Journey to the Heart: Daily Meditations on the Path to Freeing Your Soul [Paperback]

Melody Beattie (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 18, 2010

“Melody Beattie gives you the tools to discover the magnificence and splendor of your being.” — Deepak Chopra, author of Jesus and Buddha

 “Beattie understands being overboard, which helps her throw bestselling lifelines to those still adrift.” — Time magazine

From the New York Times bestselling author of Codependent No More, The Language of Letting Go, Finding Your Way Home, Choices, and Stop Being Mean to Yourself, comes Journey to the Heart: a collection of daily meditations that helps readers unlock personal creativity and discover their divine purposes in life.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Beattie, whose The Language of Letting Go (1991) was a best-seller, now slices her message into 365 daily aphorisms, or as she calls them, meditations. There's nothing much wrong with this book as volumes of New Age philosophy go, but it doesn't break any new ground, either. The framework derives from an actual automobile trip that Beattie took across the West with stops at mystical sites such as Sedona, Arizona, and Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. This is no travelogue, however. Neither is it like her previous books, which were, as Beattie testifies, "grounded in pain." The focus here is on discovering a new way to live through joy and hope. The meditations themselves, however, are hardly fresh: "Worrying doesn't help. Our worries are self-punishment, a form of not forgiving ourselves, not loving ourselves, not trusting." Or, "Right now, this moment, things are working out. . . . Everything is working out, moving forward, evolving." It is only through a certain amount of repetition that Beattie can come up with 365 of these meditations. Perhaps best known for Codependent No More (1989), Beattie has added the New Age crowd to her followers. Expect demand where crystals glimmer. Ilene Cooper

Review

Beattie whose The Language of Letting Go (1991) was a best-seller, now slices her message into 365 daily aphorisms, or as she calls them, meditations. There's nothing much wrong with this book as volumes of New Age philosophy go, but it doesn't break any new ground, either. The framework derives from an actual automobile trip that Beattie took across the West with stops at mystical sites such as Sedona, Arizona, and Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. This is no travelogue, however. Neither is it like her previous books, which were, as Beattie testifies, "grounded in pain." The focus here is on discovering a new way to live through joy and hope. The meditations themselves, however, are hardly fresh: "Worrying doesn't help. Our worries are self-punishment, a form of not forgiving ourselves, not loving ourselves, not trusting." Or, "Right now, this moment, things are working out. . . . Everything is working out, moving forward, evolving." It is only through a certain amount of repetition that Beattie can come up with 365 of these meditations. Perhaps best known for Codependent No More (1989), Beattie has added the New Age crowd to her followers. Expect demand where crystals glimmer. -- Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 1 edition (May 18, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062511211
• ISBN-13: 978-0062511218
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 7.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,743 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Worship & Devotion > Meditations
  • #36 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Alternative Medicine > Meditation
  • #40 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality > Inspirational

More About the Author

Melody Beattie is one of America's most beloved self-help authors and a household name in addiction and recovery circles. Her international bestselling book, Codependent No More, introduced the world to the term "codependency" in 1986. Millions of readers have trusted Melody's words of wisdom and guidance because she knows firsthand what they're going through. In her lifetime, she has survived abandonment, kidnapping, sexual abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, divorce, and the death of a child. "Beattie understands being overboard, which helps her throw bestselling lifelines to those still adrift," said Time Magazine.

Melody was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1948. Her father left home when she was a toddler, and she was raised by her mother. She was abducted by a stranger at age four. Although she was rescued the same day, the incident set the tone for a childhood of abuse, and she was sexually abused by a neighbor throughout her youth. Her mother turned a blind eye, just as she had denied the occurrence of abuse in her own past.

"My mother was a classic codependent," Melody recalls. "If she had a migraine, she wouldn't take an aspirin because she didn't do drugs. She believed in suffering." Unlike her mother, Melody was determined to self-medicate her emotional pain. Beattie began drinking at age 12, was a full-blown alcoholic by age 13, and a junkie by 18, even as she graduated from high school with honors. She ran with a crowd called "The Minnesota Mafia" who robbed pharmacies to get drugs. After several arrests, a judge mandated that she had to "go to treatment for as long as it takes or go to jail."

Melody continued to score drugs in treatment until a spiritual epiphany transformed her. "I was on the lawn smoking dope when the world turned this purplish color. Everything looked connected--like a Monet painting. It wasn't a hallucination; it was what the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous calls 'a spiritual awakening.' Until then, I'd felt entitled to use drugs. I finally realized that if I put half as much energy into doing the right thing as I had into doing wrong, I could do anything," Beattie said.

After eight months of treatment, Melody left the hospital clean and sober, ready to take on new goals: helping others get sober, and getting married and having a family of her own. She married a former alcoholic who was also a prominent and respected counselor and had two children with him. Although she had stopped drinking and using drugs, she found herself sinking in despair. She discovered that her husband wasn't sober; he'd been drinking and lying about it since before their marriage.

During her work with the spouses of addicts at a treatment center, she realized the problems that had led to her alcoholism were still there. Her pain wasn't about her husband or his drinking; it was about her. There wasn't a word for codependency yet. While Melody didn't coin the term codependency, she became passionate about the subject. What was this thing we were doing to ourselves?

Driven into the ground financially by her husband's alcoholism, Melody turned a life-long passion for writing into a career in journalism, writing about the issues that had consumed her for years. Her 24-year writing career has produced fifteen books published in twenty languages and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles. She has been a frequent guest on many national television shows, including Oprah. She and her books continue to be featured regularly in national publications including Time, People, and most major periodicals around the world.

Although it almost destroyed her when her twelve-year-old son Shane died in a ski accident in 1991, eventually Melody picked up the pieces of her life again. "I wanted to die, but I kept waking up alive," she says. She began skydiving, mountain-climbing, and teaching others what she'd learned about grief.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#13 in Books > Self-Help

#16 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#26 in Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#98 in Books > Religion & Spirituality

#13 in Books > Self-Help

#16 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#26 in Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#98 in Books > Religion & Spirituality

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inner Peace March 8, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This book is a wonderful way to begin your own Journey to your Heart. It has literally changed my life. It talks of feeling all your feelings, good or bad and helped me to realize that pain as well as happiness are all part of life. I want to thank Melody Beattie for writing this book and sharing her experience of her spiritual travels and her own Journey to the Heart. Each day that I read from these pages, I am inspired. I see the world in a different light and am able to find an inner peace that is hard to find in this tough world.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Journey to the Heart November 17, 2005

By Marsha Eger

Format:Paperback

This is a magical book. I have had a copy since 1996. At first I devoured it, reading many meditations at one sitting. What Melanie Beattie has to say nurtured my Soul and gave me direction. Then one day I started shaking the book and just opening the book to a random page, but it was never random. What I read was usually very relevant to that moment. Her words were just what I needed to cast away self doubt or understand a situation or provide guidance for my life. Melanie Beattie has great wisdom. I hope you find it as useful as I continue to find it - 11 years later. Enjoy.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful help for the journey to my heart December 2, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

What a blessing this book has been for me! i bought a copy for many people i know. melody beattie has touched my heart and helped me through so many stages of my life. i highly recommend this 'bible' for everyone. it helps the path to heal and move forward in positive and warming ways. i will need to buy myself another copy soon since mine is underlined and used so often. treat yourself to a special gift- and let melody walk you through your own path to the journey to your own heart.