Heart of the Matter : How to Find Love, How to Make It Work

by Linda, M.D. Austin

• ISBN13: 9780743437714
• ISBN10: 0743437713
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-05-27
• Publisher: Atria

Summary

Why is it that love seems to come easily to some people and not to others?In her first book, What's Holding You Back? Eight Critical Choices for Women's Success, Dr. Linda Austin explored the "psychological glass ceiling," the emotional barriers that keep women from achieving career success. This book is about a different kind of inner glass ceiling: the one that holds you back from the heights of great love. Dr. Austin is convinced that there's nothing fundamentally wrong with those who have difficulty finding and keeping love; BUT there may be specific behaviors that you engage in -- and specific behaviors that you do not engage in -- that have a profound impact on whether you find and keep love. The good news? Those behaviors can be learned, practiced, and eventually incorporated into your personality.Dr. Austin wants you to know that small adjustments in your outlook and actions can have enormous impact on your ability to get the love you want. And in this perceptive, highly original book, she identifies the five core behaviors that determine your ability to have successful, loving relationships, as well as the patterns of behavior that can subtly sabotage those efforts.

The Core Behaviors 1. Engage with the World around You 2. Evaluate the Choices You Make for Love 3. Expand Your Safety Zone 4. Establish Emotional Independence 5. Evolve Consciously, Willfully, Healthily

Heart of the Matter shows how these five essential practices can deepen and transform your ability to give and receive love and loyalty. It explains how to make those small and specific changes that will have huge ripple effects on what happens to you in life -- and most important of all, it demonstrates how to identify and use your strengths so that you can move toward the life and love you want so much.Heart of the Matter reflects Dr. Linda Austin's twenty-five years as a psychiatrist, assisting all sorts of people in their efforts to live more fully in the real world of loving human relationships. Pragmatic and sensible, this book is based on the conviction that each of us has the capacity to improve our ability to find and inspire love through specific behaviors. So whether you're currently in a relationship, or it's been so long since you've dated that you think "seeing someone" refers to a psychiatrist, Heart of the Matter can help you move toward that healthy, loving relationship you want -- and so richly deserve.

Author Biography

Linda Austin, M.D., is a practicing psychiatrist in Bangor, Maine, and a Professor of Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina. A frequent lecturer, she is best known for her nationally syndicated radio program, What's On Your Mind? She lives with her husband in Bangor, Maine

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
Chapter One: So Just What Is Love, Anyway?	1	(15)
Chapter Two: Engage with the World around You	16	(45)
Chapter Three: Evaluate the Choices You Make for Love	61	(47)
Chapter Four: Expand Your Safety Zone	108	(50)
Chapter Five: Establish Emotional Independence	158	(48)
Chapter Six: Evolve Consciously, Willfully, Healthily	206	(47)
Index	253