Resilience - Book Review
As we all know, life is not always smooth sailing. Sometimes unexpected events can provide rough waters to navigate that present themselves in a myriad of forms: natural disasters, car accidents, the death of a loved one or an unsettling medical diagnosis, just to name a few. While we can't control the waves of life, we can learn how to surf the waves and cope resiliently with any challenge that life offers. In Linda Graham's newest book, Resilience: Powerful Practices for Bouncing Back from Disappointment, Difficulty, and Even Disaster, we are offered not only guidance and understanding but over 100 exercises to help us successfully navigate and surf the often turbulent waves of life.
Linda Graham, MFT, is a licensed therapist, author and teacher who integrates neuroscience, mindfulness and relational psychology to bring us valuable tools to build a resilient life. By training us and our brains, Graham states that she can help us learn to "respond skillfully to the most common and the most challenging external stressors."
Modern neuroscience is shedding new light on the ability of the brain to grow new neurons and create new neural circuitry throughout our lives. No matter what age, our brains have the capability to rewire old habits, behaviors, and responses to be more resilient and shift perspective to life challenging events. You might be familiar with the saying, "Neurons that fire together, wire together", by neuropsychologist Donald Hebb. This saying describes the way in which pathways of the brain are formed and reinforced through repetition. Graham states that "when we choose to cultivate experiences that that will create new patterns of circuitry in the brain, we are choosing to change our brains in ways that will change our lives for the better."
This is not the type of book that you read and set back on the shelf. This book is a companion to help you surf the sometimes surly waves of life. With 130 experiential exercises ranging from practicing Somatic Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence, Relational Intelligence, Reflective Intelligence and Full-On Resilience, readers will have the tools, as Graham says, "to cope resiliently, no matter what life may throw at us, no matter what level of disruption to our resilience we're facing...learning tools to create change leads to a realization that I can create change, and that leads to the view of the self that I am someone who can create change. That's empowering, and it's powerful."
Learn more about this life changing title along with a valuable exercise offered in the book in the short interview below with author Linda Graham:
Order your copy of this powerful book here: Resilience: Powerful Practices for Bouncing Back from Disappointment, Difficulty, and Even Disaster
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Are You "Mind Full" Or Mindful? (5 Helpful Books That Will Get You There)
It's no secret that our minds become preoccupied with everyday happenings; get the kids up and ready for school on time, quickly run to the grocery store and the bank before flying home to prepare meals and finish folding the laundry. It's time to take a breathe and ask; Am I being "mind full" or mindful?
Great spiritual leaders throughout time, like yogis, shamans, mystics and others, connect to a realm of universal peace, which exists at a higher frequency. By evolving consciousness through yoga and meditation, we are able to rise above the daily grind, and find peace in just existing.
frequencyRiser offers the tools needed to elevate to a higher level of awareness.
When we exist at a higher frequency all aspects of life become powerfully sublime.
Where do we start? What do we do to find inner peace? Below are some books to help you on your journey to enlightenment.
Cultivating Mindfulness: How to Practice Mindfulness Meditation
Cultivating mindfulness is the key to overcoming suffering and recognizing natural wisdom: both our own and others'. How do we go about it?
In the Buddhist tradition and in Contemplative Psychotherapy training, we nurture mindfulness through the practice of sitting meditation. There are many different kinds of meditation. For example, some are designed to help us relax; others are meant to produce altered states of consciousness.
Mindfulness meditation is unique in that it is not directed toward getting us to be different from how we already are. Instead, it helps us become aware of what is already true moment by moment. We could say that it teaches us how to be unconditionally present; that is, it helps us be present with whatever is happening, no matter what it is.
Mindfulness, paying precise, nonjudgmental attention to the details of our experience as it arises and subsides, doesn't reject anything. Instead of struggling to get away from experiences we find difficult, we practice being able to be with them. Equally, we bring mindfulness to pleasant experiences as well. Perhaps surprisingly, many times we have a hard time staying simply present with happiness. We turn it into something more familiar, like worrying that it won't last or trying to keep it from fading away.
When we are mindful, we show up for our lives; we don't miss them in being distracted or in wishing for things to be different. Instead, if something needs to be changed we are present enough to understand what needs to be done. Being mindful is not a substitute for actually participating in our lives and taking care of our own and others' needs. In fact, the more mindful we are, the more skillful we can be in compassionate action.
It's Still Such a Wonderful World
It's easy to lose sight of the beauty of the world in the midst of tragedy, political upheaval, injustice and suffering. While we continue with our practice, working to ease the suffering of others and living a life of compassion and Love, we also need to be mindful and grateful for the beauty of the world that still surrounds us when we choose Love. Like Pops says, "Love baby. Love. That's the secret."
"What a Wonderful World" [1970 Spoken Introduction Version] along with Oliver Nelson's Orchestra is a song written by Bob Thiele (as George Douglas) and George David Weiss. It was first recorded by Louis Armstrong and released as a single in 1968. Thiele and Weiss were both prominent in the music world (Thiele as a producer and Weiss as a composer/performer). Armstrong's recording was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Intended as an antidote for the increasingly racially and politically charged climate of everyday life in the United States, the song also has a hopeful, optimistic tone with regard to the future, with reference to babies being born into the world and having much to look forward to.