Art of Effortless Living : Do Less, Let Go, and Discover Health, Emotional Well-Being, and Happiness

by Bacci, Ingrid

• ISBN13: 9780399527937
• ISBN10: 0399527931
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-06-04
• Publisher: Perigee Trade

Summary

A graduate of Harvard and Columbia, Ingrid Bacci was a real "achiever"-until a crippling disease took over her life for three years. After embarking on a journey of healing using mind-body techniques, she realized the secret to health, happiness, and success was to let go of trying so hard, and face the fear that had ruled her life. Now, she presents clear, simple techniques for developing an effortless lifestyle. Through breathing exercises, meditation, visualization, bodywork and tapping into unconscious guidance, anyone can learn how to achieve a more fulfilling life-by doing less. "Here is a Book of Changes-a profound and potent guide to making transformative shifts in body, mind and spirit."(Jean Houston, Ph.D., bestselling author of The Possible Human) "This book contains a piece of essential wisdom-that by letting go we gain more, not less." (Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Reinventing Medicine and Healing Words) "Ingrid Bacci eloquently describes the parallel lines of inner and outer healing." (Peter J. D'Adamo, author of Eat Right 4 Your Type)

Author Biography

Ingrid Bacci, Ph.D., is a writer, alternative health care practitioner and motivational coach. In addition to her private practice, she lectures extensively to health maintenance organizations, hospitals, and corporations. She has written for Family Circle, New Age, and Natural Health, and has appeared on numerous radio and television shows.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Foreword	xi
Dr. John Upledger
Introduction: The Life We Are Meant to Live	1	(20)
It's time to replace stress, struggle and effort with effortless, creative living
Let go of the tension you bring into living and find the road to health, emotional fulfillment, productivity and creativity
Part I The Way of the Effortful Warrior: A Cultural Addiction
To Do or To Be	21	(9)
We each face a fundamental choice: to live according to other people's rules or to own ourselves
While the first choice often leads to effort, frustration and failure, the second brings peace, happiness and personal success
Doing: An Addiction to Effortful Living	30	(20)
We can find radiant health and deep fulfillment instead of illness and life without passion
To do so, we have to let go of an unconscious cultural addiction that encourages us to focus too much on how others see us, to fill our lives with endless tasks, and to accept anxiety and fear as normal
The Addiction to Effortful Relationships	50	(11)
We can develop deep relationships that also serve our quest for wholeness
This requires letting go of the caretaking, guilt and neediness that often characterize relationships, and that indicate an addiction to fear
The Effortful Lifestyle: A Holographic Pattern	61	(6)
When we let go of the assumption that struggle, effort and fear are normal, we begin to grow, leaving behind weakened health and unsatisfying relationships, and opening ourselves to greater creativity and spiritual inspiration
Part II The Way of the Effortless Warrior: Transcending Cultural Addiction
The Effortless Way	67	(7)
The pathway out of effort and fear and into radiant living is called the effortless way
It teaches you how to live ``in the zone,'' bringing inner fulfillment as well as outer success
Effortlessness: Discovering Our Breath	74	(14)
Living joyfully and effortlessly means first and foremost learning to relax deeply in everything we do
You can relax and feel intense pleasure and peace, as well as develop your capacity to focus, by practicing deep, easy breathing
Effortlessness: Feeling Our Physical Bodies	88	(22)
Our bodies are constantly sending us messages
By learning to listen to and decode your body's signals, you can improve concentration, solve emotional conflicts, and cure disease
Feeling Our Emotional Bodies	110	(22)
Listen to your body and get in touch with your deeper emotions
Release energy for owning your truth and living authentically
Grieving Our Emotional Bodies	132	(19)
On your way to becoming fully yourself, you'll find yourself recognizing, mourning and releasing the illusions of your past
Part III The Power of a Higher Life: From Effortlessness to Self-Creation
Developing Our Higher Selves	151	(22)
Once you learn to be more in touch with yourself by practicing the effortless way, you open the door to higher guidance
Cultivating Passion	173	(23)
Passion is something we cultivate, not something that happens to us
You can learn how to cultivate a passionate life
Creativity and Shifting Perspective	196	(23)
By training yourself to use your imagination creatively, you can transform your life
The Art of Personal Relationships	219	(18)
Once you become truly yourself by practicing the effortless way, you can foster increasingly genuine intimacy and deep partnership in your relationships
Becoming Ourselves	237	(3)
By letting go of fear and committing to becoming fully yourself, you invent the life you have always wanted
You become vibrantly healthy, emotionally fulfilled, mentally challenged and deeply creative
Audio Program Order Form	240	(1)
About the Author	241