Category Archives: Changemaker Library
Stress Relief Book 3: Essential Stretch
Falun Dafa the Second by longtrekhome
Essential Stretch: Gentle Movements for Stress Relief, Flexability and Overall Well-Being
Michelle LeMay
ISBN 0-300-52893-8
Essential Stretch by Michelle LeMay with the ISBN 0-399-52893-8 is featured in this post. Michelle has spent years developing and teaching her stretch techniques. The table of contacts includes the basics, the blessings, the techniques (oscillations, breath, heart activation, meditation and centering), the stretches (full body, lower body and upper body), and five different routines depending on the user’s skill level.
The five routines are: (1) full body routine for getting started, (2) full body routine for the seasoned stretcher, (3) short and sweet routines, (4) daily stretches, and (5) mind your mind.
Her centering process includes several helpful techniques. Centering is the ability to “tune out” inner and external stress and get in touch with your quietness inside you. We each have this center but this technique needs to be strengthened in order to lower our stress level. Remember it is our reaction to stress that uses the most useless energy. We want to bombard our stressor. But the centering process helps to use our energy the only place that we can make a difference—on ourselves.
The techniques for centering that she includes are: (1) increase your self-awareness, (2) quiet your mind, (3) focus inward, and (4) create a positive shift. The positive shift uses clarity, letting go of burdens, self-love, peace, mind/body connection, and being happy statements to be included with your stretch.
Excerpt from the book:
“Essential Stretch is a simple movement technique. Anyone can do it—no matter what your age or fitness level—and everyone can benefit from it, even super-fit athletes and dancers. Unfortunately, when it comes to exercise programs, stretch has been placed on the back burner, or related to the category of exercise for the elderly. But research reveals that stretching is often the missing link in successful exercise programs, As you will see, it is becoming apparent that it may be the missing link in our lives.”
Tags: centering, energy, exercises, peace, positive, self-awareness, stress relief, stressor, stretch
Stress Relief Book 1: Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart
Summer Dreamland by Mulberry24
Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart
Brian Luke Seaward
ISBN 0-471-67999-2
From the author—
“Current statistics suggest that 1/3 of the American population is using anti-depressants. Alcoholism, drug addiction, self-mutilation, and suicide are just some of the more popular ways that people cope with their stress today. Through these tactics, people merely avoid the problems at hand, rather than work to resolve them. For stress to be dealt with effectively, no matter how much pressure is bearing down on us, avoidance is rarely a viable option.”
“If you listen closely to people’s conversations, you might notice how they tend to be stuck: not processing every aspect of a given situation to make sense of it, but rehashing thoughts and feelings, which, in turn, only validates their stress.”
“In what is often called the Universal Law of Attraction, a critical mass of negativity forms, and like a magnet, our mental focus begins to attract more things to complain about. As a result, we get caught in a whirlpool of negativity, from which is is really hard to escape. In the words of Marcel Proust, “The real act of discovery is not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” Attitude, once again, is the paintbrush with which we color our world.”
From Chapter 5: The Human Equinox: Six Ways to Bring Balance into Your Life—
1) Work life balanced with personal life
2) Freedom balanced with discipline
3) Mental stimulation balanced with quietness
4) Right-brain thinking balanced with left-brain thinking
5) Technology balanced with nature
6) Ego balanced with Soul
“Rest assured, behind every unresolved personal drama lies an overactive ego trying to control, manipulate, or dominate whatever it can.”
“At its most rudimentary level, the ego is the bodyguard for the soul, to serve in the role of protector. The problem comes when the bodyguard forgets its primary position, eclipsing the soul’s splendor, to dictate a policy of human behavior.”
From the introduction:
“In the spirit of one of my heroes, Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth), a man who certainly understood the relationship between stress and spirituality, this book is divided into sections that resemble the classic template of what Campbell called “the Hero’s Journey.”
Part I: Into the Unknown frames our departure from the familiar into a brave new stressful world and the problems often associated with that departure.
Part II: Crossing the Threshold highlights the ageless wisdom of the dance between stress and spirituality and features several stories of
everyday heroes who perform the dance masterfully.
Part III: Life in the Balance contains abundant how-to advice to help you build a solid foundation or an action plan, using effective coping skills to victoriously meet the challenge of life’s stress and thus celebrate your own heroic qualities.
Part IV: Back Home Again brings you home to a hero’s welcome, with a few inspirational stories that promise that you, too, can complete the journey and return home as “the master of two worlds.”
“To support the theme of balance, sprinkled throughout the book are exercises, action plans, photographs, meditations, and poems to engage the right brain, help the left brain to process and reintegrate the information, and remind us of what we already know. It is my hope that Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart can reawaken your slumbering spirit, help you build a foundation of balance in your life, and enable you to regain a sense of personal homeostasis, so that the winds of change become the winds of grace that will allow your spirit to soar!”
Excerpt from “The Health of the Human Spirit”:
Twenty-one Strategies for Letting Go of Stress:
· A bird’s eye view: keeping everything in perspective
· Flexing the funny bone: comic relief
· Physical exercise: flushing out the stress hormones
· Decompression: the art of calm
· Do not enter: establishing healthy boundaries
· Respond, don’t react: taming that ego
· Seeking a balance: complexity versus simplicity
· Good vibrations I: turning off the TV
· Anger management: learning to fine-tune expectations
· Meditation: take five or even ten
· Adopt an attitude of gratitude: counting your blessings
(and curses, too)
· Good nutrition: avoid putting gasoline on the fire
· Empowerment: remember, you’ve got the goods
· Friends in need: having a good support system
· Back to nature: getting and staying grounded
· Diversify your interests: place your eggs in more than one
Basket
· Amazing grace: the healing power of prayer
· Reserving judgment: the power of acceptance
· Seizing the day: the future is now
· Forgiveness: the last frontier
About The Changemaker Library
Most of the posts about The Changemaker Library are found at the stressfreebooks blog.
The Changemaker Library includes books for the following topics: core books, creativity, exercise, food, health, meditation, piece of mind, personal development, recovery, spiritual direction, and stress reduction.
For the Changemaker Library, we will be including the basic features of some books you may want to use. All of the books used are the choices of Changemaker without solicitation from any author or publisher. At the beginning of the post, we have listed the name of the book, the author, the ISBN number, and a link where you can order the book if you choose. The rest of the post includes actual content from that book for you to better be able to determine if this is a book for you.
I keep my special books together and use them frequently. I call them my textbooks as I seek direction time and time again from them. The Changemaker Library presently has 50+ books that we are recommending. This library can be acquired gradually either for your individual work or resources for the Changemaker Groups that you begin.
The Changemaker Library has ten separate topics. The topics are:
CORE BOOK TITLES
Complete Guide to Pilates, Yoga, Meditation Stress Relief
New Choices in Natural Healing for Women: Drug Free Remedies from the World of Alternative Medicine
The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook
Stress Control for Peace of Mind
CREATIVITY BOOK TITLES
The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Fingerpainting on the Moon: Writing and Creativity as a Path to Freedom
Prosperity Pie: How to Relax About Money and Everything Else
The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart (Companion to The Artist’s Way)
EXERCISE BOOK TITLES
8 Minutes in the Morning
Complete Guide to Pilates, Yoga, Meditation Stress Relief
Escape Your Shape: How to Work Out Smarter, Not Harder
Essential Stretch: Gentle Movements for Stress Relief, Flexibility and Overall Well-Being
Move Your Body Tone Your Mood
Shape Walking: Six Easy Steps to Your Best Body
Workouts for Dummies
The World’s Fittest You: Harness the Power of Interval Training-and Get On the Road to Fitness in Just One Month
Yoga for Weight-Loss: The Effective 4-Week Slimming Plan for Body, Mind and Spirit
Yoga: Three in One: Three Complete Home Workout Programs
FOOD BOOK TITLES
Barbara Kraus’s Calories and Carbohydrates
Change One: The Breakthrough 12-Week Eating Plan
Your Perfect Weight: The Diet-Free Method Developed by the World’s Leading Health Magazine
HEALTH BOOK TITLES
The Holistic Herbal Directory: A Directory of Herbal Remedies for Everyday Health Problems
New Choices in Natural Healing for Women: Drug Free Remedies from the World of Alternative Medicine
You The Owner’s Manual: An Insider’s Guide to the Body That Will Make You Healthier and Younger.
The 7 Secrets of Slim People
MEDITATION BOOK TITLES
Complete Guide to Pilates, Yoga, Meditation, Stress Relief
The Meditation Year: A Seasonal Guide to Contemplation, Relaxation, and Visualization.
Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions
Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life.
PEACE OF MIND BOOK TITLES
Peaceful Mind: Using Mindfulness and Cognitive Psychology to Overcome Depression
Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart
Serenity in Motion: Inner Peace: Anytime, Anywhere
Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions
Turning the Mind Into An Ally
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT BOOK TITLES
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
Adult Children of Alcoholics
Coach Yourself to Success: 101 Tips From a Personal Coach for Reaching Your Goals at Work and in Life
Journal to the Self: Twenty-two Paths to Personal Growth
Keep Your Paycheck, Live Your Passion
The Little Book of Letting Go: A Revolutionary 30-day Program to
Cleanse Your Mind, Life Your Spirit and Replenish Your Soul
Love First: A New Approach to Intervention for Alcoholism and Drug Addiction
More Language of Letting Go
Naomi’s Breakthrough Guide: 20 Choices to Transform Your Life
More Language of Letting Go
SPIRITUAL DIRECTION BOOK TITLES
The 12 Steps for Adult Children
Barefoot on Holy Ground: Twelve Lessons In Spiritual Craftsmanship
Callings: Finding and Following An Authentic Life
The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for Living Your Best Life
The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions
Ordinary People as Monks and Mystics: Lifestyles for Self-Discovery
Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart: The Taoist Path Through Stress and Spirituality
Simplicity: Finding Peace By Uncluttering Your Life.
STRESS REDUCTION BOOK TITLES
Complete Guide to Pilates, Yoga, Meditation Stress Relief
Essential Stretch: Gentle Movements for Stress Relief, Flexibility and Overall Well-Being
The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook
Stand Like Mountain Flow Like Water
Stress Control for Peace of Mind
Stress: 63 Ways to Relieve Tension and Stay Healthy
