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We live in a world of constant movement, and our day-to-day lives seem to get busier by the hour. Our days are full of information, full of obligations, full of friends and family, full of everything . . . except fulfillment. And rushing has become a national epidemic. Even when we’re rushing to and from the good stuff—like a rewarding job with wonderful colleagues or quality time spent with loved ones—we can still end up feeling drained and exhausted, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of life.
In Full Cup, Thirsty Spirit, psychologist Karen Horneffer-Ginter helps you understand that it is this volume, this busyness, that creates a disconnect between your outer life and your inner self. This separation can cause your soul to wilt, preventing you from experiencing joy and hearing your own wisdom about what needs priority in your life.
With an elegant narrative voice that inspires both laughter and compassion, Horneffer-Ginter shows you how to live a fuller life rather than simply filling your time. She focuses on six shifts to make in your daily life—teaching you to honor your rhythms, turn within, fill up, fully inhabit your days, remember lightness, and embrace difficulty.
Through a weave of personal stories, client experiences, and practical exercises, she shows you how to find balance in the swirl of daily life, so you can reconnect with what matters most.
PatriciasWisdom
Posted January 28, 2013
I wish I had owned a copy of FULL CUP, Thirsty Spirit when I was a young mother and working on balancing my life, with apparently no time for myself at any given moment. Karen Horneffer-Ginter has taken her expertise and 16 years of work experience and put together a manual for all of us who are too busy and our lives are too full. I wish I had had this book when I was doing counseling or working on a busy college campus, but the race was just warming up; the author’s words would have given us more balance as we arrived at the start line. I would have referred this book to nearly everyone I encountered. People are so driven today; so busy. It is here now and it is about time.
FULL CUP, Thirsty Spirit is about time management but not just for work or school projects, it is about finding a new rhythm to your life which is holistic and assists one if finding their individual best life. It is about couples learning who they are as individuals and then meshing their rhythms and activities to make a more complete experience. It gives new meaning to partnership in relationships that does not just imitate a business model. Our lives and our families are often very busy but they are not a business. Corporations and Businesses are often held up as the ideal but these models are not very relevant for successful living and relationships.
Horneffer-Ginter uses a 6 step form to assist folks in finding their best, which includes rediscovering core values and integrating them into YOUR actual life not the imagined way one thought life would be happening. She calls the steps - shifts:
Shift 1: Honoring Our Rhythms
Shift 2: Turning Within
Shift 3: Filling Up
Shift 4: Fully Inhabiting Our Days
Shift 5: Remembering Lightness
Shift 6: Embracing Difficulty
Ending with finding a balance that integrates the themes.
Searching for the spirit within ourselves can often be thought of as being part of a religious experience. Sometimes that religious experience can be just more busyness to incorporate into our lives and may or may not give back to our best living. This author is not preachy or evangelical in her concepts and ideas. She is showing us how to find the magic in “no” and “intentionality” bringing us to our center and making our activities more beneficial to nurturing us and not just consuming us. She shows us how to confront our imitation behaviors which are not working to our benefit, how to tackle perfectionistic expectations and to lift up what truly helps our best light shine. Often these changes only take a shift in our perceptions and thinking and are not such a major workout or dramatic in their plan or intention.
The language in the book is conversational; the format is something that anyone could read a chapter or a section a day and find they are able to make the step by step changes on their own – Lots of ah-ha examples to explain and define. I also liked that the quotes were inspiring and were truly relevant to what she was explaining and demonstrating. FULL CUP, Thirsty Spirit was written after 16 years of practice in the areas of psychology, yoga, and contemplative practices.
Karen Horneffer-Ginter is the Co- founder of the Center for Psychotherapy and Wellness in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Overview
We live in a world of constant movement, and our day-to-day lives seem to get busier by the hour. Our days are full of information, full of obligations, full of friends and family, full of everything . . . except fulfillment. And rushing has become a national epidemic. Even when we’re rushing to and from the good stuff—like a rewarding job with wonderful colleagues or quality time spent with loved ones—we can still end up feeling drained and exhausted, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of life.
In