Read an Excerpt

The Mind of the Soul

Free Press

Chapter One

This book can dramatically change your life by showing you how to take responsibility for the choices you make and break free from the illusion that you are a victim of your circumstances.

Everyone knows that when you make a choice, that choice changes your experience. When you take a new job, move to a new city, or get married or divorced, your experience changes. That is obvious, but other choices that you hardly think about make differences in your life, too. For example, when you shout because you are angry, that is a choice, even if you do not think of it as such. Even if you assume that it is natural to shout when you are angry, that is still a choice. When you shout, you create particular consequences - people avoid you or start arguments with you. When you do not, even though you are angry, different things happen.

All of your choices create consequences, whether or not you think about your choice and even whether or not you are aware of making a choice. When you make a choice, you create consequences for yourself. That is why it is important to understand that you are always making choices, and to become aware of what you are choosing. If you do not make this effort, you will continue to encounter the consequences, and they may not be the ones you would want.

This book is about the power of choice and how to use it wisely. It gives you the tools you need to make responsible choices, and supports you experientially and in practical ways so that you can make responsible choices long after you have finished reading it. Our intention is to give you the most well-rounded, grounded, and practical introduction to responsible choice that we can.

This book is designed to be used, not merely read. The exercises, in particular, are important. Without them, you will still be able to understand the concepts, but they will not be nearly as useful. You will know more, but unless you actually choose responsibly, you will not change.

To assist in the process of meaningful change, we have also created a special Self-Empowerment Journal to accompany this book. It will help you focus your thoughts, emotions, and insights as you read and as you apply the exercises to your life. Of course, you can still benefit greatly from The Mind of the Soul without buying the companion Journal, but if you do not, we ask you to buy a notebook that you like to look at, hold, and write in, and record your discoveries after each exercise. Create your own exercises and write them, too - in whatever journal you choose. Most of all, experiment with what you learn and observe the results in your own life.

Last, we ask you not to accept anything in our book on faith, but to read it with an open mind and an open heart. If something we say strikes you as valuable, apply it to your life and see what happens. If you feel it does not apply to you, let it go.

Make your own choices.

Love, Gary and Linda

Continues...

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Excerpted from The Mind of the Soul by Gary Zukav Copyright © 2004 by Gary Zukav. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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