Seeking Soulmate: Ditch the Dating Game and Find Real Connection

by Chamin Ajjan

Overview

Transform dating and the often-fraught search for a fulfilling relationship into a fun, exciting adventure using mindfulness techniques and practices.
 
Dating is a 2 billion dollar industry. Everyone, it seems, is looking for love but for so many it is an endless struggle. In Seeking Soulmate: Ditch the Dating Game and Find Real Connection, Brooklyn-based therapist Chamin Ajjan offers a fresh perspective to this universal pursuit. With a friendly, funny, and informative approach, Ajjan applies the evidence-based theories of Cognitive Behavior Therapy and mindfulness meditation practice to the negative behaviors, thoughts, and patterns that cause dating distress.
 
Every stage of the dating process, from finding someone to date, to developing a relationship, has its own particular difficulties. Seeking Soulmate shares case vignettes, relatable characters, and personal experiences from Ajjan's clinical experience to illustrate how the personal insight gained with practicing mindfulness can transform the anxiety, negative thoughts, and overall hopelessness that accompanies the unsuccessful pursuit of love into fun, rewarding, exciting dating adventures. Ajjan provides an explanation for dating difficulties, a foundation for practice, and practical exercises to create real change. These methods are available to everyone, regardless of age, socioeconomic status, ethnic, cultural, or religious background, or sexual orientation.
 
Seeking Soulmate will help you develop the most important benefit of mindful dating: the ability to let your genuine, most attractive self emerge. This is how real relationships with the actual staying power are formed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781941529577
Publisher:	Parallax Press
Publication date:	02/14/2017
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	1,216,560
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Chamin Ajjan is  a licensed clinical social worker who did her undergrad work at UC Berkeley and attended graduate school at Columbia University. She has been in private practice since 2004. In those years she has come to see that no matter what a patient cites as their reason for engaging in treatment, it usually all comes down to love. Romantic relationships and the attempt to find one continue to be the most talked-about subjects among her single patients. She has blogged extensively about mindful dating, and developed a mindful dating model that she uses in her practice. She lives with her husband and children in Brooklyn, New York. Seeking Soulmate is her first book.

Table of Contents

Introduction 6

Part 1 What Is Mindful Dating? 12

1 Mind, Body, Feelings, and Behavior 14

2 The Great Escape from the Dating Trap (The Art of Mindful Dating) 31

3 You Be You: Dating Outside the Lines 56

Part 2 The Principles of Mindful Dating 74

4 Dating in the Moment 76

5 Using Your Breath 84

6 Getting Acquainted with Your Thoughts 92

7 Feeling Freely 104

Part 3 Preparing for Mindful Dating 120

8 Building Self-Esteem 122

9 Learning Self-Compassion 141

10 A Love Affair with Yourself 154

Part 4 Practicing Mindful Dating 168

11 A Mindful Dating Tool Kit 170

12 Mindful Mating 200

In Summary: Essential Mindful Dating Tips 212

Related Resources 217

Acknowledgments 220

About the Author 223