Book Picks for Self-Care and Emotional Resilience
Heart Minded: How to Hold Yourself and Others in Love, by Sarah Blondin
"We suffer when we become separated from our deepest, truest nature. Heart Minded offers us guidance on the sacred journey home . . . helping us to awaken from our busy, never satisfied minds to the heartspace where love is always and already right here."
~Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance
"A relevant, practical guide, full of inspiration to help you clear the channel of your heart and follow your truth."
~Elena Brower, bestselling author of Practice You
"Gentle and wise, Blondin's approach is characterized by the bedside manner of devoted midwife to your healing process. Like her voice, it is a soothing poultice for the weary-but-spirited seeker. Heart Minded will crack you open down the middle from page one. It is all at once a centering meditation, a practice, and an olive branch extended into the depths of your soul."
~Pixie Lighthorse, author of Prayers of Honoring
A treasury of meditations for living from your heart--from a top teacher at the #1 online meditation service InsightTimer. In our noisy, noisy world, it can seem nearly impossible to find ways to turn off our busy minds, which so often flood us with worry and unending lists of tasks. So how do you find your way off the negativity treadmill? When you feel overwhelmed and afraid, how can you return to a place of groundedness and connection?"When we turn toward our hearts, we arrive like a bolt of lightning in the present moment, and all our arguments against ourselves and life go quiet," teaches Sarah Blondin. "No matter where you are, no matter what you are doing, you can touch this place in yourself to feel free and alive."With poetic brilliance and skillful instruction, this renowned teacher brings you a treasury of meditations and spiritual teachings to help you detach from your busy mind and tune into your feeling heart. As the students of her popular online trainings can attest, these simple and powerful practices can instantly bring you into a deeper connection with yourself and others. And you can go back to these meditations whenever you feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or afraid.Read Heart Minded from front to back for a full course in living a life guided by the wise heart--or open to any page for a reminder that, beneath your burdens and troubles, you are fundamentally whole and free.This book includes links to free guided meditations on audio, presented by Sarah Blondin.
Meet the Author
Sarah Blondin's InsightTimer meditations have received over 7 million plays from over 600,000 listeners. She is also host of her own half-million-listener podcast Live Awake. Her work has been translated into several languages and is in use in prison, recovery, and wellness programs. Her online course, Coming Home to Yourself, released in the spring of 2018, is InsightTimer's top seller. She lives in the quiet countryside of British Columbia, Canada, with her husband and two sons. More at sarahblondin.com.
Emotional Inflammation by Lise Van Susteren, M.D. and Stacey Colino
A Powerful Guide for Overcoming the Emotional Challenges of Our Turbulent Times.A rising number of people today are troubled by a phenomenon for which they don't know there's a name. This condition is called emotional inflammation--a state not unlike post-traumatic stress disorder, but one that stems from simply living in today's anxious, overwhelming, and tumultuous world. If you've suffered from sleep problems, hyperreactivity, persistent grief, or inescapable worry about the future--especially triggered by the nonstop news cycle--then you're probably dealing with emotional inflammation.The good news is: there's something you can do about it.With Emotional Inflammation, general and forensic psychiatrist Dr. Lise Van Susteren joins writer Stacey Colino to present a breakthrough guide to help you become grounded and resilient in these turbulent times. You'll begin by determining your "reactor type" to better understand how your body and mind respond to stress overload. Then you'll learn the vital steps of the powerful RESTORE program for recovering inner balance, personal effectiveness, and joy in your life:- Recognize Your Feelings: how to identify, unpack, and learn from difficult emotions- Evaluate Your Triggers: pinpoint what sets you off and how you can moderate your reactivity- Steady Your Body's Natural Rhythms: keys for restoring your natural, healthy internal equilibrium- Think Yourself into a Safe Space: work with your mind to remain flexible, thoughtful, and adaptable- Obey Your Body: essential self-care practices for diet, exercise, stress management, and more- Reclaim the Gifts of Nature: revitalize your healing connection to the natural world and its awe-inspiring benefits- Exercise Your Power: become an "upstander" who takes effective action from a place of compassion, hope, and loveCompleting the basics of this method, the authors share key insights on how to personalize RESTORE to fit into your life based on which of the four reactor types you identify with--Nervous, Revved, Molten, or Retreating.You can't always control the crises and catastrophes that are swirling around you. But that does not mean you're powerless against the status quo--nor do you need to be at the mercy of the physiological, psychological, and spiritual stress responses inside you. With Emotional Inflammation, you now have an invaluable guide to help you cope with the challenges of a turbulent world, calm your body and mind, and reclaim a sense of peace, purpose, and connection to others.
Meet the Authors
Lise Van Susteren, MD, previously served as a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University. She is a go-to commentator about anxiety and trauma for television (including CNN, Good Morning America, NBC, VOA, and Fox News), radio (NPR, Minnesota Public Radio, and others), print media (including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, the Huffington Post, and CQ Magazine), and online outlets (such as Live Science, U.S. News & World Report, Global Health NOW, and many others).As a thought leader and activist, Dr. Van Susteren addresses issues related to trauma and emotional inflammation through her roles at the Earth Day Network and Physicians for Social Responsibility. She is considered an expert in the psychological effects of climate change.Stacey Colino is an award-winning writer specializing in health and psychology. In addition to her work as a book collaborator, she is a regular contributor to U.S. News & World Report and AARP.org. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post Health section, Newsweek, Parade, Cosmopolitan, Real Simple, Health, Prevention, Woman's Day, Harper's Bazaar, Parents, and Good Housekeeping, among other magazines and newspapers.
The Art of Sparkling: Share Your Inner Light with the World, by Becky Brittain, PhD
"'Become a sparkler!' I was entranced. What play, what practice, what purpose!I have been ignited by Becky Brittain and life will never be the same. Get your spark on!Follow this inspiring instructional manual immediately.Along with the breath of prana, the 'art, dance, and science of sparkling' is how the gods and goddesses of all species purify and powerize!"
~James Wanless, Ph.D., author of Intuition @ Work: & at Home and at Play and Sustainable Life: The New Success
A powerfully positive practice created by Santa Barbara local Becky Brittain, The Art of Sparkling will energize and enliven you and everyone and everything around you. Becky Brittain is a clinically trained psychotherapist, life coach and registered dance-movement therapist. Dr. Brittain's passion is helping others shine more brightly. Sparkling is a transmission of energies visualized as sparkling light. She sends out this radiant light through her fingers to intentionally enliven people, nature and animals. As she says, it's a dance in light! Here is what some of her fellow sparklers say about this effervescent light-filled energy exchange.Ushma from England says: "There is an innate magic in every quanta that makes up all you perceive around you. That magic is inherent to the divine that you are. It is the sparkle factor-and when you observe as that divine Sparkler, you bring it to life, outside and in!""Sparkling restores me when my emotional energies feel fragmented. I know I can replenish myself," Jeanne from Missouri says.Christina from Connecticut adds, "Sparkling lets me shoot out golden bolts of electric light through my fingers to revitalize my world and charge up my work projects."Once you've read The Art of Sparkling, Share Your Inner Light with the World, you'll be sparkling, too!
