The Guided Heart


Book Description

"When we discover within ourselves that we are stronger because of struggle, we take power away from the pain itself and the hold it has over us." - Victoria Volk, excerpt from The Guided Heart: Moving Through Grief and Finding Spiritual Solace Every one of us experiences grief at some point in life. There's a tendency to think of grief as losing a loved one; however, one can also experience grief after closing various chapters--such as a relationship or a business. Volk explains how her experience with grief due to the loss of her father during childhood was both the source of years of heartache and pain but also the birthplace of strength, spirituality, and empathy. The Guided Heart is not written from the perspective of someone with a doctorate degree, but from the heart of someone who's found a way to discover the other side of grief in adulthood. It's a coming-of-age story of an eight-year-old girl who, in her thirties, found the courage to lean into the pain of her past. In a world where it's commonplace to numb ourselves with self-sabotaging behavior, diving deep into our own misery is an unthinkable and unimaginable task. We know by doing so, we may be called to change--and change is uncomfortable and also takes courage. Courage, which by definition means strength in the face of pain or grief. Join Victoria on her journey from childhood grief into adulthood, and you, too, may find the strength to face your own pain or grief.




A Path with Heart


Book Description

“This important guidebook shows in detail and with great humor and insight the way to practice the Buddha’s universal teachings here in the West. Jack Kornfield is a wonderful storyteller and a great teacher.”—Thich Nhat Hanh “Jack is helping to pave the path for American Buddhism, bringing essential basics into our crazy modern lives. And the language he uses is as simple and as lovely as our breath.”—Natalie Goldberg Perhaps the most important book yet written on meditation, the process of inner transformation, and the integration of spiritual practice into our American way of life, A Path with Heart brings alive one by one the challenges of spiritual living in the modern world. Written by a teacher, psychologist, and meditation master of international renown, this warm, inspiring, and expert book touches on a wide range of essential issues including many rarely addressed in spiritual books. From compassion, addiction, and psychological and emotional healing, to dealing with problems involving relationships and sexuality, to the creation of a Zen-like simplicity and balance in all facets of life, it speaks to the concerns of many modern spiritual seekers, both those beginning on the path and those with years of experience. A Path with Heart is filled with practical techniques, guided meditations, stories, koans, and other gems of wisdom that can help ease your journey through the world. The author’s own profound—and sometimes humorous—experiences and gentle assistance will skillfully guide you through the obstacles and trials of spiritual and contemporary life to bring a clarity of perception and a sense of the sacred into your everyday experience. Reading this book will touch your heart and remind you of the promises inherent in meditation and in a life of the spirit: the blossoming of inner peace, wholeness, and understanding, and the achievement of a happiness that is not dependent on external conditions. Sure to be a classic, A Path with Heart shows us how we can bring our spirituality to flower every day of our lives. It is a wise and gentle guidebook for an odyssey into the soul that enables us to achieve a deeper, more satisfying life in the world.




Healing A Broken Heart


Book Description

The loss of a love is a nearly universal emotional crisis, whether the end is divorce, desertion, or a mutually agreed-upon separation. At first, friends and family are there to offer a shoulder to cry on, but after a few months there's an expectation that we just need to get over the crisis and move on. Thus, unprocessed, painful feelings are buried, leaving us numb. Or we repeat damaging relationship patterns over and over again. The situation doesn't have to be like that. Healing a Broken Heart guides those of us grieving for a lost love through four metaphorical seasons of recovery with provocative questions -- and journal pages on which to respond -- to help move us forward. The four seasons serve as powerful metaphors for the stages of the grieving process. Summer is the season for charting the course of a relationship: remembering hopes and expectations, the warning signs that went unheeded. During autumn, journalers accept the reality of breaking up and acknowledge things about the relationship that didn't serve their needs. Winter brings the pain of grief over the profound loss. Finally, spring -- and, with it, renewal -- invites readers to examine and understand how their family history may have affected their past relationships. Punctuated throughout with poems and moving meditations, the thoughtful, interactive approach of this book offers the time and space we all need to heal when our hearts are broken.




Opening Your Heart


Book Description

This introductory course has been designed for women who are brand new to Walking with Purpose as well as those with more experience in Bible study. The themes we'll explore are the timeless, foundational, core questions that people return to century after century. Delving into these topics will help fill holes in our spiritual foundations so that we have something firm to stand on when life gets shaky. A DVD series, Priorities complements the course. Immensely practical and encouraging, Opening Your Heart is the perfect starting point as you seek to grow closer to God.




Guided Hearts


Book Description

Laurel Quincy’s respectable life is suddenly shattered by the betrayal of her husband. Everything she thought she knew about him, and their life together was destroyed the day the FBI raided the bank where she was its president. A web of lies and deceit had cost her everything she holds dear: job, home, and financial security. Looking for clarity and solace she seeks her parents grave in historic Pioneer Cemetery. Her deliverance suddenly appears when she meets Maggie, an eccentric old woman fond of wearing pink fuzzy slippers and tattered bathrobe. She proves to be a good friend and advisor, guiding Laurel in rebuilding her life and again trusting in love.




Shift into Freedom


Book Description

It is possible to access the same sense of well-being, clarity, inner freedom, and loving connection realized by the world’s meditation masters. We can do this by shifting our awareness in the midst of our daily lives. Shift into Freedom presents innovative teacher Loch Kelly’s training manual for actively participating in the evolution of your own consciousness. Synthesizing insights from neuroscience and psychology with wisdom from the world’s contemplative traditions, Shift into Freedom offers an accessible and remarkably powerful series of meditations that lead us to a little-known natural capacity called “awake awareness.” Through an unfolding process of “small glimpses, many times,” these exercises shift us from a thought-based knowing to an awareness-based way of operating in the world. With continued practice, we learn to “unhook” from our customary home in our ego-based identity—and then sustain an embodied presence and relatedness known as “open-hearted awareness.” Loch Kelly teaches that this is “the meeting place of awakening and growing up, where we have the capacity to handle a fully emotional, intimate life and act with authenticity and compassion.” Learn more about: • How to separate awareness from thinking to realize that thoughts and emotions are not the center of who we are • How insights from neuroscience can help us learn how to embody awakening • Ego-identification, a pattern of thought that co-opts the body’s boundary program and creates a mistaken identity • The paradox of “being home while returning home” • Finding the off-switch for the chattering mind • How to intentionally and immediately shift into peace of mind any time of your day • Awakening as a natural process of human development, which unfolds as waking up, waking in, and waking out • Meditation practices for all phases of the journey of awakening and embodiment • Four stages of spiritual growth: recognition, realization, stabilization, and expression • Untying the “knots” in our mindbody system to liberate us from our deepest doubts and fears • How to move from deliberate mindfulness to effortless mindfulness and heart mindfulness • How to effortlessly focus without using attention • Discovering your innate happiness that is not dependent on circumstances • How to welcome and liberate sub-personalities after initial awakening • A user’s manual for your consciousness to help you free yourself from the limits of ego-identification and live from open-hearted awareness




Awakening the Kind Heart


Book Description

Everyone appreciates kindness. A smile, a few friendly words, a show of concern when we're troubled or feeling unwell, an offer of help - gestures of kindness like these brighten our day and ease whatever sadness we may feel in our hearts. Feeling that "someone cares" fulfills a very deep need that we all have. And just as we appreciate other people being kind to us, others appreciate it when we are kind to them. That is why it is important to learn to be kind, because it will help make our relationships and interactions with others more satisfying and less problematic. But it's not always easy to be kind. Sometimes our hearts are filled with anger, jealousy, or pride, and being kind is the last thing we feel like doing. Or we get so caught up in our work and responsibilities that we find no time to think of others and their needs, no time to be kind and gentle. However, these problems can be remedied. The Buddhist tradition offers a wealth of methods that can be used to overcome whatever prevents us from being kind and gentle. Some of these methods are explored and explained in this book - in a way that will allow you to practice them in your daily life. Awakening the Kind Heart offers powerful and inviting meditation techniques to activate the heart of kindness within us all - a modern and motivating interpretation of traditional and powerful practices.




Radical Compassion


Book Description

One of the most beloved and trusted mindfulness teachers in America offers a lifeline for difficult times: the RAIN meditation, which awakens our courage and heart Tara Brach is an in-the-trenches teacher whose work counters today's ever-increasing onslaught of news, conflict, demands, and anxieties--stresses that leave us rushing around on auto-pilot and cut off from the presence and creativity that give our lives meaning. In this heartfelt and deeply practical book, she offers an antidote: an easy-to-learn four-step meditation that quickly loosens the grip of difficult emotions and limiting beliefs. Each step in the meditation practice (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) is brought to life by memorable stories shared by Tara and her students as they deal with feelings of overwhelm, loss, and self-aversion, with painful relationships, and past trauma--and as they discover step-by-step the sources of love, forgiveness, compassion, and deep wisdom alive within all of us. A PENGUIN LIFE TITLE




Journey to the Heart


Book Description

Journey to the Heart by New York Times bestselling author of Codependent No More, Beyond Codependency, and Lessons of Love, contains 365 insightful daily meditations that inspire readers to unlock their personal creativity and discover their divine purposes in life. “Melody Beattie gives you the tools to discover the magnificence and splendor of your being.” –Deepak Chopra, author of Jesus and Buddha




Inside My Heart Guided Journal


Book Description

"Reflect on the life you've lived thus far. And on the life you are living now. This is what this guided journal is all about?to make a choice to put yourself first and to make the time to think about and create the life you want." A woman loves to share her heart?and in this guided journal based on her bestselling book, Inside My Heart: Choosing to Live with Passion and Purpose, Robin McGraw speaks directly from her heart, challenging you to recognize and develop your own unique role in life and make your own choices to find who you are meant to be. In a heart-to-heart conversational tone, Robin shares moments from her own life to show how you can make choices that truly reflect your own heart's truest priorities and highest goals. Her thought-provoking questions then inspire you to define your own purpose and passion in life, as well as choosing how to: Have a confident, discerning heart Set priorities Choose wisely Draw on your inner strengths Robin also offers candid, personal examples of how to set boundaries, live with grace and integrity, and leave a legacy of love for the important people in your world. Her Inside My Heart Guided Journal encourages you to make deliberate, knowledgeable choices in order to lead a richer, happier, and more meaningful life. Robin's encouraging words will give you the confidence to embrace your own life of joy and abundance.