Mark Coleman: Make Peace with Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Your Inner Critic
Description
The voice of the Inner Critic is pervasive. It is perhaps the number one source of unhappiness and suffering in the modern world. The good news is you can do something about this tyrant who threatens to torment you on every step of your life journey. With the concrete and proven tools presented in You Are Not Your Fault, you can develop the awareness and compassion necessary to take control of your inner judge and create a more peaceful, joyful existence.
At its worst, the Inner Critic urges us to buy into a twisted version of reality, one in which we are never good enough, we arent worthy, and we can never atone for our mistakes or forgive those of others. It wont let you forget that you messed upwhether you made a wrong turn, bet on a losing stock, or chose the crazy person to date. Unable to forgive ourselves, we also find ourselves lacking the ability to truly forgive others.
Sometimes the Critic takes on a friendlier tone, yet this can prove just as insidious. The tyrant disguises itself as a helpful coach who says things like you really should try harder and you can do better. But these messages undermine our wellbeing and self-esteem. The Critic also drives the habit of comparing, reminding us there is always someone smarter, younger, thinner, kinder, wealthier, more talented and more successful out there.
What gives the Inner Critic its power is the way it tunes into our inner world, attacking who we are at our essence. Driven by its intimate knowledge of our weaknesses and insecurities, we end up in a bitter, panicked, and endless quest to get more and be moreof anything and everything: grander houses, higher salaries, more cars, bigger 401Ks, and more and more stuff. The Critic tells us to lose weight, get fit, be prettier, have a better relationship, raise more perfect children, and make more of an impact on the world. Beaten down into depression or struggling to find relief from the constant turmoil of anxiety and insomnia this voice creates, we end up suffering from eating disorders, workaholism, anger management problems, addiction, and engaging in many other forms of self-harm.
Thankfully, you dont have to let this tyrant rule your inner world. You can make a conscious choice to live differently. With the simple gifts of mindfulness and compassion, and by practicing the behaviors presented in You Are Not Your Fault, you can discover a whole new way of being in the world. You can let go of harsh judgments of self and others. You can open your eyes to the truth that you are already more than enough. You can come to rest in a peaceful place of love, understanding and forgiveness.
You Are Not Your Fault draws upon Mark Colemans deep well of personal and professional experience, synthesizing the wisdom he have gained in a way that everyday people can relate to on a heart level. For the past 15 years, he have traveled the world teaching mindfulness and compassion, leading meditation retreats, and coaching executives in overcoming this harmful internal voice. As the founder of The Mindfulness Institute, he have served as a consultant and executive coach at Fortune 500 companies across North America and Europe, including Facebook, Seagate, US Bank, the Gap, Comcast, Gucci, and Proctor and Gamble. He also works as a master trainer for the Search Inside Yourself mindfulness and emotional intelligence program, initially developed at Google and now being offered at multi-billion dollar corporations across the globe.
People everywhere, from all walks of life, suffer as a result of the Inner Critic. No one is immune to its impact. Almost all of us have a sense that whatever we do, whatever we areit is simply not enough. Professors at Harvard dont think they are smart enough. Successful Wall Street traders cant stay sharp enough. Life-long palliative care nurses dont feel caring enough. Priests dont believe they are spiritual enough. Writers are convinced theyre not eloquent enough. Professional cyclists fail to train hard enough. And this is a problemfor individuals as well as society as a wholebecause with not enough as our mantra, there is no stopping, no firm ground on which to rest, no time in which to enjoy a natural state of contentment. The Inner Critic leads to restlessness, a constant itch, a never-ending search for more. It is a hunger that cant be satiated.
When we listen to the voice of the Inner Critic with discernment and compassion, on the other hand, we create space for everything that is bigger than it. We understand that a happy life and successful relationshipswith ourselves as well as with othersshould be based on love, kindness, and forgiveness rather than negativity, faultfinding, and judgment. This doesnt necessarily mean that we can escape completely from our Inner Critic, but it does allow us to no longer be defined by whats lacking, whats not good enough. Whatever we become aware of through mindfulness, and approach from then on with compassion, can change. We can free ourselves from the true cause of our suffering, which is not our shortfalls or mistakes, but rather our private judge who beats us up with its relentless insistence on perfection.
You can approach this book as a roadmap, a guide to exploring the jungles and thickets of your psyche. We will discover what the Inner Critic is, how it manifests, where it comes from and why, as well as what strengthens and weakens it. You Are Not Your Fault is a practical manual revealing how to skillfully and effectively work with the internal tyrant so that it no longer causes the pain weve become so accustomed to bearing in our everyday lives.
So, what is in You Are Not Your Fault, and why is the book so helpful? In order to take power back from the Inner Critic, you need two essential skills. They are like the wings of a bird, without which flight is impossible. These are: awareness and compassion. Awareness comes through the practice of mindfulness. Compassion comes through the practice of metta, or loving-kindness, and turning toward pain with caring attention.
Mindfulness meditation gives you the awareness to see what is happening in your mind and body with focused clarity. It helps you realize that your disparaging mental voices are profound sources of suffering. Once you have seen this truth, then you can work to free yourself from the Inner Critics reign. What you can discover through mindfulness mediation is far superior to any pill, philosophy or panacea. And it works much better than raging against the machine.
The next groundbreaking shift comes by taking up the meditation practice known as metta, which means friendliness or unconditional care. Through this technique, you learn the radical act of turning toward myself with loving-kindness. So rarely do we treat ourselves with anywhere near the compassion and understanding that we do another person, even a stranger! This practice asks you to hold yourself with the same positive regard with which you would approach a dearly beloved friend or an innocent child, offering healing words and genuine wishes of happiness. As a way of being, it is wildly contrary to how we usually go about life in the modern world.
T originator of these practices, the Buddha, was in essence one of the worlds earliest neuroscientists. He looked intensively at the empirical data of his own mind, studying it with a concentrated lens refined by years of arduous meditation. Today, his discoverythat the mind can change and grow depending on what and how it pays attention to thingshas been confirmed by researchers studying neuroplasticity. Our brains are not computers running a fixed, unalterable program. On the contrary, they are dynamic and responsive, capable of shifting, allowing us to develop new, healthy habits that support our inner peace.
You Are Not Your Fault will inspire readers of all ages, whether confronting crises in their life, dealing with depression or anxiety or addiction, struggling to find relief from the treadmill of always needing to be and do more, or simply looking to be more fully present in everyday life. In all these cases, people will find comfort in the books pages. Like the perennial favorites Radical Acceptance and The Road Less Travelled, this wisdom book will appeal to a broad general audience by shedding light on fundamental insights into transforming our suffering so that we can better appreciate and enjoy the gift of our existence.
In each chapter of You Are Not Your Fault, Mark Coleman offers easily digestible insights into what creates, drives, and disarms the Critic, as well as examples from real peoples journeys to which every reader can relate. Chapters conclude with a simple meditation practice to put prescriptions into practice. Each chapter stands alone, opening a doorway to transformation. Taken as a whole, the text leads readers into another dimension of love and compassion for themselves and others. It enables us to tap into the strength, courage, and wisdom that all of us already possess within ourselves. It shows the way to discover new levels of inner freedom. It reveals how we can form a whole new relationship with life.
Written by expert contributors, all of whom are helping shape contemporary nursing in Australia and New Zealand, this latest edition of Contexts of Nursing reflects the dynamic nature of nursing scholarship.
Among the writers Orner addresses in these essays are Isaac Babel and Zora Neale Hurston, both of whom told their truths and were silenced; Franz Kafka, who professed loneliness but actually had a far busier social life than Orner; Robert Walser, who spent the last twenty-three years of his life in a Swiss insane asylum, "working" at being crazy; and Juan Rulfo, who practiced silence. Also lauded are Virginia Woolf, Eudora Welty, Yasunari Kawabata, Saul Bellow, Mavis Gallant, John Edgar Wideman, Vaclav Havel, Gina Make Peace with Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Your Inner Critic download ebook pdf Berriault, William Trevor, and the poet Herbert Morris, about whom almost nothing is known.
____________________________
Author: Mark Coleman
Number of Pages: 256 pages
Published Date: 24 Nov 2016
Publisher: NEW WORLD LIBRARY
Publication Country: Novato, CA, United States
Language: English
ISBN: 9781608684304
Download Link: Click Here
____________________________
Tags:
download book, zip, download pdf, iOS, iPad, download torrent, for mac, fb2, rar download epub, free ebook, iPhone,paperback Make Peace with Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Your Inner Critic by Mark Coleman for PC,book review,Make Peace with Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Your Inner Critic fb2,kindle, free pdf, ebook pdf, mobi, download ebook, paperback, epub download, for PC, Mark Coleman download epub,facebook, pocket, download book, Read online, ebook,
The Road Less Travelled
