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Meditation Secrets for Women: Discovering Your Passion, Pleasure, and Inner Peace

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Some books are so brilliant you could easily give 100 reasons why you love them, and how they've improved, enriched, and deepened your life. So here, then, without much headscratching are my top 10 reasons for loving "Meditation Secrets for Women" with all my heart:

1. "Meditation Secrets for Women" is supremely easy reading. Its 292 pages (much meatier - and juicier! - than most meditation books) fly. Now this may not be important to some people, but, heck, who wants to battle through a dry, arid wasteland of intellectual ramblings? Fortunately, you'll find no such thing here. The writing is by turns funny, serious, sensuous, electrifying, and poetic, but never less than wise.

2. "Meditation Secrets for Women" is carefully broken down into 12 easily digestible chapters, with each chapter covering exactly one secret.

3. Secret. That's the key word. "Are they really `secrets'," you may wonder, "or is this just some hokey scam to get me to fork over my hard-earned dough?" No, they're secrets, all right. Not the kind of hush-hush secrets that have been passed down from master to pupil for thousands of years (far from it, in fact, as you will soon see), but the kinds of secrets that have been denied women too long.

4. You see the sad fact is that many contemporary women (and men!) have been taught meditation techniques designed for monks over a thousand years ago. And as the authors quite rightly point out, these techniques aren't just plain irrelevant to life in the 21st century, they're highly dangerous as well. If you've ever tried meditating to "kill your ego," "block your desires," "blunt your instincts," or "purge your mind of all thoughts," (to name just a few toxic objectives) you know how devitalizing and dehumanizing this type of meditation can be.

5. I'm delighted to say the authors Camille Maurine and Lorin Roche espouse a completely different kind of meditation. At last, here is approach full of love, joy, spontaneity, movement, sensuality, sexuality, daring, honesty, tenderness, instinct, passion, pleasure, adventure, and - last but certainly not least - FUN! I know this for a fact because I have been meditating under Lorin's tutelage for over a year, ever since reading his truly wonderful, "Meditation Made Easy," a beautiful and indispensible companion to "Secrets."

6. "Meditation Secrets for Women" provides not just one or two or even three meditations, but quite literally dozens, so you can pick and choose what suits your mood or temperament at any given time. I happen to stick to my favorite "Do Nothing" meditation, but occasionally switch to some other technique (or make up my own, which the authors heartily encourage) if the mood calls for it. And naturally all the meditations in the book are based on the same simple premise: meditation is fun and natural.

7. Also provided is a superb reference list (organized by chapter) for those who wish to delve even deeper into special areas of interest. Plus there's an invaluable listing of musical recommendations.

8. "Meditation Secrets for Women" is IDEAL for women AND men, beginners AND advanced meditators. There really is something here for everyone. And like all classic books (and this book will become a classic) it grows with you. Meaning, the more you explore your meditation, the more jewels the book reveals. A small aside: As a teenager I was poisoned by a couple of meditation books still available on the shelves today. Among many of their deflating techniques was this godawful drudgery: staring at an object for long periods of time while trying to banish all thoughts from your head. Try it. I guarantee you'll make yourself miserable!

9. So if you get just one thing out of this book it's that thoughts are good! Your brain, your body, your desires, your instincts, your universe, and yes, even your fears are good. "Meditation Secrets for Women" will give you the tools to observe these things from a position of great safety and serenity so that you can learn from them and experience more joy and peace and beauty and insight than you imagined possible. So that life itself can become your greatest teacher, and that you yourself can become the blazer of your own wonderful trails.

10. If you read this book today, chances are you'll be happily meditating a year from now and loving it. What else can you ask for?

'Meditation Secrets for Women' transcends the popular genre of self-help and how-to books to an unprecedented approach of wisdom applicable to the woman of the 21st century. This book is an encyclopedia of solutions that a woman can refer to. Here she will find her own passion, pleasure, and inner peace. This is a revolutionary concept in an age of quickly accelerating technology that pulls the woman away from her source of being - namely the body. Camille guides us to our inner sanctuaries through her lifetime experience of bodywork, indepth psychology, and the dance. Through her gentle voice, she assures us we shall find our sacred gifts. Through meditation and movement techniques, to the identifiable stories of other women, to her own personal meditations and prayers; not to say a distilled overview of spiritual teaching from East to West and back again, this most wonderful book points the way for a woman to 'claim her inner authority.' This is precisely what the woman of today needs to do. This book is a first and a last resource of meditation for the woman of the 21st century. In Camille's words: 'Amazing. The power floods back into my body. Like a transfusion of my own blood. This is my body. This is my life. Oh. I see....No one else can give me power. And no one can take it away. Nobody else knows what I should do or be. Someday I will simply rest in this truth. Someday all women will remember their sovereignty... Now there's a prayer.'

And there's a book.

Finally, a thoughtful and illuminating look at the female psyche and her need to use meditation as a tool to explore our sensitivities, creativity and sensuality. Meditation has been taught for centuries as an ascetic, rigorous discipline by a spiritual patriarchy uninformed about and often alienated from female passions. This book expands the horizons of meditation to allow women to adapt it to their contemporary needs, emotions and lifestyles. It is a well researched and poetic guide that revels in the female spirit and soul. Women will use these secrets to find sustenance instead of denial in the practice of meditation.

I always sensed something was off as I explored and practiced a multitude of meditation techniques. I felt I was being asked to cut off a huge part of my zest, passion, and basic instincts. I never could identify what was wrong...was it me? At last a book that speaks directly to the heart of the beast---I am a woman meditating in a man's sensibility. Yes there is a difference between our basic energetics and how delighted and relieved I am to discover there are a set of very female ways to enter into the flow of meditative peace and truth. I know the apparent distinctions between male/female is not ultimately the answer...inclusivity is love and all that...but as we practice in daily real life yin/yang defines the world of duality and so THANK YOU CAMILLE AND LORIN for allowing me to enter the realm of the sacred via my present form...as woman. No more cutting off my nose to spite my face. Hooray for the celebration of the me-ness juiciness that will lead me into the wholeness of meditative bliss and joy!

This review is goiing to be all praise. I loved this book and get so much use out of it. I still refer to it and I bought it when it first came out.

I found "Mediation Secrets for Women" a pleasure to read and revolutionary. The authors challenge traditional approaches to meditation (mostly developed by male monks) and describe a meditation practice particularly tuned to women. It is more sensual and creative than most traditional practices. The book is full of suggestions and it invites the reader to really investigate and create meditation for oneself. When I finished reading "Meditation Secrets for Women" I felt as though I had gotten a "transmission". The writing itself seems to transmit the practice the authors describe and invite the reader into it.

Even though it is "for women", and I am a woman myself, I thought that many men, especially men interested in meditation, would be interested in this book. Sensuality, creativity, emotion, rhythms in life and instincts are domains of all humans. At the very least the book could help men to better understand the deep nature of women.

I find "Secrets" to be revolutionary and a very important book for the empowerment of women because I believe women's progress depends on women accessing inner power which is authentic to them. As I read the book I thought about how practicing deep internal techniques in order to empower themselves is very important for women for all sorts of reasons: making their creative and productive mark in the world, standing up for themselves, resisiting abuse, nurturing themselves and their loved ones, having satisfying intimate relationships, impacting politics, staying healthy and more. Reading this book made me think about how for women to be trying to access their deepest resources by practicing techniques which are an expression of the male psyche, the aesetic male psyche at that, doesn't make too much sense. In fact, it seems like women might unwittingly oppress themselves further by taking the traditional approach. Not that the authors invalidate that approach. They simply bring forward a female way, a female voice from the depths. And, they do it in such a fun and eloquent way.

Deeply thought provoking, practical and useful, beautifully written. Obviously, I highly recommend this book.

A saying I have always found a good reminder, is: "If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always got" If we are to evolve as a species, making valuable and powerful changes in the way we function is certainly something to look into as we find our best and authentic selves. Meditation Secrets for Woman is not only one of those tools for valuable and powerful change, it is itself a unique and authentic creation of the authors. No where else have I ever read such "new thinking" re meditation and self growth. Thank you Camille and Lorin. Get this book, do not pass up on the chance at, and do not deprive yourself of, this new paradigm of experience!

Being a meditator since the age of 13, you'd think I'd been there and done all of that, yet the authors Maurine and Roche still managed to offer page after page of sweet surprises. They give ways to navigate through every wild urge, desire, mood, thought habits, negativity, restlessness, and make it a fun adventure, so that you can actually be at peace with the way you are in the moment. Their approach(es)is indeed a roadmap to passion, pleasure and inner peace, just as the title suggests.

I feel relief in the way they encourage the reader to embrace the full spectrum of their humanity, rather than denying, suppressing, or pushing away our very common quirks. With their ideas I am able to see the humor and feel compassion for myself.

I keep their book bedside, like a bible, and open randomly to try out some of their ideas for a day or a week. It is written with an extraordinary combination of poetry, intellect, and with a nitty gritty earthiness making it very practical. As a woman meditator the ideas in this book spark facets that most "meditation techniques" left dormant,if not dulled. This book is for any one who wants to flourish in their aliveness, men included. I offer my heartfelt thanks to these authors, who so courageously share techniques "contrary to popular meditation beliefs" and bring us back to our senses.

*****
I have read many books on mediation and in the past, always failed at meditation. I now see why. Conventional meditative practices are sometimes not compatible with a woman's inner style---they certainly weren't compatible with mine. According to the authors, conventional meditative practices work better in a male monastic setting. This book appeals to women's innate, instinctual nature, making the practice of meditation for them self-affirming and self-nurturing. After reading two chapters of this book I meditated for twenty minutes...Yeah! And I enjoyed it! I continue to meditate daily.

If you are a woman, save your money and buy this book first. Then, if you want others, consider purchasing more; however, you probably won't want to and you definitely won't need to.

The 12 Meditation Secrets are thoroughly explored:
Secret #1: "Celebrate Your Senses"
Secret #2: "Honor Your Instincts"
Secret #3: "Claim Your Inner Authority"
Secret #4: "Be Tender with Yourself"
Secret #5: "Dwell In Your Inner Sanctuary"
Secret #6: "Answer the Call"
Secret #7: "Ride Your Rhythms"
Secret #8: "Say Yes to Every Part of Yourself"
Secret #9: "Rest in Simplicity"
Secret #10: "Honor Your Instincts"
Secret #11: "Love Your Body"
Secret #12: "Live It Up"

Multiple exercises and example mediations are given for each secret. One of my favorite parts of the book is at the start of each chapter (each secret) where the author transcribes her thought during an actual mediation. You get to see realistically how mediation works (and it is SO encouraging) instead of just reading about theory.

This is an amazing, life-changing book! I took it on retreat with me and it changed my relationship with my body, my spirituality, and how I feel about myself as a woman. It is a book I will read again and again and refer to often. I wish it was in hardback!
*****

Because of my habit of holding in emotion and thinking fearful thoughts, my whole body, energy system existed in this contorted state. I was a shallow breather, and lived in alot of discomfort. I lived this way my whole life, though I tried meditating among other things as a means to relax or settle myself.

Traditional meditation did not offer me much, I had no idea how much tension existed not only in my muscles but cellularly. I had no space inside, I was trapped. Sitting still only perpetuated my inner rigidity. I had so much shame attached to all of my feelings- in my family feelings were something to rise above not indulge in. I learned to reject my emotional life--which I later learned was a rich area for me. Meditation Secrets for Women taught me how to track my feelings, sensations inside with acceptance sans judgement. I learned that everything in me that I resisted emmotionally, energetically was a powerful resource for me. Moving meditations allow me to let go of control and let what wants to move-- move. By allowing by body, sound, breath, emotion to express big or small, my being has been transformed. It has brought me in touch with the most satisfying sense of being--rich in gratitude and aliveness. I am so happy just being. The process is about trusting just being.

Allowing the truth to happen, just as it wants to produces deep experiences of love in me, and around me. Whether it is a scream from my gut or a soft whisper from my heart, to be fully attentive (which is meditation) to my own expression and allow it to flow has become a requirement for my daily living. I am profoundly moved by the tenderness and power of my inner life. I am so thankful for Camille Maurine and Lorin Roche's work.

It has been almost four years now, that I have been practicing the meditation secrets in the book. I have learned so much about what is available to me through the tracking of my own inner movements. It is tangible, real and felt. And I trust what it reveals to me with my life.

I stumbled upon this book one day when I was feeling particularly feminist and spiritual at the same time. I can't praise it enough. It brings into focus aspects of meditation I had not considered before. Like pleasure. Wait, isn't meditation about sitting on a little cushion staring at the wall and watching your breath? Well, not necessarily. Meditation can be so much richer than that, so much more fun, so much more personal. This book encourages you to listen to yourself, honor your experience, celebrate your senses, and be tender with yourself. Meditation need not be an endurance sport. And yes, with these techniques you can find that spot of inner peace deep within you. No more staring at the wall (unless you still want to). Gift yourself and a woman you love with this fantastic book.