Changemaker Personality Test » 1 Books

The Changemaker Library

admin — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:09:36 +0000

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.

The individual book excerpts are found on each of our other blogs. The schedule for each is:

(1) Answers by Email has creativity, core (basic), and health books under Books tag.

(2) Changemaker Groups has personal development books under Books tag.

(3) Changemaker Library has spiritual direction books under Books tag.

(4) Healing For You has meditation, peace of mind, and stress reduction books under Books tag.

(5) High Energy Life Plan has exercise and food books under Books tag.

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

You the Owner’s Manual

admin — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:17:48 +0000

You The Owner’s Manual: An Insider’s Guide to the Body That Will Make You Healthier and Younger.

Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz

ISBN 0-06-076531-3

Amazon link

Having read so many books over the years of a similar subject matter as this popular book, I was prepared to be under-whelmed. To my delight, this book is easy and enjoyable to read. I especially liked the crib sheets that they included. The crib sheets organize and simplify the subjects in the book.

The subject titles in the book are: your body, your home: super health; the beat goes on: your heart and arteries; do you mind; your brain and nervous system; motion control: your bones, joints and muscles; to a lung and healthy life: your lungs; gut feelings: your digestive system; sex marks the spot: your sexual organs; common sense: your sensory organs; sick sense: your immune system; this gland is your gland: your hormones; hell cells: cancer; and the owner’s manual diet.

A sample of one of the crib sheets is the owner’s manual diet activity plan.

Walking 30 minutes every day (or other general physical

like swimming, if you cannot walk)

Stamina training 3 times a week, at a rate at which you are

(biking, swimming) sweating for 20 minutes or are out of breath

by the end

Resistance training 3 times per week, 10 minutes a day

Stretching or yoga Every day, after walking

Deep breathing Take 10 deep breaths every morning and night

using abdominal technique

Sleep Plan time for 7-8 hours daily

New Choices in Natural Healing for Women

admin — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:14:17 +0000

New Choices in Natural Healing for Women: Drug Free Remedies from the World of Alternative Medicine

Prevention Magazine

ISBN 0-87596-387-0

Amazon link

Excerpt from the book:

“A therapy is considered natural if it relies more on your body’s innate poser to heal itself than on invasive interventions such as drugs and surgery. Some natural therapies, like acupuncture, are consided conventional in non-Western countries such as china. Others, like herbal medicine, are practiced widely in one form or the other in nearly every culture of the globe. In this country, however, natural therapies are variously referred to as unconventional, alternative, complementary or unorthodox.”

Natural Healing (includes acupressure, acupuncture, Alexander Technique (posture), aromatherapy, art therapy, biofeedback, breath work (deep breathing), chiropractic (alignment), cognitive therapy (positive self-talk), exercise, Feldenkrais Method (awareness), food therapy (some diets), Hellerwork (massage bodywork), herbal medicine, homeopathy, hydrotherapy (water), imagery/visualization, light therapy, massage/bodywork, meditation, music therapy, naturopathy, osteopathy, reflexology, therapeutic touch, Chinese medicine, vegetarian diets, vision training, vitamin and mineral therapy, and yoga.

The 7 Secrets of Slim People

admin — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:08:47 +0000

The 7 Secrets of Slim People

Vikki Hansen and Shawn Goodman

ISBN 0-06-101338-2

Amazon link

Chapter 1: How Does Weight Control Damage You?

Chapter 2: Dieting Can Make You Fatter!

Chapter 3: Weight is Not Your Proble

The secrets:

Chapter 4: Secret #1 Listen to your body, not your mind

Chapter 5: Secret #2 Eat with awareness and without judgment

Chapter 6: Secret #3 Eat only when you are physically hungry

Chapter 7: Secret #4 Stop eating when you are stisfied, not full

Chapter 8: Secret #5 Eat what you want most

Chapter 9: Secret #6 Notice how your body feels after eating

Chapter 10:Secret #7 Honor your feelings; don’t bury them under food

Chapter 11:To be slim for life, you must adopt the attitudes of the

naturally slim

Chapter 12: Questions and answers

Excerpt from the book:

“Why is this book different?

First, the book treats the causes of overeating. Most other diets treat only the superficial symptom of excess weight. You do not want to lose weight again. You want to lose weight permanently. By simply and gently attacking the cause of overeating, you permanently solve the problem of excess weight. Our strategy is time-tested and proven. You will lose weight permanently—simply and gently.”

“Second, this way is simple. We take all of the mystery out of eating normally, like slim people. You will truly be enjoying eating, and at the same time achieve your optimum health and most beautiful body. And you will do this without scales, calorie-or fat-gram counting, complicated food combining, or fanatical exercise regimens. The best part is that you are already know how to eat, according to The Seven Secrets, without realizing it. This method is natural and automatic—you just need a refresher course.”

“Third, this approach gives you total freedom. Diets give you restictive rules that may help you temporarily lose weight, so long as you continue to restrict your eating according to the diet. At some point, though (when you lose the weight or when the diet fails), you always go off the diet. However, this approach gives you permanent weight loss without any restrictive eating. There’s no diet to “go off of”. This method not only permanently frees you from your excess weight, but also frees you to enjoy eating whatever you want.”

The Holistic Herbal Directory

admin — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:06:27 +0000

The Holistic Herbal Directory: A Directory of Herbal Remedies for Everyday Health Problems

Penelope Ody

ISBN 0-7858-1351-9

Amazon link

The Holistic Directory divides herbs into the following sections:

Western medicine and herbs

Traditional Chinese Medicine and herbs

Ayurvedic medicine and herbs

A-Z of herbs

A-Z of common ailments

How to make simple herbal remedies

Part One Respiratory system

Part Two Eyes, skin, and hair

Part Three Digestive system

Part Four The Emotions

Part Five Cardiovascular system

Part Six Muscle, bones, and joints

Part Seven Genitourinary system

Part Eight Babies and children

First-aid kit

Glossary

Useful addresses/further reading

Index

Excerpt from how this book works:

“Holistic medicine is all about treating the whole person, focusing no just on physical symptoms but an emotinal and spiritual aspects contributing to the disorder. This is the approach that has always been taken by herbalists=be they trained in traditional Western methods, Chinese medicine, or ayurveda. The Holistic Herbal Dierectory adopts the same definition of “holistic”, but also looks at each of the traditional therapies would tackle a particular ailment, to give a comprehensive approach to therapy.”

Health Books

admin — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:02:48 +0000

These books are incorporated in our Changemaker Library. All of the books used are the choices of Changemaker without solicitation from any author or publisher. We include the title of the book, the author, the ISBN number, and an Amazon link if you choose to order the books yourself.

The following are health books.

The Holistic Herbal Directory: A Directory of Herbal Remedies for Everyday Health Problems

Penelope Ody

ISBN 0-7858-1351-9

Amazon link

New Choices in Natural Healing for Women: Drug Free Remedies from the World of Alternative Medicine

Prevention Magazine

ISBN 0-87596-387-0

Amazon link

You The Owner’s Manual: An Insider’s Guide to the Body That Will Make You Healthier and Younger.

Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz

ISBN 0-06-076531-3

Amazon link

The 7 Secrets of Slim People

Vikki Hansen and Shawn Goodman

ISBN 0-06-101338-2

Amazon link

Prosperity Pie

admin — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 17:36:38 +0000

Prosperity Pie: How to Relax About Money and Everything Else

SARK

ISBN 0-7432-2920-7

Amazon link

SARK (which is short for Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy) has written several highly-creative books. They are published in her handwriting—or, in someone’s handwriting—and contain drawings carttons, lists, etc. I love mind-mapping so this book appealed to me as a way to remember to color outside the lines.

Prosperity Pie, as explained in the author’s foreword, means plenty of everything, with enough to share. As with most books that guide us toward greater self-discovery, she begins by talking about our inner critics. She states that as soon as we improve in area of our lives that our inner critics have been harping on, the critics start harping on something else.

Some of her statements from this book are:

1) Whatever has happened to us has contributed to us.

2) You are enough. You have enough. You do enough.

3) You are not alone.

4) Even when we are surrounded by and with love, we must still face ourselves alone every day. How much love gets inside?

5) As humans, we need to give ourselves mental, physical, emotional and spiritual care on a daily basis.

6) There are specific ways to practice healthy self-talk, and I frequently use writing to calm and center myself.

7) Challenges help us grow in prosperity and every challenge is a teaching.

We can relax into our tension.

The chapter headings for Prosperity Pie are: self—challenges—love—work—money—time—inspiration—teachers—adventures—and, prosperity pie.

More about her and her work can be found at www.planetsark.com.

The website is as creative as her books. Enjoy!

Fingerpainting on the Moon

admin — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 17:32:03 +0000

Fingerpainting on the Moon: Writing and Creativity as a Path to Freedom

Peter Levitt

ISBN 0-609-61048-1

Amazon link

Peter Levitt has worked for over 30 years with writers, artists, and others who wanted to explore their creative depths. He relates that before starting something new, we feel excited, anxious, frightened, hopeful. Often times a feeling of joy—that feeling that comes from expressing ourselves in a new and creative way. In the author’s note he refers to our inner critics which he calls the “hungry ghosts”. My favorite name for them is the “committee”. They ran my life for many years until I learned how to shut off the voices.

Levitt weaves stories throughout the book from his students to suggest that the path to joy includes: starting in silence, risk, everything is permitted in the imagination, how to feed a hungry ghost, the narrow place, a need to know, when the stone woman dances-the mute bird sings, divine breath, naked mind, naming, the bones beneath the bones, the riddle of the hands, there are hundeds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground, a matter of chance, paradise now, time to die, and bull’s-eye.

The following is an excerpt from “there are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground” (I have chosen it because he found this title from one of my favorite poets—Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi who lived in the fourteenth century).

“I want to explore prayer from a perspective that may be quite new in the West. Afterward, when you write, I’m sure you will see how to use this teaching to creatively bring your deepest self to life. In the Sufi tradition it is taught that all things in the univrse are constantly in prayer: every leaf and tree, every stone, the snowfall on every mountain, and all the night sky stars that whirl invisibly throughout the day. According to this teaching, all things seen and unseen, know, and unknown, are simultaneously and constantly in prayer. When you hold a flower, or a baby, or your friend’s or lover’s hand, you are holding a life in prayer. I think it is fair to say the tradition also believes when you hear a song coming from across a field—for example, a song filled with its own beauty as the prayer of gratitude I somehow became—then singer and song and field are prayer. In other words, being and prayer are synonymous.”

The Artist’s Way

admin — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 17:09:54 +0000

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

Julia Cameron

ISBN 0-87477-694-5

Amazon link

Julia Cameron teaches the methods she created from The Artist’ s Way in Hollywood, California. The co-founder of “The Artist’s Way Workshop” is Mark Byron. She recognizes that the path to unblocking creativity is a spiritual path.

Spiritual Electricity: The Basic Principles begins the book and includes such knowledge as: Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy. Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.

The two pivotal tools in creative recovery are the morning pages (a daily journal) and the artist date. The morning pages are the primary tool of creative recovery. An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. Doing the moring pages is sending your thoughts, dreams, etc. and the artist date is receiving inspiration, insight, and guidance.

The rest of the book is divided into chapters about recovering a sense of: safety, identity, power, integrity, possibility, abundance, connection, strength, compassion, self-protection, autonomy, and faith.

She require her students to sign a creativity contract and includes one for her book students.

An excerpt from Week 1: Recovering a Sense of Safety:

“One of our chief needs as creative beings is support. Unfortunately, this can be hard to come by. Ideally, we would be nurtured and encouraged first by our nuclear family and then by our ever-widening circles of friends , teachers, well-wishers. As Young artists, we need and want to be acknowledged for our attempts and efforts as well as for our achievements and triumphs. Unfortunately, many artists never receive this critical early encouragement. As a result, they may not know they are artists at all.”

Cameron uses quotations in the margins of the pages for inspiration and also includes many experiences she has had in helping others to regain the creative path. I say recreate because I believe we are each born with creativity and I believe life to be a return to bring our joyful, playful, creative child.

In the chapter in the first week, she dwells on the foundation upon which we each live—our beliefs. If you are telling yourself that you can’t—you are probably helping to make that come true. None of your core beliefs that are negative needs to be true. Beliefs aren’t facts. Your allies for replacing negative beliefs with postitive ones are creative affirmations. She lists several suggestions for these. At the end of each chaper, she assigns tasks (homework) to be completed before moving on the next chapter. Some of the tasks for week 1 are: to take $5.00 and go to a discount store and buy goold stars, stickers, glitter, glue crayons—buy what you’d like to play with.

The Vein of Gold

admin — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:57:40 +0000

The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart (Companion to The Artist’s Way)

Julia Cameron

ISBN 0-87477-836-0

Amazon link

This journey to your creative heart begins with a chapter about setting out on your journey. The basic tools of morning pages, weekly artist date, cluster list, walking daily, walking an hour-long walk weekly, walking prayerfully, manifesting, and your creativity commitment.

The main chapters of the book take us to the kingdoms of: 1) story, 2) sight, 3) sound, 4) attitude, 5) relationship, 6) spirituality, and 7) possibility.

The last chapter deals with breaking camp. In this chapter, the artist’s tribal rules are given.

The tribal rules are:

Survival rule number 1 is acceptance. “I seem to want to be an artist.” Accept the fact that you’re an artist and stop second guessing yourself. Just do it.

Survival rule number 2: Don’t Judge It. Focus on process, not product.

Survival rule number 3: Defend your process. Sooner or later, you’re going to run into somebody who won’t want you to do it, or will want you to do it only a certain way. Consider the source. Are the making your art? Do what you need to do.

Survival rule number 4: Never Let Anybody Tell You What To Create. Create for you. Create something every day.

Survival rule number 5: Maintain Your Creative Health. Artists are athletes. Creativity is like distance running. Log ten slow miles for every one fast mile. Consistency—process—builds stamina, what horse people call “bottom”, what we may call the bottom line. This brings us to:

Survival rule number 6: Grieve Your Losses. In any creative life there are losses. Some of them are grievous. Only one thing makes them go away—more creativity.

Survival rule number 7: Create for Revenge. Be a spiritual midget. Skewer the bastards. Create right at them.

Survival rule number 8: Remember That the Part of Us That Creates is An Inner Youngster. Allow your creative child to have playmates and playthings.

Survival rule number 9: Find Your Believing Mirrors and Stick Close to Them. You deserve a cheering section.

Survival rule number 10: Ignore the Odds. We are all equally sourced in an abundant Universe. Our dreams come from the God within, and that God has the power to fulfill them. Trust yourself. Accept divine help from whatever human source offers it, remembering always that God is the Great Creator—and artists love other artists.