The Thundering Years

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This guide helps teens harness the intense emotions and drives of late adolescence using wisdom from diverse cultures. It features exercises, personal and community rituals, and resources designed to navigate the Thundering Years without resorting to violence, drug abuse, or other self-destructive behaviors. Inspirational quotes from various spiritual traditions, along with real-life experiences of young adults, provide encouragement. The Thundering Years represent a critical life transition filled with passion, pain, and self-exploration. According to native traditions, this period is about listening to intense feelings, dreams, and desires—embracing the outrageous and challenging aspects of growth. Author Julie Tallard Johnson shares insights from around the globe to help you emerge from these years with your creativity, soul, and humor intact. She offers techniques and traditions to harness the powerful energy of this time, demonstrating that respectful engagement with your inner "thunder" can build confidence and help achieve your dreams. The book includes mindfulness and energizing meditations, vision quests, dream weaving, drum medicine, initiations, rites of passage, rituals for anger release and seasonal celebrations, as well as guidance on creating journals and medicine bags and finding your creative community.