“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves liked locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. Resolve to be always beginning – to be a beginner.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke
INSPIRATION & RESOURCES
There are many resources, practices, teachers and techniques that I have found to be incredibly helpful in moving people out of pain and into pleasure. Below you’ll find some of my favorites. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions about any of the resources listed below.
Resources for Peace of Mind
Meditation and mindfulness are techniques and practices that help us tune into the present moment with curiosity and compassion. By showing up in the moment with a non-judgmental, loving approach to yourself (no matter what!) you can learn to trust yourself and feel more peaceful and calm. The following apps, websites and teachers are wonderful resources for finding more peace of mind:
Any books, meditations or talks by Pema Chodron, Tara Brach or Thich Nhat Hahn.
On my bookshelf:
Comfortable with Uncertainty, Pema Chodron
Start Where You Are, Pema Chodron
Radical Acceptance, Tara Brach
True Refuge, Tara Brach
No Death, No Fear, Thich Nhat Hahn
Resources for Trauma, Confidence, Grief, Anxiety, and more!
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) – also known as “tapping” – is an easy and powerful self-regulation tool for moving through and releasing difficult emotions. EFT has been around for a few decades now and has been incredibly successful in providing relief from trauma. There are many teachers and variations on the process but I am most committed to the "Gold Standard" created by Gary Craig and have been training to become a Certified EFT practitioner through EFT International. https://eftinternational.org/
Yoga has been shown to be an effective tool for trauma as well as other physical and emotional ailments. I am a Kundalini Level One Yoga Teacher and practitioner. There are many forms of yoga but I have found kundalini yoga to be an especially powerful technique that works quickly to unblock past emotional pain. You can find yoga classes in studios, gyms and even on-line. Click here for more information about my favorite form of yoga: kundalini.
Resources for Relationships
How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It,
by Patricia Love and Steven Stosny
The Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman
Hold Me Tight, Sue Johnson
Some of these authors also offer workshops and events for couples.
Resources for Breakups & Divorce
Books:
Spiritual Divorce, Debbie Ford
Transformational Divorce: Discover Yourself, Reclaim
Your Dreams, and Embrace Life's Unlimited Possibilities, Karen Kahn Wilson
The Good Divorce, Constance Ahrons
Coming Apart: Why Relationships End and How to Live Through the Ending of Yours, Daphne Rose Kingma
Support groups:
Damsels in Divorce at Grace Church, 5958 Main Street in Trumbull. Women’s Support Group
Divorce Care - A Christian-based group program with specific topics and support
Jewish Family Services, 431 Post Road East, Suite 11, Westport, CT 203-454-4992
Resources for Spiritual Growth & Inspiration
There are endless sources of spiritual growth and inspiration from traditional religious texts to current day teachers like Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now), Deepak Chopra, the Dalai Lama and Pema Chodron. Many of these teachers and others - as well as sites like Pinterest and Tiny Buddha - offer free daily emails for inspiration.
The following sites and teachers (as well as the ones above) offer a variety of topics for inspiration, wisdom and practice:
On Being (Podcast), Krista Tippet
Spirituality and Practice (website)
Creating Peace from the Inside Out - free 21 day meditation series, Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey
A Morning Offering
I bless the night that nourished my heart
To set the ghosts of longing free
Into the flow and figure of dream
That went to harvest from the dark
Bread for the hunger no one sees.
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All that is eternal in me
Welcome the wonder of this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate.
I place on the altar of dawn:
The quiet loyalty of breath,
The tent of thought where I shelter,
Wave of desire I am shore to
And all beauty drawn to the eye.
May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shell of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed.
May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.
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Some of my favorite inspirational readings are from the mystical poets: Rumi, Rilke and John O’Donahue to name a few. Here’s one of my favorite poems, especially the last paragraph…