We are very pleased to be giving away three copies of Pauline Grogan’s book, ‘Miss adventure: healing with music’, to our GrownUps members.
All you need to do to enter the draw is be a GrownUps member, make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter and fill in your details near the bottom of the page!
About Miss adventure: healing with music
“The music of my lifetime has enabled me to endure physical, psychological and deep emotional pain.”
Compelling, shocking and full of wisdom, miss adventure is Pauline Grogan’s extraordinary life story.
A tale that began with her bestselling memoir Beyond the Veil is taken up with fresh insight as she traverses roles as a nun, mother, actor, teacher, celebrant and author. Opening with the reality of life following two strokes in 2020 as a result of medical treatments, miss adventure is an odyssey of the human spirit. Despite being trapped in a body tormented by chronic neuropathic pain, Pauline’s deep belief in affecting positive change for others is woven throughout her story, as she connects with taxi drivers, medical specialists, neighbours, former students, old friends and mentors.
Moving and compelling, miss adventure demonstrates the power of music as therapy to bridge generations, sooth chronic pain and assist in the treatment of dementia and stroke survivors. After suffering a stroke in 2009, her friend Colleen was left unable to recognise many of those around her. In 2013, Pauline wrote a song for Colleen and sang it to her during a weekly visit. “Suddenly, she stirred, making slow, almost static movements…She peered into my face, scrutinising it with full focus and intention…In a clear voice she said, ’It’s you, it’s you, it’s you, it’s you.’”
“I realised I had witnessed an extraordinary shift in her: she was present to me in the music, then was gone when it ceased. Something bigger than us had happened”.
Miss adventure provides scientific evidence from a committed and experienced advocate about how music can reach patients in ways other treatments can’t. ‘…music activates every area of our brain and hits our motivation centres. When I’m listening to my music, sufficient opioids are released to lower the intensity of pain I am experiencing.’
This book will appeal to those living with chronic pain and their caregivers, therapists and clinicians and anyone with a love of inspirational life stories. It is an excellent companion book to New York Times bestselling author Professor Daniel Levitin’s Music as Medicine: How We Can Harness Its Therapeutic Power and Waking the Spirit: A Musician’s Journey Healing Body, Mind and Soul by Andrew Schulman.
Pauline Grogan has lived and breathed music’s healing power all her life, growing up with a mother who contracted polio and later taught the piano. As a Catholic nun for 12 years, she was thrown into teaching and discovered a lifelong passion for educating children. Pauline left the convent and married. Beyond the Veil in 1996 propelled her into the public eye, with inspirational speaking tours, a one-woman play and a business start-up as a marriage and funeral celebrant, alongside relief teaching.
Her degree included a thesis on the impact of strokes on families, a lived experience. She contributed to Life After Stroke: NZ guidelines in best practice for rehab after stroke (1995), and she worked with children with severe disabilities as a music therapist at the Wilson Home in Auckland.
Pauline launched My music ignites my soul in 2020, a collaborative project that bridges the divide that has grown between the generations with institutional care. She has been recognised with two Paul Harris awards by Rotary, the highest recognition NZ Rotary can present to a community member.
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Terms and conditions
- You must be a GrownUps member and receive our newsletter to be eligible to win.
- Competition closes on the 2nd April 2025, winners will be notified via email by 3rd April 2025.
- It is your responsibility to ensure you correctly enter a New Zealand postal address where the prize can be sent. GrownUps will not take responsibility for prizes sent to incorrect addresses.
- Winners are drawn at random by the GrownUps administration team.
- GrownUps employees and family are not eligible to enter.
- By entering the giveaway, you approve for GrownUps to use your name on social media as winner of the competition.
- One entry per household.
- Prize in non transferrable.
- You must reside in New Zealand – the prize can only be redeemed within New Zealand.
- You must be over 50 years of age to enter, please check your details are correct in your membership dashboard.
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