How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life: Opening Your Heart to Confidence, Intimacy, and Joy

By Susan Piver

Book Overview

How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life is an inspirational and practical guide to conquering fear and embracing joy.

Although you may not realize it fear is getting in your way and stopping you from connecting with others, realizing the significance of your life, and finding fulfillment and joy. It doesn't have to be this way. Susan Piver has the key to breaking down the barriers of fear that are holding you back. Using simple meditation techniques, based in Buddhist principles, she will teach you how to:

-Open your heart to relationships
-Gain the confidence to pursue a meaningful career
-Achieve perspective to live your authentic life

With a contemporary approach to ancient practices Susan teaches you how to incorporate principles of meditation and mindfulness into your everyday life. This isn't about enlightenment on a mountaintop it is a way of bringing intelligence and courage to the way you relate to yourself, your family, your friends, and your life.

How Not to be Afraid of Your Own Life features the "7-Day Freedom from Fear Meditation Program" a guided journey into discovering what may be holding you back from experiencing life to the fullest. Using meditation, journaling, and other reflective practices you will find a respite from everyday pressures and learn techniques to help you re-enter your busy life refreshed, renewed, and ready to live the life you were born to.

"Susan Piver shows us how to create a fearless life." -Andrew Weil, M.D., author of Healthy Aging

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312355971
• ISBN13: 9780312355975
• Release Date: December 2007
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Breathe in, Breathe out and let go. That's it, really!

I could not have found Susan's very excellent book at a better time. At the time, I was living the dream of a 30 year old New Yorker in post break-up hell. Ahhh, good times. Susan's wise, direct and oftentimes funny advice on finding some space in-between the panic attacks of our everyday life gave me the space I needed to heal and move on. I've incorporated many of these practices in my daily and have found them to be of enormous benefit. Meditation need not be an insane spiritual awakening with crazy lights and sounds. It can just be a little quiet time to heal and find some comfort in your NYC apartment. For a girl who may in fact love "Project Runway" more than her friends and family, it's nice to find a book that shows you how to be "spiritual" in the everyday modern world.

Excellent insights and communication style

I very much appreciate the views Susan shares in her great little book. I'm halfway into it and have already received much more than many large books have presented to readers. Good job. Honest sharing of personal experiences and the perspectives born of them. I would buy any of her books in the future! Much appreciated.

Appealing, honest, brave

This is an excellent book on Buddhism that weaves Susan's own stories and challenges into the fabric of a meditation practice. I found it accessible, straightforward, and compelling.

Wonderful intro to Buddhism

Susan Piver's book is a wonderful introduction to Buddhism for the beginner. She explains the basic meditations of Buddhist practice with a fresh, light approach. Many Buddhist meditation texts are bogged down in background, and she skips the unnecessary details to cut to the chase. She is able to use references to the everyday situations most people encounter, and apply principles in the book. This is my "go-to" book for my practice and I highly recommend it.

Coming in to yourself

When I read the title of this book I was a little taken aback--Afraid of my own life? Could I be? But Piver addresses issues and fears that are common themes in life--fears that are part of the human experience--and shows us in a methodically, and linear way, how to acknowledge and then diffuse those fears, by facing them head on. She disects some basic ideas in a very clear, direct, friendly and accessible way. It is as though Ms. Piver is sitting down to a cup of tea with you, to be that friend that listens and affirms all the crappy stuff that can happen to us, but then goes on to show us that by using the ancient practice of meditiation, ultimately, we can be ok with it. Or perhaps more accurately, it can be ok with us. The meditation instructions are clear, specific and very accessible--and the 7 day meditation program looks like a great way take a committed practice of meditation to the next level. I'll say, it has inspired ME to get my butt to the cushion more, since reading the book.