anyone who has battled with emotional abuse, financial loss, depression, heartbreak, divorce, burnout, PTSD, anxiety, or fibromyalgia, looking for understanding on how to heal themselves.
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