What People Are Saying…

"A touching anecdote on the journey of self-discovery and restoration to one’s true self. Return to the Light Within: How I Woke Up, Rediscovered Who I am, and Found Happiness touches on life’s most important questions of true purpose, self-fulfillment, and the foremost importance of love. Empathetic, raw, and authentic this memoir will inspire self-exploration and uncover the gravity of healing."

-Theresa Kadair, San Francisco Book Review

“A thought-provoking and incredibly moving read with so many relatable moments!  “Return to the Light Within” sparked a deep remembrance and allowed me to ask the right questions in my own journey.” 

- Lisann Valentin, Actress

“Dmitria takes you with her as she steps out of the nine to five and discovers her soul purpose in this life. Trusting the process through the growing pains can pay off for all of us. Dmitria shows the potential in every life when you embrace your purpose and step into your light! The journey is real, the hope is real, the benefits will last for lifetimes!”

- Jon Filbert, Texas

Industry Book Reviews

Booklife

In her succinct literary debut, Burby pens a cross between a memoir and a New Age self-help manual that will entice spiritually open-minded readers. Before her spiritual awakening, Burby packed every second of her life with tasks to complete—and despite all of the outward trappings of success, still found herself miserable. When she started the blog G.R.I.T. (Girls Rise in Truth) with friends and subsequently had a “shamanic intervention”— an intense, out-of-body spiritual experience—her life begins to transform. “I know that a part of me died in that experience; a part that needed to be shed and released, allowing the new, fresh me to emerge,” she writes. Suddenly, she began to process painful childhood experiences, finally purging them from her body and soul. Now she offers guidance as to how her readers can do the same.

Burby writes with clear passion for her subject, generously allowing herself to be vulnerable and honest in the hope that sharing her story will help others. That generosity of spirit surely nudged her toward her choice to become a healer dedicated to helping people remove energy and emotional burdens and blocks. Burby argues that as their awareness and consciousness start to expand, the world and universe that readers are able to see and comprehend will expand too—and that both are much grander than what we see and experience with our five senses.

Not everyone will have an identical spiritual awakening, of course, or handle it with Burby’s blend of grace, verve, and earnestness, but readers curious about spirituality in the age of Covid can learn from her selflessness and quest for truth and authenticity. This short but wise tome will appeal to those who intend to live their own truths, and to those open to a spiritual journey but looking for a nudge or a guide.

Takeaway: Burby’s powerful and earnest spiritual journey will lend inspiration to others on the road to enlightenment.

Great for fans of: Louise Hay, James Van Praagh, Gabby Bernstein

San Francisco Book Review

Star Rating: 4 / 5

Dmitria Burby’s Return to the Light Within: How I Woke Up, Rediscovered Who I am, and Found Happiness vulnerably recounts her personal journey from a high achieving career to becoming a spiritual healer. This memoir conveys Burby’s struggles with separating her self-worth from her productivity levels, guilt from her ambitions, and overwhelming anxiety revolving around her life’s purpose.

The memoir begins by highlighting the question of “Who am I?”, an answer many think they know but as Burby reveals do not. Her personal journey began with this question as she realized she could not answer what her purpose was and why she was unfulfilled. Living a seemingly picture-perfect life with a beautiful family and a very successful career, Burby struggled with these feelings, suppressing them. The more she pushed away from this unhappiness with “busyness”, the worse she became and developed severe anxiety. After taking medications and seeing therapists, Burby realized she needed to start a journey of self-discovery if she ever wanted to feel happy.

This journey, however, did not come easily. With a high-demanding job, it was hard for her to prioritize herself over her deadlines and she chose to switch jobs realizing this was essential for her growth. As the reader will find out, this switch was a catalyst for her learning on work culture, leadership, comfort zones, and empathy to others. In hindsight, Burby is able to look back and see both of these jobs as steppingstones to her ultimate purpose and path.

As the memoir continues an emphasis is placed on the experience Burby has with a shamanic healer. This healer helps her release repressed emotions and burdens from her childhood to the present, permanently changing Burby’s life. By cleansing her of the negative energy she was feeling, Burby finds the courage to shift her definition of success, changing her entire life’s focus. Instead of tying her confidence and worth to external success, she now finds the strength to see these traits as a personal path. Burby starts focusing more heavily on her children, marriage, mindfulness, mediation, and overall rebirth into a stronger, better version of herself. She is able to journey into her future with a renewed sense of clarity, finally being able to answer the question of “Who am I”. The more in tune she becomes with herself, she is able to help other people experiencing similar trials and is able to connect with the spiritual realm on a higher level. Personally unfamiliar with shamanic healing methods and visions, I found this memoir both educating and refreshingly authentic. To anyone struggling with their personal journey of growth and healing, this memoir is a worthwhile read. 

Reviewed by Theresa Kadair, San Francisco Book Review

Midwest Book Review

Return to the Light Within: How I Woke Up, Rediscovered Who I Am, and Found Happiness is a memoir of transformation that charts the path of Dmitria Burby, who discovered that, despite holding the trappings of happiness in career and family, she remained unfulfilled and disconnected.

Her spiritual revelations come to life in a story replete in interpretations and considerations of the Divine and how each spirit's desire for growth and connection influence choices and life trajectories.

Burby does more than outline her life influences.

She focuses on what circumstances built her belief system, how she lived it, and her feelings about this lifestyle: "I had done everything that I had been taught was how you “made it” and became successful...For years, the building of my life and the world around me was enough to keep me distracted. I was busy, and I was seeing the things I was told were going to make me happy fall nicely into place. But the truth was that things were not perfect. Under the layers of the perfect family and successful career, I was depressed, exhausted, and suffering from extreme anxiety. It seemed that no matter how I tried to solve those underlying issues, nothing seemed to work. In fact, the more years that went by, the more I found that the issues were getting worse. It made no sense to me. I had everything that I wanted in my life. I had everything I should have needed to be happy and joyful at my fingertips. Why couldn’t I engage in the life that I had spent so many years creating for myself? Why couldn’t I relax and enjoy the fruits of all of my labor?"

Passages like these, which are replete through the memoir, set Return to the Light Within apart from many spiritual reflections or autobiographical stories. 

Burby's continuing focus on her pursuits, their results, and evolving new commitments to self, marriage, and focus on a "divine path" to a different success story drive an account filled with examples of how this process actually operates in the real world.

Two prerequisites are required for complete satisfaction with this engaging book: an acceptance of basic spiritual influences on life, and an interest in seeing exactly how these influences redirect choices, perceptions, and values to connect with the reader's own interest in awakening and transformation.

Those who want to capture a sense of how all this works and apply these lessons to their own experiences with newfound insights and wisdom will find Return to the Light Within more than just another memoir of enlightenment.

It's a blueprint for self-discovery that charts the course through ceremonies, rituals, and change that applies not just to the author, but her readers, as well.

Review by D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review