Resilience from the Heart: The Power to Thrive in Life's Extremes

232 Pages·2015·2.794 MB·English

by  Gregg Braden

ALSO BY GREGG BRADEN
Books
Deep Truth
The Divine Matrix
Fractal Time
The God Code
The Isaiah Effect*
Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer
The Spontaneous Healing of Belief
Walking Between the Worlds*
Audio Programs
An Ancient Magical Prayer (with Deepak Chopra)
Awakening the Power of a Modern God
Deep Truth
The Divine Matrix
The Divine Name (with Jonathan Goldman)
Fractal Time
The Gregg Braden Audio Collection*
Speaking the Lost Language of God
The Spontaneous Healing of Belief
Unleashing the Power of the God Code
DVD
The Science of Miracles
*All of the above are available from Hay House except items marked with an
asterisk.
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Copyright © 2014, 2015 by Gregg Braden
Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.:
www.hayhouse.com® • Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay
House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au • Published and distributed
in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk •
Published and distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House
SA (Pty), Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.za • Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast
Books: www.raincoast.com • Published in India by: Hay House Publishers
India: www.hayhouse.co.in
Cover design: Amy Grigoriou • Interior design: Tricia Breidenthal
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Institute of HeartMath for
permission to reproduce the steps for “Attitude Breathing” Copyright © 2013
Institute of HeartMath; for permission to reprint the illustration in Figure 2.1;
and for permission to reproduce the steps for “Quick Coherence” Copyright ©
Institute of HeartMath
Additional grateful acknowledgment is made for illustrations licensed through
Dreamstime stock images, member of P.A.C.A. and C.E.P.I.C.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any
mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a
phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system,
transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private use—other than for
“fair use” as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews—without prior
written permission of the publisher.
The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the
use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or
medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or
indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general
nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the
event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and
the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.
A previous edition of this book was published in hardcover under the title The
Turning Point: Creating Resilience in a Time of Extremes (ISBN: 978-1-
4019-2923-7).
The Library of Congress has cataloged the earlier edition as follows:
Braden, Gregg.
The turning point : creating resilience in a time of extremes / Gregg Braden.
-- 1st edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-4019-2923-7 (hardback)
1. Resilience (Personality trait) 2. Change (Psychology) I. Title.
BF698.35.R47B73 2014
155.2’5--dc23
2013030339
Tradepaper ISBN: 978-1-4019-2926-8
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1st edition, January 2014
2nd edition (revised), October 2015
Printed in the United States of America
“We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The
world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put
together the right information at the right time, think critically
about it, and make important choices wisely.”
— E. O. WILSON (1929–), AMERICAN BIOLOGIST
CONTENTS
Preface to the New Edition
Introduction: The Power of Resilience in a Time of Extremes
CHAPTER 1: The Uncharted Heart: New Discoveries Reveal Even Deeper
Mysteries
CHAPTER 2: Resilience from the Heart: The Power to Thrive in Life’s
Extremes
CHAPTER 3: Resilient Living: Five Keys to a Healthy Community
CHAPTER 4: Now Is Different: Our Time of Extremes
CHAPTER 5: The Good News: We Already Have the Solutions
CHAPTER 6: From Tipping Points to Turning Points: The Power to Choose
CHAPTER 7: Getting Serious about Life Transformed: Real Solutions in the
Real World
Resources
Endnotes
Acknowledgments
About the Author
PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION
There’s a single question that we ask ourselves each and every day. The
question shows up in different, and at times unexpected, ways in our lives.
Sometimes we ask it consciously and find ourselves actually whispering the
words under our breath. Most of the time, however, we don’t. For most of us
the question lingers in the back of our mind as a nagging sense of something
unfinished and incomplete in our lives. Regardless of how we ask the
question itself, however, the intention it comes from is the same. It’s simply
this:
“How do I make life better for myself and my family?”
The answer to this question is precisely what this revised-edition book,
Resilience from the Heart, is all about.
The first version of this book was published in January 2014. I celebrated
the release, originally titled The Turning Point: Creating Resilience in a Time
of Extremes, with an international tour of keynote presentations, daylong
seminars, and weekend workshops to take the information directly to people
and communities I felt would benefit most from the message of resilience. In
the U.S. and the countries that had translated the book into their respective
languages, I had the opportunity to witness in live audiences something that I
could never see from the statistics of a book sales spreadsheet alone. From my
vantage point on international stages, I could look into the eyes of my
audiences to see firsthand how people experienced the ideas I was sharing.
For example, when I acknowledged that a “new normal” is replacing the
familiar world of our past—an uncharted territory of extremes ranging from
social change and climate change to the uncertainty of jobs, finances, careers,
and the stress these changes bring to our lives—the sea of nodding heads told
me that I was connecting with my audience. And each time I stated that we
must first acknowledge and mourn the passing of the world that’s
disappearing in order to thrive in the new normal, the collective whispers of
agreement let me know how healing it is for us to acknowledge the new
normal, openly and honestly.
But the body language of the room showed me other things as well, some
that were less comfortable for me to acknowledge. I learned quickly, for
example, when the audience became stretched to connect with what I was
sharing. And perhaps most important, I learned from their body language
when they couldn’t connect with the information at all. From moments of
dead silence, broken by sporadic throat clearing and the shifting of chairs, to
people exiting for an early bathroom break, it was obvious when I had crossed
beyond the comfort zone of accepted ideas. The point here is that from the
evening of the first program in Copenhagen, Denmark, to the end of the
international tour, a clear pattern emerged when it came to the information
that was most meaningful and most useful. That pattern was predictable, and
it remained so throughout the tour.
Without exception, the material that my audiences were most drawn to was
the actual experience of creating resilience in their bodies as well as their
lives—the techniques and exercises that helped them embrace change in a
healthy way. When I returned to the U.S., the pattern continued. It was
universal and not linked with culture or lifestyle. And although The Turning
Point did share many of the techniques for resilience that I was describing in
the programs, I had placed them in later chapters of the book, thinking that
they’d mean more within a larger context.
My audiences, however, showed me something different. They didn’t want
to wait until the end of the seminars to have the “how-to” experiences.
Clearly, they wanted to know the strategies and experience the techniques that
lead to healthier lives quickly, and they wanted me to share them as soon as
possible. I’m a good listener. I’ve learned to attend to my audiences and the
feedback they share with me.
This retitled, rearranged, and repurposed edition of the original book is my
response to so many heartfelt requests for precisely these perspectives.
Resilience from the Heart is designed to get to the techniques and applications
quickly, within the first three chapters. The chapters that follow from that
point offer an honest, truthful, and factual description of why the resilience
we learn is so necessary and how to apply in our lives the techniques that we
learn in the book.
The best science of the 21st century now echoes the spirit of our most
ancient and cherished spiritual traditions. Both reveal that the key to
resilience begins in our heart. Whether you’re facing health issues yourself,
helping loved ones through overwhelming life issues, managing impossible
finances, or feeling overwhelmed by the extremes of a volatile world,
Resilience from the Heart is written with you in mind. Within these pages
you’ll find everything you need to embrace the biggest challenges in life and
do so in a healthy way. Please accept this book as my opportunity to say
“thank you” for supporting this work and for inviting me, and my message,
into your life.
In Gratitude,
Gregg Braden