Head Heart And Hara

An ancient Daoist saying tells us "When you are sick, do not seek a cure. Find your centre and you will be healed." The centre it refers to is located deep in the sensed interiority of our belly, that abode of the soul known in Japanese as hara. 'Depression' (a word with no equivalent in Japanese) is, in essence, a lack of hara. With hara awareness we not only recontact our own innermost soul depths and soul centre. We learn to make contact with others from that centre - to experience true intimacy of soul. Hara awareness is both an alternative to medical and psychiatric 'cures' and the basis for a genuinely psychological medicine - an anatomy of the soul-body. Head, Heart and Hara contrasts the head- and heart-centred culture of the West with the hara culture of Japan. It also shows how hara awareness can unite the primordial wisdom of both East and West. Peter Wilberg brings together the dao of Lao Tse and the logos of Heraclitus in a new spiritual anatomy of the soul and its body.

How to put Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory—which synthesizes the teachings of the world’s great wisdom traditions—into practice in all aspects of everyday life, so you can reach your full human potential “A masterpiece guide of grounded, intelligent, self-transforming wisdom integrating the insights of all the great traditions of truth.” —Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit Over the last thirty-five years, Ken Wilber has developed an Integral “theory of everything” that makes sense of how all the world’s knowledge systems—East and West; ancient, modern, and postmodern—fit together and can elevate our awareness. Drawing on science, psychology, human development, spirituality, religion, and dozens of other fields, Integral Theory is a revolutionary framework for understanding ourselves and the world we live in. Now there is a way to not just think Integrally, but to embody an Integral worldview in your everyday life. Integral Life Practice is not just a new approach to self-development and higher awareness, but a way of making sense of—and making best use of—the existing treasure trove of insights, methods, and practices for cultivating a more enlightened life. It offers a uniquely adaptive approach to awakened living that’s suitable for everyone: people with busy careers and families, college students, retirees, even hardcore athletes and yogis. It’s geared for devout—and irreverent—people of any religion, or no religion! This highly flexible system will help you develop your physical health, spiritual awareness, emotional balance, mental clarity, relational joy, and energy level, within a framework that integrates all aspects of your life. Combining original exercises, vivid examples, cutting-edge theory, and illustrative graphics, Integral Life Practice is the ultimate handbook for realizing freedom and fullness in the 21st century.

Over 35 mindful walking exercises for finding balance, building awareness, and reducing stress—from a wellness teacher and fitness expert Glenn Berkenkamp invites us to discover how we sense, move, think, and feel in our bodies. By reframing the joys and opportunities presented to us by the act of walking, he shows us how to become reflective and inwardly directed, even as we take in the world around us. With 35 different walks, and with the help of a “Which Walks to Do When” user guide, Glenn gives us options for every occasion and emotion. Feeling off-center? Try a centering walk. Feeling down? Lift your spirit with a gratitude walk or a prayer walk. There are walks for listening, grounding, and grieving, as well as rain walks, full moon walks, mindful dog walks, and more. He includes walks for all ability levels, including fun walks for children. As we walk with Glenn, we settle, clarify, and balance our bodies, minds, and spirits—opening to new perspectives and possibilities we didn’t know were there.

• Provides a comprehensive, step-by-step program for writers to use their bodies to expand their creative capacity on the page and in their lives • Offers hands-on exercises, rooted in the disciplines of Aikido and somatics, to help writers center themselves and better access their authentic inner voice • Helps writers confront obstacles like fear, doubt, and difficult emotions, transforming such subject matter into opportunities for creative exploration Writing is one of our most fundamental means of spiritual expression, a powerful capacity that enables us to shape and share our deepest thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Yet the writing process can be challenging and imprecise, and both novice and experienced writers may struggle with accessing their innermost creative selves. Taking an embodied approach to writing, poet and Aikido practitioner Renée Gregorio offers a step-by-step experiential program to help you to center yourself in your body and, in so doing, expand your creative capacity on the page and in your life. Rather than provide a guide to writing, she helps you identify and give voice to the writer within. She shares hands-on exercises rooted in the martial art of Aikido and the practice of somatics—or body-centered learning—to provide direct and detailed ways to help facilitate personal growth and tap in to innate creative capacities, enabling you to fully immerse yourself in the creative process and discover immediate benefits. Drawing on her extensive martial arts training, the author emphasizes creating your own internal writing “dojo” to clear the mind and enable you to access the deeper currents of language. Exploring discomfort as a doorway to deeper experience and new writing territory, she reveals how to examine difficult topics, express the full range of emotions, and turn self-doubt, fear, and painful experience into courage. She also explores how to unearth the power and physicality in your own voice, using techniques like “re-visioning” to effectively edit your work, ultimately embodying your writing with complexity and fullness. Through immersive and physically focused experience, this book will help seasoned and aspiring writers alike work with the body as a wise teacher to better access, hone, and express their authentic inner voice.

The most fundamental scientific fact is not the existence of the physical universe, but our awareness of that universe. Not even the most advanced physics, physiology or psychology, however, can explain even the most elementary qualities of our sensory awareness of that universe - qualities such as redness for example. Qualia used to be defined as sensory qualities such as colour and tone. But what if awareness is not an empty receptacle for sensory impressions, but has its own intrinsic sensual qualities - of the sort we experience as the inwardly sensed shape and substantiality of our bodies, the sensed lightness or darkness colour or tone of our moods, or a sensed feeling of warmth or coolness, closeness or distance to another human being? What if such sensual qualities of awareness are intrinsically meaningful - being the felt essence of meaning or sense? is not energetic quanta but qualia in this sense - sensed and sensual qualities of awareness - that are the basic stuff of which the universe is composed. It argues that qualia are not simply qualities of our own human awareness but fundamental units of awareness. Atoms, molecules and cells are recognised as the physical form taken by field-patterns of atomic, molecular and cellular awareness composed of such units. The soul is understood as an ever-changing gestalt of such units, each of which possess characteristics of both unit and field, particle and wave - allowing the soul-qualities of our own awareness to mix and merge with those of all other beings.

The Way of the Mysterial Woman is for every woman who feels the call into greatness, authenticity, and meaningful living. This is The Way for women who are stepping into their lives with mind, body, heart, and soul fully engaged, ready to awaken to their true potential. We hear the clarion call, but how will we meet it? It’s almost like we need a completely new internal operating system. The Mysterial Way is the upgrade we’ve been searching for. Women’s leadership development pioneers and co-authors Suzanne Anderson and Susan Cannon know that we’re not alone in our yearning to meet this call. In fact, they assure us that this is a naturally occurring global imperative for women. The Way of the Mysterial Woman reveals a Feminine source code, helping us once and for all break through our old limitations, and effectively take our lives to the next level so we can meet the unique callings and urgent challenges of these dynamic times. This is not a passive book for armchair travelers. Drawing upon real life success stories, based on their 12 years of running University certificate women’s leadership programs, readers are guided through a step-by-step, transformative “Mysterial Sequence.” Each interactive chapter offers practical and fun insights and practices that compel us toward genuine shifts and solid growth. The Way of the Mysterial Woman is a blend of cutting edge transformational psychology, ancient Mystery school secrets, and visionary evolutionary thinking delivered in a warm, down-to-earth style. Here is the elegant code we‘ve been searching for that finally unlocks our greatest potential.

The Intuitive Body draws on the principles of the non-aggressive Japanese martial art aikido and meditation to present a fresh approach to cultivating awareness, attention, and self-acceptance. Author Wendy Palmer shows readers through basic practice and partner exercises how to become more aware of the body and trust its innate wisdom. She introduces exercises from the Conscious Embodiment and Intuition Training program she pioneered, connection movement, meditation, and breathing. These exercises form a daily practice that can help the process of integration, of deepening and unifying the self, and learning to deal with fear and anger. Written in a direct yet nurturing style and based on the author’s many years of practice and teaching, this revised edition of The Intuitive Body contains new material on Conscious Embodiment movement and meditation practices. Also here are new chapters on advocating without aggressing and the wisdom of not knowing — embodying the qualities of dignity and integrity in everyday life. The book is ideal for readers who are already engaged in the process of becoming, as well as for those who are looking for ways to find the courage to begin.