The Inner Work of Birth is a preparation guide for people who are interested in participating fully in their birth experience. Have you ever wondered if you have what it takes to bring a child into the world? Do you have concerns about coping with the challenges that you might face? This book is an affirmation that your own inner strengths and capabilities are the best resources that you could have. This book will be valuable to people who see their lives as a journey of self-exploration and growth. Within the context of the maternity experience, it explores finding your courage when you're worried or anxious. It looks at the sometimes-daunting task of releasing control in a situation that means so much to you. It discusses ways to call up your power when you're feeling helpless. It honors the peace and strength that can be found in acceptance. In the end, The Inner Work of Birth can help you realize that your satisfaction from your birth experience is not dependent on getting the birth you want; but rather wanting the birth you get.
• Award Winner in the Health: Aging/50+ category of the 2021 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest • Award Winner in Non-Fiction: Aging and Gerontology category of the 2021 Best Indie Book Award • Offers shadow-work and many diverse spiritual practices to help you break through denial to awareness, move from self-rejection to self-acceptance, repair the past to be fully present, and allow mortality to be a teacher • Reveals how to use inner work to uncover and explore the unconscious denial and resistance that erupts around key thresholds of later life • Includes personal interviews with prominent Elders, including Ken Wilber, Krishna Das, Fr. Thomas Keating, Anna Douglas, James Hollis, Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Ashton Applewhite, Roshi Wendy Nakao, Roger Walsh, and Stanislav Grof With extended longevity comes the opportunity for extended personal growth and spiritual development. You now have the chance to become an Elder, to leave behind past roles, shift from work in the outer world to inner work with the soul, and become authentically who you are. This book is a guide to help get past the inner obstacles and embrace the hidden spiritual gifts of age. Offering a radical reimagining of age for all generations, psychotherapist and bestselling author Connie Zweig reveals how to use inner work to uncover and explore the unconscious denial and resistance that erupts around key thresholds of later life, attune to your soul’s longing, and emerge renewed as an Elder filled with vitality and purpose. She explores the obstacles encountered in the transition to wise Elder and offers psychological shadow-work and diverse spiritual practices to help you break through denial to awareness, move from self-rejection to self-acceptance, repair the past to be fully present, reclaim your creativity, and allow mortality to be a teacher. Sharing contemplative practices for selfreflection, she also reveals how to discover ways to share your talents and wisdom to become a force for change in the lives of others. Woven throughout with wisdom from prominent Elders, including Ken Wilber, Krishna Das, Father Thomas Keating, Anna Douglas, James Hollis, Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Ashton Applewhite, Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao, Roger Walsh, and Stanislav Grof, this book offers tools and guidance to help you let go of past roles, expand your identity, deepen self-knowledge, and move through these life passages to a new stage of awareness, choosing to be fully real, transparent, and free to embrace a fulfilling late life.
The bestselling author of the million-copy bestseller Wherever You Go, There You Are and Full Catastrophe Living joins forces with his wife, Myla, in this revised edition of their groundbreaking book about mindfulness in parenting children of all ages. Updated with new material -- including an all new introduction and expanded practices in the epilogue -- Everyday Blessings remains one of the few books on parenting that embraces the emotional, intuitive, and deeply personal experience of being a parent, applying the groundbreaking "mind/body connection" expertise from global mindfulness leader, Jon Kabat-Zinn and his wife, Myla Kabat-Zinn. Mindfulness is a way of living and there is increasing scientific evidence of its value for optimal health and well-being. A new field in psychology is devoted to mindful parenting, and mindfulness is being increasingly integrated into K-12 education. There has never been a better time for cultivating greater mindfulness in parenting and in family life.
Inner work is a name commonly given to the inner processes that happen in ritual. It can also mean the transformation of the psyche that comes about through engaging in religious ritual. However, the best kind of inner work also has an effect outside the individual and outside the circle. When rituals are focused only on self-development, they tend to be a bit too introspective. Ritual is about creating and maintaining relationships and connections - between body, mind, and spirit; with the Earth, Nature, the land, the spirit world, the community, and friends. It is about making meaning, weaving a web of symbolism, story, mythology, meaning, community, and love. Creating a community that welcomes and celebrates diversity. Creating strong and authentic identity to resist the pressures of consumerism and commercialism and capitalism. Weaving relationship with other beings: humans, animals, birds, spirits, deities.
Ten Moons - The Inner Journey of Pregnancy, Preparation for Natural Birth A unique guide to pregnancy and birth. Written by a homebirth midwife, mother and grandmother, this book gives the power back to the woman to be the centre of her birthing universe, returning to her the keys to the long locked gates of the realm of feminine strength and the spiritual essence of birth. "The female body is designed for ecstasy-at menstruation, during lovemaking and giving birth. This book is your guide into the ecstasy and sacredness of birth. Full of love for everything that's right about your amazing body as a woman, you'll discover a wiser, more empowered approach to pregnancy and birth. It's knowledge that should be every woman's birthright...lets spread the word!" Alexandra Pope, author of 'The Wild Genie: The Healing Power of Menstruation" and "The Woman's Quest"
"This book is a major contribution to the global struggle for control of women's bodies and their giving birth and should be read by all obstetricians, midwives, obstetric nurses, pregnant women and anyone else with interest in maternity care. It documents the worldwide success of programs for pregnancy and birth which honor the women and put them in control of their own reproductive lives."—Marsden Wagner, MD, author of Born In The USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First
With Mindful Birthing, Nancy Bardacke, nurse-midwife and mindfulness teacher, lays out her innovative program for pregnancy, childbirth, and beyond. Drawing on groundbreaking research in neuroscience, mindfulness meditation, and mind/body medicine, Bardacke offers practices that will help you find calm and ease during this life-changing time, providing lifelong skills for healthy living and wise parenting. SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF MINDFUL BIRTHING: Increases confidence and decreases fear of childbirth Taps into deep inner resources for working with pain Improves couple communication, connection, and cooperation Provides stress-reducing skills for greater joy and wellbeing
When Chitra Ramaswamy discovered she was pregnant, she longed for a book that went above and beyond a manual. A book that did more than simply describe what was happening in her growing body day by day, week by week and month by month. A book that got to the heart of the bewildering, thrilling and strange experience that is pregnancy. Expecting takes the reader on an intimate physical and philosophical journey across the nine months of pregnancy and birth, paying tribute to writers, artists, places and individual histories along the way. Chitra Ramaswamy is an award-winning journalist. She cut her teeth at the Big Issue before moving to the Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday, where she became a leading columnist, book reviewer, interviewer and feature writer. Now freelance, Chitra writes for the Guardian, The Times, Lonely Planet Traveller and a number of other publications. She lives in Edinburgh with her partner, son and rescue dog. Expecting is her first book. ‘Immediately, poignantly, gripping...magnificent.’ Zoe Williams, Guardian 'Thoughtful and entertaining...Ramaswamy manages to take the blindingly obvious...and turn it into something strange and new.' Times Literary Supplement ‘Drawing on Sylvia Plath, Susan Sontag and Gustave Courbet’s dramatic The Origin of the World, Chitra explores the heightened sense of her pregnant body. All of which rings with authenticity right up to the agony of birth, the relief of a Caesarean and the bliss of the baby’s first cry.’ Steven Carroll, Sydney Morning Herald 'Beautifully conceived in a nine-chapter structure pregnant with symbolic meaning, it’s a universal book that should appeal to anyone interested in the human condition, not just those who are expecting.’ SBS Online
'Birth is a feminist issue!' The Art of Birth offers a radical new approach to conception, pregnancy and birth using expressive Art for self-development. Alexandra will lead you on a gentle, respectful and artistic journey into a feminine world of Art, art exercises, relaxation, positive affirmations, inner work, emotional support and pleasure, where the dream of a natural, empowered journey to motherhood and a positive birth experience can become a new reality. The Art of Birth is about creative freedom rather than technical skill, so No experience of art is necessary. You will be able to interpret your art work to see what it reveals and with this insight, rejoice in connecting with yourself and your baby on a deeper level. Alexandra's personal story contrasts the beliefs and behaviours in the United Kingdom with those of the Balinese culture, and conveys the message that a new positive birth paradigm is desperately needed. Cutting edge research is included to substantiate her claims that emotional well being during the creation of new life is paramount. Likewise, we can collectively support one of the most significant rites of passage in a woman's life. Art and birth are creative and non-intellectual processes and this is why Art can be a great asset in our preparation for birth as it allows us to access images and the unconscious. Before conception, through pregnancy, birth and beyond a woman, and her partner, can clear unhelpful emotional and psychological barriers. This book will give you the tools to empower yourself to create the experience you desire. The Art of Birth aims to inspire, educate and support pregnant women, fathers, partners, midwives, doulas, childbirth practitioners and anyone who is passionate about conscious conception, pregnancy, birth and parenting. Alexandra Florschutz, MA is a registered Art Psychotherapist (hcpc), Artist, Film Maker, Doula and Mother who lives and works in East Sussex, UK, with her son. www.theartofbirth.co.uk www.florschutz.com
