East Meets West or Love Meets Organization

Welcome and Happy New Year! This month I’m going to be reading both Ram Dass, Being Love Now and David Allen, Getting Things Done.

I’ll be honest; I’m hoping to discover that focusing on Love does indeed affect productivity and the bottom line.

So please come join me and share your own stories of Love and Efficiency. Perhaps we can all learn from one another?

Have a question you particularly want to explore? Leave it in the comments below and we can walk the discovery together.

Many bright wishes for a truly prosperous new year,

Deborah

You Think You Use Your Mind?

Thinking Clearly: An Adventure in Mental Fitness

Jerry Stocking

Jerry Stocking is one of my favorite teachers. He has such a different energy and insights, all in the direction of helping people release themselves from illusion and learn how to be deeply intimate with themselves and others.

This book is a brilliant introduction to how the mind actually works, and it’s probably not the way you might think. I especially like his explanation of “grounded” vs. “ungrounded” assessments as an alternative to “truth” or “reality”.

Advanced Communication Skills

The Power of Ethical Persuasion: Winning Through Understanding at Work and at Home

Tom Rusk MD

Want to be a pro at communication. This is the one book to study then.

This book in my life coincided with the end of my marriage and the beginning of a new set of skills when it came to constructive communication. Up to that point, all the tools I’d learned, in books, seminars and workshops, had focused on processes that two people could use together.

But what if one person didn’t want to work together for a better understanding? What if one person had a different agenda; maybe winning, control, agreement?

This book put the power (and responsibility) back into my hands to make proactive changes in my life and negotiate those out.

This book takes Marshall Rosenberg’s work of Compassionate Communication and broadens, and intensifies it.

I went through quite a few communication books and this is the one that “saved me” when I couldn’t “save my marriage”.

If You Can Only Buy One Book

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life

Marshall B. Rosenberg

If you can only buy one book to help you in a practical way, with your relationships in life, this is the one. Marshall Rosenberg, in his audio workshop on Nonviolent Communication, admits to having regrets about choosing the name for his work. He said he really doesn’t a name that says what it isn’t.

I understand. And I understand why he did call his work “Nonviolent” communication. Think about it. So much of our communications spark upsetting feelings because the method of communication is inherently flawed.

Marshall teaches us how to speak to one another (and for those of you who fancy yourselves advanced students, I dare you to regale me with stories of how you used NVC on your own self talk) in a completely different way than anything we were raised with in our homes and institutions.

I’ve been a student of his work for 16 years (the age of my daughter) and I’ve only scratched the surface. I miss the mark many times. But it’s so worth the practice. And the payoff comes in peace, peace of mind, intimacy, and trust of myself and others.

Couple this work with Forgiveness work (see Colin Tipping’s Radical Forgiveness) and the idea of making amends when you’ve made a mistake…and we truly could change our world in a heart beat.

Have Feelings Gotten a Bad Rap?

The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You

by Karla McLaren

This is Karla’s latest book. I’ve been a fan of her work around emotional acuity for years and I’m happy she’s back with this latest, updated version of her original Emotional Genius (which is hard to come by currently).

If you sincerely want to thrive in this life, I think giving the emotions their due, working with the guidance and awareness your emotions so graciously provide, could be in your best interest.

What is Spiritual Guidance?

Your Soul’s Compass, What is Spiritual Guidance?

Joan Borysenko, PhD and Godon Dveirin, EdD.

Let’s begin by exploring the idea of Spiritual Guidance and it’s use in everyday life. Don’t we all want to know how to “tap in” and find the answers to life’s questions and situations? Join me as I see what ideas our two authors have for doing just that!

The Power of Divine Guidance, How To…

Divine Guidance: How to Have a Dialogue with God and Your Guardian Angels

By Doreen Virtue

We all learned the senses: taste, touch, sight, hearing, smell. These help us navigate the physical world. But have you become aware that there are inner senses too? We all have various degrees of finesse using our inner sight, inner hearing, inner feeling, and inner knowing.

This books is listed as one of the resources in my 6 month Self-coaching Program and there’s a reason why. It’s a wonderful book, both practical and inspiring. Doreen’s book is a helpful addition if you’re new to your awareness of your inner sensory systems or looking to bring your current awareness into more integrated use.