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”.

The Secret to Receiving the Love You Want

The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts

By Gary Chapman

Thank you, thank you Gary Chapman, for writing this book (and all the spinoffs to this book).

Here’s the basic premise of this book. We each have a way that we like to have “love” expressed to us. Maybe we like it when someone really listens to us. Or maybe we like to share activities, quality time, with someone. And that says “love” to us.

But what happens when a person who likes to be listened to, listens to a person who likes to share activities? Then there’s a good chance neither feels loved and both feel their demonstrations of love are discounted or rejected.

It’s not just our partners this can happen with. It happens with our children, parents, co-workers, clients too.

I found this book a real eye opener and I have recommended it many times to clients who want to feel closer to their children or partners. I’ve gotten rave reviews every time.

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.

The Importance of Focus

The Power of Focus: What the Worlds Greatest Achievers Know about The Secret of Financial Freedom and Success

Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Les Hewitt

This is one of my all time favorites. I revisit this book over and over for both the strategies and the concepts. The book highlights one of my favorite concepts; that we each have a “brilliance”, some quality that we take for granted but that other people can see and admire. Becoming conscious about that brilliance can create an expansion. Using that brilliance consciously can prove advantageous in all areas of one’s life.

Be sure and check out The Power of Focus for Women by Les Hewitt and his wife, Fran Hewitt as well.