Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart [Audiobook]

Just as alchemists sought to transform lead into gold, we all have the natural ability to transform moments of confusion and emotional pain into insightful clarity.

Lovingly, clearly, Tara Bennett-Goleman shows how most of what troubles us falls into 10 basic emotional patterns or schemas, including perfectionism, vulnerability, mistrust, and the fear of abandonment. Through schema therapy, she teaches us how to break free from such patterns and replace them with empathy for ourselves and others, and gives us the freedom to be more creative and alive.

Emotional Alchemy explores the latest research in cognitive therapy and neuroscience, including the "magic quarter-second": the moment in which it is possible for a thought to be "caught" before it turns into an emotional reaction; the moment in which we can reject a self-defeating emotional impulse. The program then powerfully combines this science with ancient Buddhist wisdom that guides us to end our self-destructive habits. These teachings include the meditative awareness of mindfulness: an awareness that lets us see things as they truly are without distortion or judgment, enabling us to change not only our lives, but the very structure of our brains.

Wise and pragmatic, gentle and inspiring, this is a liberating journey for those who wish to free themselves from suffering or help others on the way.