How do we escape the traps that we subconsciously set for ourselves when faced with rejection, self-betrayal, fear, fake love, and shame? Local author Leslie D. Ricks shows readers how one can overcome their traps through grace. “The Trap Volume One Overcoming In Grace” is the first book in Ricks three-part series focused on helping readers push past the traps their minds set for themselves when faced with ugly truths individuals would prefer to keep hidden.
“I believe in building better relationships, and you can’t do that if you don’t connect. If you don’t challenge the peer circle around you to grow, then you’re not really connecting. You actually have a wall that enables you from allowing people in, and it cripples you from getting out. So that is one way to engage and connect and to show the audience that okay if I can identify my traps, then while your traps may not look like mine, you can identify yours, and we can connect in the process of overcoming them” Ricks said.
Ricks first volume focuses on overcoming rejection, self-betrayal, fear, fake love, and shame, which impact both men and women. These traps Ricks explained can be felt in a variety of ways. An example of one trap is set from rejection that everyone thinks in one way or another, from rejection in an intimate relationship to rejection at work. After each chapter in the volume, Ricks has a clear affirmation written out encouraging others in their journey as they slowly recognize the traps they have laid for themselves and work to overcome them.
Ricks focuses on connecting with her readership, not through the shared traps but rather the shared experience of overcoming them.
“It’s important that we don’t build relationships on the things that trap us,” Ricks said. “That’s the core that I want people to take away. I’m not going to identify with you because we’ve both been rejected and are both angry. No, I’m going to identify with the fact that we are overcoming in grace. We are choosing to be grateful, that we are choosing to be overcomers, and we are making those proclamations. It just so happens that we have those shared experiences at some level.”
Initially releasing her first volume in 2020, Ricks said she would like to re-release her first volume to better connect with her audience due to the difficulties individuals had connecting due to the 2020 pandemic. A connection that she says is just as important as giving them the tools to overcome their traps.
“To transform and to change the process can’t be rushed because some people will pick up my book – and they start, and they stop, and it’s heavy. So it’s critical that I connect because it’s not about a sale, it’s about transforming, it is about the proclamation and declaration that it’s not just me who is an overcomer but my audience as well.”
Ricks said this process is intimate and is meant to help people make their proclamations and declarations by committing to the process. A process that is not just mirroring Ricks journey but shaping one of their own.
Ricks is transparent about her own experiences when she was in as she describes her dungeon struggling with traps she set for herself while dealing with PTSD, overcoming obesity, and her diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
While Ricks hopes to share her experience and help readers recognize and overcome their traps through “The Trap Overcoming In Grace,” she cautions readers to acknowledge that there is no easy fix process regarding overcoming traps.
“As long as we’re living, there is always something we can overcome to be our best selves, and it’s a process that can’t be rushed,” she said. “There are plenty of self-help books, but what I find in a lot of those self-help books is that you don’t get people’s raw truth. People want raw truth from real people, and here you get my raw truth because I am a real woman. I’m no longer ashamed to share my truth about being diagnosed with bipolar, PTSD, depression, or advanced anxiety and the fact that I’m a Christian woman. I think that’s what makes what I’m doing different.”
Ricks has a strong need to be there for her readers, connecting with them when they face harsh truths. By sharing her story, Ricks said she wants to be an example of someone that shows up every day even when the world is against them.
“Every day we get up, we have an opportunity to show up and overcome, and it may not be pretty but overcoming is not the end result it’s the process it’s the fact that you don’t give up the fact that you show up,” Ricks said. “Sometimes I show up with no eyelashes, no weaves, and no makeup, and you know what? I’m there, and if that’s the best I have at that moment, it’s okay. I’m not in my dungeon.”
To learn more about Leslie D. Ricks and her work follow her Instagram @oig_lesliericks and her website → www.lesliericks.com
