Opening Hearts By Opening Minds

This passionate book describes a consultation method for practicing psychotherapists, which combines training and experiential learning. The underlying principles of this unique group consultation process are described along with lively illustrative-vignettes. Unlike many other supervision models for therapists, Therapeutic Group Consultation, is based on developing the person of the therapist, as the primary influence on therapy and secondarily on clinical strategies for treatment.

The long-awaited memoir by Canada’s most celebrated Olympian and advocate for mental health. From one of Canada’s most decorated Olympians comes a raw but life-affirming story of one woman’s struggle with depression. In 2006, when Clara Hughes stepped onto the Olympic podium in Torino, Italy, she became the first and only athlete ever to win multiple medals in both Summer and Winter Games. Four years later, she was proud to carry the Canadian flag at the head of the Canadian team as they participated in the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. But there’s another story behind her celebrated career as an athlete, behind her signature billboard smile. While most professional athletes devote their entire lives to training, Clara spent her teenage years using drugs and drinking to escape the stifling home life her alcoholic father had created in Elmwood, Winnipeg. She was headed nowhere fast when, at sixteen, she watched transfixed in her living room as gold medal speed skater Gaétan Boucher effortlessly raced in the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Dreaming of one day competing herself, Clara channeled her anger, frustration, and raw ambition into the endurance sports of speed skating and cycling. By 2010, she had become a six-time Olympic medalist. But after more than a decade in the gruelling world of professional sports that stripped away her confidence and bruised her body, Clara began to realize that her physical extremes, her emotional setbacks, and her partying habits were masking a severe depression. After winning bronze in the last speed skating race of her career, she decided to retire from that sport, determined to repair herself. She has emerged as one of our most committed humanitarians, advocating for a variety of social causes both in Canada and around the world. In 2010, she became national spokesperson for Bell Canada’s Let’s Talk campaign in support of mental health awareness, using her Olympic standing to share the positive message of the power of forgiveness. Told with honesty and passion, Open Heart, Open Mind is Clara’s personal journey through physical and mental pain to a life where love and understanding can thrive. This revelatory and inspiring story will touch the hearts of all Canadians.

Stop listening to the voice of the ego—desire, ambition, greed, selfishness—and instead open your heart, realize your interrelatedness with the world, and surrender to the stillness that exists inside you. Decide what kind of person you want to be and how to arrive at a place of satisfaction and joy.

Children are organic beings and do not fit on a page in an academic curriculum guide. Like all people, children come to your learning environment with their own history, personality and learning style. It is our job as educators to be the facilitators of learning situations, protectors of their emotional well-beings and guides toward their own knowledge. The curriculum in Open Hearts, Open Minds is created to challenge our own biases and help slowly expand children's world views, to see past their own experiences and have empathy and understanding of others. The thoughtful lessons use mathematics, artistic expression, writing, literature and discussions to create an environment where all children and families are seen and celebrated for their ethnicities, races, religions, places of origin, sexual orientation, gender identities, gender expressions, learning abilities, ages and personal preferences. Children will learn from activists past and present as they gain confidence in their own voices to make positive change in our world. As advocates for children the journey to educate is never over. There are an abundance of questions to explore, the past to ponder and the future to create. We must enjoy the ride while always keeping open hearts and open minds.

A beautiful new gift edition of this classic work of spirituality, complete with ribbon marker.This book is designed to initiate the reader into a deep, living relationship with God. Written by an acknowledged spiritual master, the book moves beyond "discursive meditation and particular acts to the intuitive level of contemplation." Keating gives an overview of the history of contemplative prayer in the Christian tradition, and step-by-step guidance in the method of centering prayer. Special attention is paid to the role of the Sacred Word, Christian growth and transformation, and active prayer. The book ends with an explicit treatment of the contemplative dimension of the gospel.

In Open Heart, Open Mind, Tsoknyi Rinpoche—one of the most beloved of the contemporary generation of Tibetan Buddhist meditation masters—explains that a life free of fear, pain, insecurity, and doubt is not only possible, it’s our birthright. We long for peace, for the ability to love and be loved openly and freely, and for the confidence and clarity to meet the various challenges we face in our daily lives. Within each of us resides a spark of unparalleled brilliance, an unlimited capacity for warmth, openness, and courage, which Rinpoche identifies as “essence love.” Timeless and imperishable, essence love is often layered over by patterns of behavior and belief that urge us to seek happiness in conditions or situations that never quite live up to their promise. Drawing on rarely discussed teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, Rinpoche describes how such patterns evolve and offers a series of meditation exercises to help us unravel them and, in the process, reawaken an energy and exuberance that can not only bring lasting fulfillment to our lives but ultimately serve to enliven and inspire the entire world, as well. With great humor, intelligence, and candor, Tsoknyi Rinpoche also details his own struggles to reconnect with essence love. Identified at an early age as the incarnation of a renowned Tibetan master and subjected to a rigorous monastic training, he ultimately renounced his vows, married, and is now the father of two daughters. As he recounts his own efforts to strike a balance between the promptings of his heart and an obligation to preserve and protect the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, Rinpoche provides a bridge between ancient wisdom and modern life, and encourages each of us to rediscover the openness, fearlessness, and love that is the essence of our own life.

This book is for Christian readers of fiction who might experience difficulty trying to make an informed choice beyond what is being published by evangelical presses. Marketed to a specific target audience, evangelical fiction oftentimes leaves a reader with a strong emotional response but lacks the literary depth or the breadth of subject that could inspire life-changing spiritual growth. With this premise at the heart of her book, Connie Wineland includes her own story of conversion to Christianity by way of reading fiction. During her late twenties and early thirties, particularly while in graduate school, Wineland became immersed in literary and rhetorical studies while also practicing an Eastern form of religion as well as Native American spirituality. However, despite all her training in literary theory, her readings in Romantic, Victorian, modern, and postmodern literature (which she explains), as well as her personal interest in mythology and world religions, kept her questioning the existence of God and the possible nature of God. Then, as a relatively new convert to Christianity, she faced several challenges at a small Christian college where she taught literature and writing courses. Eventually wanting to reach beyond the academic community, Wineland began a local Christian readers' group, which she ran for four years. She includes in this book resources and materials such as sample syllabi and study-guide questions, useful Web addresses, and plenty of how-to information for starting and running your own book club. Also included is an extensive list of annotated titles of recommended reading to get anyone started!

Open Hearts & Open Minds Open Doors—Volume I & II, intends to stimulate creative thought. John K. Fox, Ph.D., explains the source of his opinions and his approach to creativity and life by referencing his experiences. The Open Hearts & Open Minds Open Doors series is best understood if we consider that the North and South Poles of our Earth, and the flow of Electrical Current, share the same essence as described in the Oriental concept of the Yin and the Yang. That theme-central is that the Female and the Male are not Opposite Sexes—they are Essential-Inseparable-Compatibles. Dr. Fox asserts that the essential difference between the Oriental and the Occidental is well illustrated in the depiction of the fat-bellied Buddha. The Buddha was in truth, a thin man. According to Oriental perception, the belly (the umbilical) represents the center of each person. In moments of personal sadness, the Occidental might say, “my heart is breaking.” The Oriental might be more inclined to feel that the human longing for comfort originates in the abdomen. Yet, we Occidentals share the Oriental abdominal perspective when we reference the inner strength found within a person, colloquially, as, “having guts!”