Wounds In The Heart

To err is human. But because we are social beings, our mistakes often harm others in small and not-so-small ways. We have all given or received wounds that need the healing power of forgiveness. This is easier said than done, however. Many would like to forgive, but just can’t seem to do it. And they continue to suffer the bitterness and the lack of peace that comes from unforgiven injuries. In Wounds in the Heart, Dr. Javier Schlatter leads us out of this conundrum and into a deeper understanding of forgiveness and its importance in our lives. He explains what forgiveness is, what it is not, and how to experience its healing power in our lives. He also looks at the impact of forgiveness on health and the keys to forgiveness in marriage. His insights are practical but also provide a deeper understanding of forgiveness that goes well beyond a superficial self-help book. Dr. Schlatter is Assistant Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology at the University of Navarre Medical Clinic. He is the author of several books on anxiety and stress and is a specialist in emotional disorders and the biological basis of depression and phobias.

Sometimes wounds of the heart hurt the most and seem to stay with us the longest. Past hurts often lead to additional hurts if never healed. In our quest for love, we often make irrational decisions and choices all to be loved. This book is about a heart exposed to hurts, disappointment, rejection, and pain. A personal, transparent revealing of the challenges many women face in broken relationships and the path we walk, if willing, to allow our heart to be exposed to the healing of God.

The writings from this book represent freedom. When thinking there’s no escape mentally, tears shed from my eyes with sadness and anxiety; and so, my thought process believes my voice is only heard on paper. As for me, writing my thoughts on paper helps to eliminate the confusion that’s held hostage in my heart and mind. I share my emotions, whether it’s good or bad and honestly, sometimes it’s hard to read over the struggles; but in order for me to avoid re-living my biggest fears, I learned that I must give myself a message at the end of each story. That’s when new life comes to restore my joy and I grow from my past to live brighter for my future.

From Hurt to Healing Sometimes wounds of the heart hurt the most and seem to stay with us the longest. Past hurts often lead to additional hurts if never healed. In our quest for love, we often make irrational decisions and choices all to be loved. This book is about a heart exposed to hurts, disappointment, rejection, and pain. A personal, transparent revealing of the challenges many women face in broken relationships and the path we walk, if willing, to allow our heart to be exposed to the healing of God. This workbook takes you on a journey from hurt to healing. Questions help you probe further into your experiences, while the prayers and scriptures help to release the feelings. Each chapter contains a "Look in the Rearview Mirror," which offers insight that often is not available until after we have surpassed a situation. Use the note section to journal your thoughts and feelings. Take your time... healing is a process.

Thanks to authors like Robert Bly, Joseph Campbell, and Michael Meade there is a newly kindled interest in how mythology and ancient traditions apply to our modern relationships. Trials of the Heart mines the rich ore of truth in these ancient and heroic tales and connects their timeless wisdom with the struggles so many of us experience with one another and within ourselves. It sheds a ray of light into the dark and twisting labyrinth that intimate relationships so often become. Psychotherapist and couple's therapist, Dr. Michael Mayer, invites each of us to embark on our own mythic journeys and experience, with deeper understanding, the trials of love. Trials of the Heart is an ideal guide for providing an entry way into practices and attitudes that will alter the way we handle the difficult moments and obstacles we face on the path of love. www.bodymindhealing.com Trials of the Heart shows us how relationship is a rite of initiation through the elements of fire earth air and water; and gives us tools for making our journey into a mythic Journey. It has been called "the hero of a thousand faces (a la Joseph Campbell) for couples." Trials of the Heart: What it's about: 1. Explores how ancient sacred wisdom traditions can be integrated with modern psychotherapeutic understanding to help to heal the wounds of love. 2. Shows how ancient myths and stories aid the soul's quest to unravel the mysteries of love. 3. Argues that the purpose of love's suffering is psychological evolution. Relationship is "a rite of initiation," and difficult moments of relationship set us off on a grail quest to become initiates into the Temple of the Elements (fire, earth, air, and water). Our souls evolve thereby. 4. Demonstrates how oftentimes behind our desires and our problems in relationship is the worship of archetypal deities. "We make our destinies by our choice of Gods," and our unconscious worship of them oftentimes makes us like religious zealots, biasing our view and creating unnecessary dissonance with worshippers of other temples. 5. Provides an entry-way into practices that will alter the way we handle the difficult moments of intimate encounter. For example, the Chinese art of Tai Chi provides a metaphor for handling our defensive reactions, the four elements of astrological symbolism provide the necessary ingredients for constructively expressing negative feelings, the American Plains Indian's medicine wheel becomes a tool for transcending blaming and scapegoating, and the myth of Ariadne's Thread gives a model for going down into our emotional underworld and dealing with the Minotaurs that arise in the dark labyrinth of relationship. After reading Trials of the Heart, and practicing "the Mythic Journey Process" explained in the last chapter, the obstacles and demons that are met on the path of love will never be viewed in the same way. They will be seen for what they are, an opportunity to develop our inner characters and stories, and to embark on a mythic journey of our own making.

This is for my children and my children’s children so that they may know that their father/grandfather served his country along with 2,909,918 other men and women in uniform in Vietnam. Most of these men and woman remained loyal to their oath as military personnel and served with honor and distinction. I want them to know that our efforts and sacrifices were undermined at every turn of the event by the American people, the American press, and self-centered politicians through lies, propaganda, and treason on a scale so large it was unstoppable. And finally forced the government to abandon its troops on the field of battle to fend for ourselves. That they may also see the real truth surrounding the Vietnam War and the war that has raged within me these past fifty-plus years. These words were engendered by a comment I heard on television. It angered me enough to conduct a personal investigation to see if the nine lines written above were just a figment of my imagination or what I felt to be true in my heart. This investigation has culminated with mixed feelings. It saddens me that what I felt in my heart is true; however, I am elated that my investigation serves as a vindication of all the Vietnam veterans, both men and women, who remained loyal to their oath as soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. I am elated that there is finally a book that countermands the lies and propaganda that have carried on from the ’60s to this very day and that it shows the Vietnam veterans as the loyal and honorable men and women they have proven themselves to be.

An exploration of the life-changing power of forgiving • Discusses 15 perceived obstacles to forgiveness and how to overcome them • Details four different methods of forgiveness: the Hawaiian practice of Ho'oponopono, Colin Tipping’s Radical Forgiveness, Fred Luskin’s Nine Steps to Forgiveness, and the author’s own Gift of Forgiveness • Shares inspiring testimonies and stories from around the world, revealing how forgiveness helps stop a spiral of destruction, cleanses the heart, and leads to relief, freedom, and inner peace Can Everything Be Forgiven? Forgiveness allows our hearts to heal and love to be revived. Forgiving the small and average sufferings experienced throughout life is one thing. But what about bigger transgressions, like infidelity, abuse, or even large-scale offenses such as genocide? Olivier Clerc identifies 15 obstacles to forgiveness--prejudices, confusions, misunderstandings--and discusses from where these perceptions originate and how they might keep us from taking the path to healing. Drawing from his years of forgiveness work as well as from the Forgiveness Project, he details four practical methods for forgiveness, each with a unique approach: the Hawaiian practice of Ho‘oponopono, Colin Tipping’s Radical Forgiveness, Fred Luskin’s Nine Steps to Forgiveness, and the author’s own Gift of Forgiveness, inspired by his work with don Miguel Ruiz. Inspiring testimonies and examples from both victims and perpetrators who have rebuilt their lives after trauma show that even when faced with the unspeakable we can heal. Choosing to engage in a conscious process of forgiving helps stop a spiral of destruction, cleanses the heart, and leads to relief, freedom, and inner peace.