Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart
A New York Times bestselling book by Tara Bennett-Goleman
Alchemists sought to transform lead into gold. In the same way, says Tara Bennett-Goleman, we all have the natural ability to turn our moments of confusion or emotional turmoil into insightful clarity.
Emotional Alchemy maps the mind and shows how, according to recent advances in cognitive therapy, most of what troubles us falls into basic emotional patterns, including fear of abandonment, social exclusion (the feeling we don’t belong), and vulnerability (the feeling that some catastrophe will occur). Through the simple practice of mindfulness taught in this book, we can free ourselves of such patterns and replace them with empathy for ourselves and others, as well as the freedom to be more creative and alive.
You’ll find the very latest research in neuroscience–including the neurological “magic quarter second,” during which it is possible for a thought to be “caught” before it turns into an emotional reaction. And you’ll discover the fascinating parallels of this science with the wisdom of ancient Buddhism–for Buddhists knew centuries ago that we can end our self-destructive habits.
This book also teaches the practice of mindfulness, an awareness that lets us see things as they truly are without distortion or judgment, giving the most insightful explanation of how mindfulness can change not only our lives, but the very structure of our brains. Full of Buddhist wisdom and stories of how people have used mindfulness to conquer self defeating emotional habits–this book offers a whole new way of approaching our relationships, work and internal lives.
Emotional Alchemy is now available in paperback.
Emotional Alchemy is be available in the following countries: Italy, France,England, Germany, Norway, Finland, Spain, Latin America, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, Taiwan, Brazil, Israel, Greece, Croatia, Mainland China, Indonesia, Poland, Russia and The Czech Republic.
Resources
For mindfulness meditation: Many approaches to the practice of mindfulness can be found within the various schools of Buddhism, each emphasizing differing aspects of the basic practice. Each can be useful in its own way. Here is information about where to learn some of the mindfulness methods particularly helpful in working with emotions.
If you want to integrate Mindfulness with the therapy work you do, there are many excellent centers for training in mindfulness worldwide. For a schedule of retreats of varying lengths, contact the Insight Meditation Society,Barre, MA at www.dharma.org or Spirit Rock Meditation Center,Woodacre, CA at www.spiritrock.org
If you can’t get to a mindfulness retreat, a correspondence course is available through: www.soundstrue.com
If you want to understand schemas in more detail and explore specific strategies for dealing with a given schema, I recommend Reinventing Your Life by Jeffrey Young and Janet Klosko (Plume, 1993).
Those therapists who have been trained by Dr. Jeffrey Young and his associates are most experienced in schema therapy. The pool of those who practice schema therapy is becoming quite extensive as well as international. To find out if there is a schema therapist in your area, you can go to www.schematherapy.com or call the Cognitive Therapy Center of New York at 212-588-8880 and ask for a referral.
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