Showing You What You Can Become

Years ago, in the late 70’s, I chanced across Wayne Dyer’s book Your Erroneous Zones. (I was living in Spain and had to read it in Spanish Tus Zonas Erroneas). I was in my twenties, and when I read the last chapter of that book, a chapter that shows a person free of erroneous zones, i.e., a person who is in such a good place inside of him or herself, that he has taken total responsibility for his own well-being, makes conscious choices, and is very aware of him or herself, I asked myself how it could be possible to get to that place. I yearned to get there. And I took the description Dyer offered of such a person as a model to follow. And because I had a model to follow, I was able to grow into that direction. (And of course it wasn’t just having the model, it was also determining to actually do something about it, so self-initiative and some kind of discipline also form part of it).

Abraham Maslow, and his hierarchy of needs gives another model to follow (which Dyer in fact based much of his early thought on). The self-actualizing individual at the top of Maslow's pyramid, is an individual who indeed gives us something to think about … how many of us are in fact there, or even moving towards that? And if not, why not? Frequenly, in particular because of the way our school system works, many of us are not in that place simply because we don't know it exists...

There was another book in my life that was conducive to showing me what I could become, and I didn't chance across this one until I saw it in a bookstore in Geneva in May of 1989, now in my thirties. I had done what I'd like to call much of the psychological work, perhaps less of the spiritual work, until I saw what could be in Gary Zukav's second book The Seat of the Soul. Again, it gave me an excellent road map. This one gave directions towards similar goals as the Dyer book mentioned above, but it focused on the spiritual aspect of moving towards the inner freedom and well-being refered to earlier; it focused much more clearly on the growth of the soul, as opposed to merely the growth of the psyche.

So what this is really about is the fact that growth can sometimes be infinitely accelerated if we see what is possible; if we see what we can become.

But this goes way beyond the little boy who wishes to emulate his policeman or fireman father, or the little girl who wants to be a doctor or lawyer like her mother. This is about what is possible from the point of view of inner freedom, of becoming totally responsible for the self, of taking responsibility for one’s own happiness, of learning how to make conscious choices, and of becoming aware of the self.

So when you meet someone who lives in an inner place that you find wonderful (even though it may seem light years from where you find yourself), or when you read about someone who does so, or when you read about an ideal you can aspire to, and you see that this is showing you what you could become, then use it as a map. Because you can also go there.

P.S. and in case you are curious, since then - since the experiences recounted above - there has been much fine-tuning in my life, much re-visiting of areas and issues that needed greater work, as I know there will continue to be until the day I pass, and much of the fine-tuning came about through other books, and also through human beings I've been fortunate enough to meet or observe or study, but many of the essential bits were put in place through those two early books by Dyer and Zukav. A long list of the other books I feel were important to my own evolution are listed in the bibliography section of all my books.

Also see my new website: www.gabriellakortsch.com where you may read quotations or download excerpts from any of my books.

Books by Dr. Gabriella Kortsch:
 
Rewiring the Soul

Click here to download the first chapter.

To see the Table of Contents click here

Reviews From the Back Cover:

"The masterwork of a profoundly gifted healer of the soul. Dazzling, challenging, wondrously useful." Peggy Rubin, Director, Center for Sacred Theatre, Ashland, Oregon; author: To Be and How To Be, Transforming Your Life Through Sacred Theatre

"Rewiring the Soul is one the best introductions to the spiritual life I've ever read. Not esoteric but real-world & practical. The implications are profound." Peter Shepherd; Founder Trans4mind.com; author: Daring To Be Yourself 

"The human being's directory to the soul. A breakthrough for those seeking practical assistance, those of a more mystical bent & every soul awaiting discovery." Toni Petrinovich, Ph.D.; author: The Call: Awakening the Angelic Human

The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

To download the first chapter, click here
To see the Table of Contents click here

Praise for The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

“All humans seek the illusive touch of another's Soul, which opens us to the sense of belonging to something bigger than the self. Dr. Kortsch has given us the true "tao" of relationship in this brilliant exploration of emotional tapestry. We will be grateful for this illumination of spiritual partnership for generations to come."
Chris Griscom: Spiritual Leader, Author (among others) of: Ecstasy is a New Frequency

“Eloquent and comprehensive, showing how your primary love relationship may be a sacred vessel that transports you and your partner to a place of mutual healing and expansion.” 
Robert Schwartz: Author of Your Soul’s Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born 


The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self 

My new book: The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self, is just out. Click here to download an excerpt. 
Here is a paragraph from the Introduction:

It is your right to live a life of love. It is your right to understand that loving yourself first is not a selfish way of behavior, but one that allows you to live that life of love. However, it's highly probable that you never got the instruction manual explaining exactly how to accomplish this. Possibly your family - and it may have been a loving family - considered loving the self an act of selfishness. Or perhaps the members of your family simply didn't practice loving the self, and of course, what you didn't see - what was not shown to you - while you were growing up, meant that you just didn't learn how to apply it to yourself. The closer you are able to move towards loving yourself, the closer you will be to living a life of love - quite independently of whether you are in a love relationship or not. A life of love can be lived with or without a partnership, because a life of love implies that you know that it all begins with you by loving the self. The more clearly you understand how to love yourself, the more clearly you will see that it is very hard - if not impossible - to love others in ways that are unrelated to fulfilling any of your needs. Loving yourself first is - for so many of us - one of the hardest things we will ever learn how to do. But know this: the benefits affect you in every particle of your being - body, mind, and soul - and are greater than you will ever be able to imagine.

Note: If you are wondering why this blog is now only appearing on alternate days (excluding Sat/Sun), it is because I also post on my other blog on the others days. That other blog is Rewiring the Soul so named for my first book. Click here to visit the blog and/or to sign up for the feed.

Do Exceptional Work

You probably think the title of this post sounds like your mother ... maybe that's true. But here's the point: if you consistently did exceptional work, no matter what you are doing, what difference would it make to your life?

Washing dishes? Do it in an exceptional way ... doesn't take longer, but looks better and above all, makes you feel better about yourself.

Writing an essay or a thesis? Do it in an exceptional way ... this one may take longer, but not only will you feel better about yourself, you might get a much better grade, or even find that the exceptional paper has moved you from one square on the chessboard to a much more advantageous one.

Taking a walk with your 6-year-old? Do it in an exceptional way ... this one may or may not take longer, but here again you will not only feel better about yourself, but you are creating memories for that child of yours that may never fade through all the years of his/her life, memories that may be recounted to your future grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Just three little examples. Where has each of them taken you, as opposed to where you would have gone had you not done the activity in an exceptional way? It has taken you into the present moment because you have been paying acute attention to all that you were doing during the undertaking of said activity. That is precisely one of the biggest ways of doing something in an exceptional way. BEING PRESENT. You can give your 'all' when you are being present. You certainly can not do that when you are not totally present, and hence it is almost impossible to do something in an exceptional way when you are not present.

It was Robin Sharma who wrote: You can do exceptional work or you can make excuses. but you can't do both.


Image: The Flaming Mountains, Tibet

Also see my new website: www.gabriellakortsch.com where you may read quotations or download excerpts from any of my books.

Books by Dr. Gabriella Kortsch:
 
Rewiring the Soul

Click here to download the first chapter.

To see the Table of Contents click here

Reviews From the Back Cover:

"The masterwork of a profoundly gifted healer of the soul. Dazzling, challenging, wondrously useful." Peggy Rubin, Director, Center for Sacred Theatre, Ashland, Oregon; author: To Be and How To Be, Transforming Your Life Through Sacred Theatre

"Rewiring the Soul is one the best introductions to the spiritual life I've ever read. Not esoteric but real-world & practical. The implications are profound." Peter Shepherd; Founder Trans4mind.com; author: Daring To Be Yourself 

"The human being's directory to the soul. A breakthrough for those seeking practical assistance, those of a more mystical bent & every soul awaiting discovery." Toni Petrinovich, Ph.D.; author: The Call: Awakening the Angelic Human

The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

To download the first chapter, click here
To see the Table of Contents click here

Praise for The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

“All humans seek the illusive touch of another's Soul, which opens us to the sense of belonging to something bigger than the self. Dr. Kortsch has given us the true "tao" of relationship in this brilliant exploration of emotional tapestry. We will be grateful for this illumination of spiritual partnership for generations to come."
Chris Griscom: Spiritual Leader, Author (among others) of: Ecstasy is a New Frequency

“Eloquent and comprehensive, showing how your primary love relationship may be a sacred vessel that transports you and your partner to a place of mutual healing and expansion.” 
Robert Schwartz: Author of Your Soul’s Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born 


The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self 

My new book: The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self, is just out. Click here to download an excerpt. 
Here is a brief excerpt from the Introduction:

It is your right to live a life of love. It is your right to understand that loving yourself first is not a selfish way of behavior, but one that allows you to live that life of love. However, it's highly probable that you never got the instruction manual explaining exactly how to accomplish this. Possibly your family - and it may have been a loving family - considered loving the self an act of selfishness. Or perhaps the members of your family simply didn't practice loving the self, and of course, what you didn't see - what was not shown to you - while you were growing up, meant that you just didn't learn how to apply it to yourself. The closer you are able to move towards loving yourself, the closer you will be to living a life of love - quite independently of whether you are in a love relationship or not. A life of love can be lived with or without a partnership, because a life of love implies that you know that it all begins with you by loving the self. The more clearly you understand how to love yourself, the more clearly you will see that it is very hard - if not impossible - to love others in ways that are unrelated to fulfilling any of your needs. Loving yourself first is - for so many of us - one of the hardest things we will ever learn how to do. But know this: the benefits affect you in every particle of your being - body, mind, and soul - and are greater than you will ever be able to imagine.

Note: If you are wondering why this blog is now only appearing on alternate days (excluding Sat/Sun), it is because I also post on my other blog on the others days. That other blog is Rewiring the Soul so named for my first book. Click here to visit the blog and/or to sign up for the feed.

Unwrinkling Your Soul

Compare how you feel when you are enthusiastic to when you are not. The differences make themselves felt not only in your emotions, but also in the vibrational or energetic frequency of your body. Enthusiasm makes you come alive in so many senses of the word, and the lack of it, or the loss of it, causes you to wither. Samuel Ullman wrote: years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.

This is similar to eating healthy food or taking vitamins and exercising, all of which - on a physiological level - may contribute to your well-being. Enthusiasm does the same.

Remember how you felt as a child, perhaps on a Saturday morning, when you knew you had the entire day at your disposal to run, play, build sand castles, read books under a tree, draw, or build an airplane with your Lego blocks. That enthusiasm - that joy - had in it not only the innocence of youth, but also the passion of something you loved. Enthusiasm at any time of life is similar to that. In fact, enthusiasm and joy are very inter-related because one may often be the cause of the other.

Enthusiasm can be sought in your passion for something you love doing, but it can also be sought in your simple interest in something you want to know more about. However you find your enthusiasm, it does require some proactive behavior on your part - in general, it won't just stroll up to you and introduce itself. But the interesting part of the proactive element is that it tends to occur more and more the greater your love for yourself has grown. I'm not talking about being a dilettante and floating - like a butterfly - from flower to flower, because one never satisfies you enough, and then believing that such enthusiasm is real, as opposed to existing simply because something is new, but about digging deep into that well of enthusiasm and growing it, expanding it, living it. One of my all-time favorite quotes comes from Rumi and I have posted and written about it often: when you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.

Also see my new website: www.gabriellakortsch.com where you may read quotations or download excerpts from any of my books.

Books by Dr. Gabriella Kortsch:
 
Rewiring the Soul

Click here to download the first chapter.

To see the Table of Contents click here

Reviews From the Back Cover:

"The masterwork of a profoundly gifted healer of the soul. Dazzling, challenging, wondrously useful." Peggy Rubin, Director, Center for Sacred Theatre, Ashland, Oregon; author: To Be and How To Be, Transforming Your Life Through Sacred Theatre

"Rewiring the Soul is one the best introductions to the spiritual life I've ever read. Not esoteric but real-world & practical. The implications are profound." Peter Shepherd; Founder Trans4mind.com; author: Daring To Be Yourself 

"The human being's directory to the soul. A breakthrough for those seeking practical assistance, those of a more mystical bent & every soul awaiting discovery." Toni Petrinovich, Ph.D.; author: The Call: Awakening the Angelic Human

The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

To download the first chapter, click here
To see the Table of Contents click here

Praise for The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

“All humans seek the illusive touch of another's Soul, which opens us to the sense of belonging to something bigger than the self. Dr. Kortsch has given us the true "tao" of relationship in this brilliant exploration of emotional tapestry. We will be grateful for this illumination of spiritual partnership for generations to come."
Chris Griscom: Spiritual Leader, Author (among others) of: Ecstasy is a New Frequency

“Eloquent and comprehensive, showing how your primary love relationship may be a sacred vessel that transports you and your partner to a place of mutual healing and expansion.” 
Robert Schwartz: Author of Your Soul’s Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born 


The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self 

My new book: The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self, is just out. Click here to download an excerpt. 
Here is a brief excerpt from the Introduction:

It is your right to live a life of love. It is your right to understand that loving yourself first is not a selfish way of behavior, but one that allows you to live that life of love. However, it's highly probable that you never got the instruction manual explaining exactly how to accomplish this. Possibly your family - and it may have been a loving family - considered loving the self an act of selfishness. Or perhaps the members of your family simply didn't practice loving the self, and of course, what you didn't see - what was not shown to you - while you were growing up, meant that you just didn't learn how to apply it to yourself. The closer you are able to move towards loving yourself, the closer you will be to living a life of love - quite independently of whether you are in a love relationship or not. A life of love can be lived with or without a partnership, because a life of love implies that you know that it all begins with you by loving the self. The more clearly you understand how to love yourself, the more clearly you will see that it is very hard - if not impossible - to love others in ways that are unrelated to fulfilling any of your needs. Loving yourself first is - for so many of us - one of the hardest things we will ever learn how to do. But know this: the benefits affect you in every particle of your being - body, mind, and soul - and are greater than you will ever be able to imagine.

Note: If you are wondering why this blog is now only appearing on alternate days (excluding Sat/Sun), it is because I also post on my other blog on the others days. That other blog is Rewiring the Soul so named for my first book. Click here to visit the blog and/or to sign up for the feed.

Nourishing Your Soul

We go to inspiring seminars seeking to connect to our soul. We attend retreats, go to church, or to an ashram, practice yoga, pray, or chant mantras, meditate, become mindful, and read books by those who profess to move us in the direction of our soul.

And then we walk down the street and see the Eastern European woman holding out her hand (in our Western European country) for money. Or we run into the colleague at work who always has the knack of annoying us. Or we are faced with a recalcitrant teen who happens to live under our roof. Or we are greeted by an out-of-sorts spouse as we arrive at home.

And what do we do? Amazingly, all those inspiring seminars, retreats, church sermons, ashrams, yoga practices, prayers, mantras, meditations, mindfulness, and books fly out of mind, and we lose our patience. Or we raise our eyebrows and make a face. Or we think thoughts of criticism, judgement, moral superiority, or even anger.

These moments, these situations we run across almost on a daily basis (these or others that are similar), are our greatest opportunities to nourish and move closer to the soul. Why? Because at these moments we can remember (or practice) to be kind. As King Solomon put it: your own soul is nourished when you are kind.

Also see my new website: www.gabriellakortsch.com 

Books by Dr. Gabriella Kortsch:
 
Rewiring the Soul

Click here to download the first chapter.

To see the Table of Contents click here

Reviews From the Back Cover:

"The masterwork of a profoundly gifted healer of the soul. Dazzling, challenging, wondrously useful." Peggy Rubin, Director, Center for Sacred Theatre, Ashland, Oregon; author: To Be and How To Be, Transforming Your Life Through Sacred Theatre

"Rewiring the Soul is one the best introductions to the spiritual life I've ever read. Not esoteric but real-world & practical. The implications are profound." Peter Shepherd; Founder Trans4mind.com; author: Daring To Be Yourself 

"The human being's directory to the soul. A breakthrough for those seeking practical assistance, those of a more mystical bent & every soul awaiting discovery." Toni Petrinovich, Ph.D.; author: The Call: Awakening the Angelic Human

The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

To download the first chapter, click here
To see the Table of Contents click here

Praise for The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

“All humans seek the illusive touch of another's Soul, which opens us to the sense of belonging to something bigger than the self. Dr. Kortsch has given us the true "tao" of relationship in this brilliant exploration of emotional tapestry. We will be grateful for this illumination of spiritual partnership for generations to come."
Chris Griscom: Spiritual Leader, Author (among others) of: Ecstasy is a New Frequency

“Eloquently and comprehensive, showing how your primary love relationship may be a sacred vessel that transports you and your partner to a place of mutual healing and expansion.” 
Robert Schwartz: Author of Your Soul’s Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born 


The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self 

My new book: The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self, is just out. Click here to download an excerpt. 
Here is a brief excerpt from the Introduction:

It is your right to live a life of love. It is your right to understand that loving yourself first is not a selfish way of behavior, but one that allows you to live that life of love. However, it's highly probable that you never got the instruction manual explaining exactly how to accomplish this. Possibly your family - and it may have been a loving family - considered loving the self an act of selfishness. Or perhaps the members of your family simply didn't practice loving the self, and of course, what you didn't see - what was not shown to you - while you were growing up, meant that you just didn't learn how to apply it to yourself. The closer you are able to move towards loving yourself, the closer you will be to living a life of love - quite independently of whether you are in a love relationship or not. A life of love can be lived with or without a partnership, because a life of love implies that you know that it all begins with you by loving the self. The more clearly you understand how to love yourself, the more clearly you will see that it is very hard - if not impossible - to love others in ways that are unrelated to fulfilling any of your needs. Loving yourself first is - for so many of us - one of the hardest things we will ever learn how to do. But know this: the benefits affect you in every particle of your being - body, mind, and soul - and are greater than you will ever be able to imagine.

Note: If you are wondering why this blog is now only appearing on alternate days (excluding Sat/Sun), it is because I also post on my other blog on the others days. That other blog is Rewiring the Soul so named for my first book. Click here to visit the blog and/or to sign up for the feed.

Una Relajación Diaria de 15 Minutos

La mayoría de las personas llevan una vida estresante y les resulta difícil tomarse tiempo libre para relajarse. No es bueno. Lo ves en los surcos de sus caras, en el estrés en la voz, y porque les resulta difícil concentrarse en tu cara, dado que probablemente ya estén vagando hacia al siguiente tema o reunión en sus pensamientos. Pueden no dormir bien, pueden tener problemas de presión arterial, problemas de peso, índices poco sanos de colesterol, así como un bajo umbral para la irritación. Todo comprensible, sin embargo, es posible lidiar todo esto con el fin de mejorarlo.

Haz la prueba de realizar un breve paseo de 15 minutos todos los días, un relajante paseo, no uno en el que no puedes recuperar el aliento, aunque si lo prefieres se podría hacer eso también. El objetivo principal de este paseo es llegar a ser consciente de tu entorno actual mediante el uso de la belleza existente. Simplemente te centras en la primera cosa bella que ves o escuchas - tal vez un roble que acaba de empezar a mostrar sus primeros brotes verdes en la primavera, o el canto de los petirrojos (escucha aquí). Al mirar o escuchar lo que sea que hayas elegido, busca sentir gratitud por esa presencia en este momento en tu vida, y notarás una ligera sensación de relajación o paz en tu plexo solar. Ahora toma nota de otra cosa bella. Tal vez ahora ves el brote de una flor a través de la tierra o escuchas el sonido del viento entre los árboles (escucha aquí). Una vez más, ten en cuenta la belleza, siente la gratitud, y notarás la sensación de paz. Ahora tal vez ves un gatito intentando atrapar una mosca o escuchas el sonido del viento a través de las hojas de una palmera (escucha aquí). Recuerda que debes observar la belleza, sentir la gratitud, y luego darte cuenta de la (aunque sea muy breve) sensación de paz. Y esta vez quizás ves un rastro de hormigas obreras ocupadas en llevar pequeños trozos de una planta a su colina, o oyes el sonido de las cigarras (escucha aquí - y si piensas que esto es fuerte, yo los oía de esta manera en Sudáfrica cerca de Ciudad del Cabo, y logré dormir a pesar de todo) al igual que antes, observa la belleza, siente la gratitud, y nota la sensación de paz. Simplemente sigues haciendo esto durante 15 minutos hasta que llegues al final de tu caminata.

Sin embargo, esto es lo que sucederá. Te sentirás muy bien en esos primeros momentos de ser consciente mientras disfrutas de la belleza, sientes gratitud y notas la paz. Te olvidarás, no obstante, rápidamente del propósito de tu paseo y entrarás en un mundo no consciente de pensamientos y de ahí volverás a sentir el estrés. Y sólo cuando tus quince minutos se hayan acabado, te acordarás del verdadero propósito de tu caminata ...

No te preocupes. Si haces esto todos los días durante tres semanas, los camino neurales de tu cerebro comenzarán a cambiar de tal manera que llegarás más y más cerca de conseguir enfocarte en belleza y gratitud y por tanto a sentirte más relajado y más en paz. Esto tendrá un impacto en todas las áreas de tu vida. Así de simple. Todo lo que tienes que hacer es hacerlo.

Doing a Little Vs Doing a Lot

How do you use your time? What can you accomplish even if you only have small pockets of time available to you?

• It's nearly the end of your day - your working day - and since there are only 10 minutes left, you decide not to start working on that report you need for the end of the month. 
• Your day is already so full of activities, you truly only have something like 20-30 minutes available, and not necessarily at the same time or place every day, so you decide you simply have no time to write that book.
• You want to learn Chinese, but there just is no time, other than in your car in traffic and since it's brief and you can't possibly concentrate in the car, you decide not to use that time to learn a little every day.
• You have read an inspiring book about personal development and want to implement some of its suggestions to make changes in yourself, but decide that since you have you have no real block of time available to you on a daily basis, you will not be able to do it - it's impossible.
• You want to help in your community, perhaps be a big brother or sister to a young teen who has no parent of your gender, or read in a hospice to the terminally infirm, but because you have so little time available, you do nothing

It's easy to see how we delude ourselves into frittering our lives away and never do so many of the things we want to do. Working on something a tiny bit at a time, or helping in small ways, go a very long way to achieving a worthwhile goal. And imagine how you will feel when you are part of the way there, and can look back to see how far you have already come. And then imagine how you will feel when you are even closer. This is totally up to you - not up to magically available larger pockets of time. History is full of individuals who achieved great things or helped others in great ways, simply by doing a little bit at a time. You can do the same. You simply need to decide to begin! It was Sydney Smith who wrote: It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little.

Also see my new website: www.gabriellakortsch.com 

Books by Dr. Gabriella Kortsch:
 
Rewiring the Soul

Click here to download the first chapter.

To see the Table of Contents click here

Reviews From the Back Cover:

"The masterwork of a profoundly gifted healer of the soul. Dazzling, challenging, wondrously useful." Peggy Rubin, Director, Center for Sacred Theatre, Ashland, Oregon; author: To Be and How To Be, Transforming Your Life Through Sacred Theatre

"Rewiring the Soul is one the best introductions to the spiritual life I've ever read. Not esoteric but real-world & practical. The implications are profound." Peter Shepherd; Founder Trans4mind.com; author: Daring To Be Yourself 

"The human being's directory to the soul. A breakthrough for those seeking practical assistance, those of a more mystical bent & every soul awaiting discovery." Toni Petrinovich, Ph.D.; author: The Call: Awakening the Angelic Human

The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

To download the first chapter, click here
To see the Table of Contents click here

Praise for The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

“All humans seek the illusive touch of another's Soul, which opens us to the sense of belonging to something bigger than the self. Dr. Kortsch has given us the true "tao" of relationship in this brilliant exploration of emotional tapestry. We will be grateful for this illumination of spiritual partnership for generations to come."
Chris Griscom: Spiritual Leader, Author (among others) of: Ecstasy is a New Frequency

“Eloquently and comprehensive, showing how your primary love relationship may be a sacred vessel that transports you and your partner to a place of mutual healing and expansion.” 
Robert Schwartz: Author of Your Soul’s Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born 


The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self 

My new book: The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self, is just out. Click here to download an excerpt. 
Here is a brief excerpt from the Introduction:

It is your right to live a life of love. It is your right to understand that loving yourself first is not a selfish way of behavior, but one that allows you to live that life of love. However, it's highly probable that you never got the instruction manual explaining exactly how to accomplish this. Possibly your family - and it may have been a loving family - considered loving the self an act of selfishness. Or perhaps the members of your family simply didn't practice loving the self, and of course, what you didn't see - what was not shown to you - while you were growing up, meant that you just didn't learn how to apply it to yourself. The closer you are able to move towards loving yourself, the closer you will be to living a life of love - quite independently of whether you are in a love relationship or not. A life of love can be lived with or without a partnership, because a life of love implies that you know that it all begins with you by loving the self. The more clearly you understand how to love yourself, the more clearly you will see that it is very hard - if not impossible - to love others in ways that are unrelated to fulfilling any of your needs. Loving yourself first is - for so many of us - one of the hardest things we will ever learn how to do. But know this: the benefits affect you in every particle of your being - body, mind, and soul - and are greater than you will ever be able to imagine.

Note: If you are wondering why this blog is now only appearing on alternate days (excluding Sat/Sun), it is because I also post on my other blog on the others days. That other blog is Rewiring the Soul so named for my first book. Click here to visit the blog and/or to sign up for the feed.

Learning to Smile

My memories of smiling and laughing parents are few and far in between. Life was stern, life was - perhaps due to the war that had ended less than a decade before my birth and that had signified such upheaval in their lives - overwhelmingly difficult, perhaps even gray, and so, as the offspring of these parents that seemed to have forgotten those smiles and that laughter which I found years later in old faded photographs of them before that war, I was not very well acquainted with smiling.

I had to teach myself to be a bit more gay, to smile at small things, and to laugh from the belly. Such wonderful laughter that is so healing, was not terribly hard to learn, but - as said - it had to be learned.

What we don't learn from our parents, must be self-taught or learned from others.

This isn't about my somewhat difficult childhood, but about the fact that we, as parents, can teach our children so much, and we can especially teach them how to smile and trust life. How to be happy. What it truly means to be happy, because, as so often evinced in these posts, happiness  - true happiness - is not based on outer circumstances but on inner well-being of which we need to be our own authors. We need to bring it about. We need to bring smiles and laughter into our own lives (and those of us who are lucky enough, also get it from out there). By knowing how to bring smiles and laughter into our own lives, we can teach this wonderful skill to our children. And they will not need to learn how to smile later in life, but will have picked it up by osmosis. As Suzuki said: children learn to smile from their parents.

Also see my new website: www.gabriellakortsch.com 

Books by Dr. Gabriella Kortsch:
 
Rewiring the Soul

Click here to download the first chapter.

To see the Table of Contents click here

Reviews From the Back Cover:

"The masterwork of a profoundly gifted healer of the soul. Dazzling, challenging, wondrously useful." Peggy Rubin, Director, Center for Sacred Theatre, Ashland, Oregon; author: To Be and How To Be, Transforming Your Life Through Sacred Theatre

"Rewiring the Soul is one the best introductions to the spiritual life I've ever read. Not esoteric but real-world & practical. The implications are profound." Peter Shepherd; Founder Trans4mind.com; author: Daring To Be Yourself 

"The human being's directory to the soul. A breakthrough for those seeking practical assistance, those of a more mystical bent & every soul awaiting discovery." Toni Petrinovich, Ph.D.; author: The Call: Awakening the Angelic Human

The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

To download the first chapter, click here
To see the Table of Contents click here

Praise for The Tao of Spiritual Partnership

“All humans seek the illusive touch of another's Soul, which opens us to the sense of belonging to something bigger than the self. Dr. Kortsch has given us the true "tao" of relationship in this brilliant exploration of emotional tapestry. We will be grateful for this illumination of spiritual partnership for generations to come."
Chris Griscom: Spiritual Leader, Author (among others) of: Ecstasy is a New Frequency

“Eloquently and comprehensive, showing how your primary love relationship may be a sacred vessel that transports you and your partner to a place of mutual healing and expansion.” 
Robert Schwartz: Author of Your Soul’s Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born 


The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self 

My new book: The Power of Your Heart: Loving the Self, is just out. Click here to download an excerpt. 
Here is a brief excerpt from the Introduction:

It is your right to live a life of love. It is your right to understand that loving yourself first is not a selfish way of behavior, but one that allows you to live that life of love. However, it's highly probable that you never got the instruction manual explaining exactly how to accomplish this. Possibly your family - and it may have been a loving family - considered loving the self an act of selfishness. Or perhaps the members of your family simply didn't practice loving the self, and of course, what you didn't see - what was not shown to you - while you were growing up, meant that you just didn't learn how to apply it to yourself. The closer you are able to move towards loving yourself, the closer you will be to living a life of love - quite independently of whether you are in a love relationship or not. A life of love can be lived with or without a partnership, because a life of love implies that you know that it all begins with you by loving the self. The more clearly you understand how to love yourself, the more clearly you will see that it is very hard - if not impossible - to love others in ways that are unrelated to fulfilling any of your needs. Loving yourself first is - for so many of us - one of the hardest things we will ever learn how to do. But know this: the benefits affect you in every particle of your being - body, mind, and soul - and are greater than you will ever be able to imagine.

Note: If you are wondering why this blog is now only appearing on alternate days (excluding Sat/Sun), it is because I also post on my other blog on the others days. That other blog is Rewiring the Soul so named for my first book. Click here to visit the blog and/or to sign up for the feed.