Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart [Paperback]

John Welwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 27, 2007

While most of us have moments of loving freely and openly, it is often hard to sustain this where it matters most—in our intimate relationships. Why, if love is so great and powerful, are human relationships so challenging and difficult? If love is the source of happiness and joy, why is it so hard to open to it fully and let it govern our lives? In this book, John Welwood addresses these questions and shows us how to overcome the most fundamental obstacle that keeps us from experiencing love's full flowering in our lives.

Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships begins by showing how all our relational problems arise out of a universal, core wounding around love that affects not only our personal relationships but the quality of life in our world as a whole. This wounding shows up as a pervasive mood of unlove—a deep sense that we are not intrinsically lovable just as we are. And this shuts down our capacity to trust, so that even though we may hunger for love, we have difficulty opening to it and letting it circulate freely through us.

This book takes the reader on a powerful journey of healing and transformation that involves learning to embrace our humanness and appreciate the imperfections of our relationships as trail-markers along the path to great love. It sets forth a process for releasing deep-seated grievances we hold against others for not loving us better and against ourselves for not being better loved. And it shows how our longing to be loved can magnetize the great love that will free us from looking to others to find ourselves.

Written with penetrating realism and a fresh, lyrical style that honors the subtlety and richness of our relationship to love itself, this revolutionary book offers profound and practical guidance for healing our lives as well as our embattled world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

<p style="line-height: 150%;"> “With clear instructions and an even tone, Welwood shows us how to heal our psychic scars by opening up to the ‘real love’ available to us all at the core of our nature.”—Tricycle

 “Welwood challenges us to move from self-hatred to self-love and to do the inner work to embrace the love that sets us free.”—Spirituality & Health

"Drawing equally from spiritual and psychological traditions, Perfect Love reads like a book of philosophy: the ideas seem sound enough, though there's no way to prove them. Welwood is most compelling when he gets practical. . . . His approach is also noteworthy for its emphasis on learning how to receive love as well as give it. . . . Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships offers both grand theories and useful practices for incorporating these lessons into your life."—Body & Soul

"Welwood skillfully identifies the fundamental obstacle in relationships and offers a clear, attainable, and transformative solution. Everyone should read this wonderful book."—Harville Hendrix, coauthor of Receiving Love and Getting the Love You Want




"This book skillfully and eloquently describes how our deepest longing for love is in fact the key to healing our personal wounds and the woundedness of the world at large. John Welwood's message echoes the Buddha's, showing us how we have direct access to the love and happiness we most long for, as our very essence."—Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness

"This book takes us on a healing and transformative journey to address the real, underlying cause of our relationship problems. John Welwood is one of the most brilliant and important teacher of our time."—Debbie Ford, author of The Best Year of Your Life and Spiritual Divorce

"Full of practical wisdom and divinely inspired insight. A marvelous guide for any seeker choosing to walk on love's path."—bell hooks, author of All About Love: New Visions

"A profound guide to healing our hearts and our world. No larger social transformation is possible unless it is simultaneously accompanied by this kind of personal healing, one individual at a time. Every social change movement should encourage its participants to take time to follow the steps outlined in this extremely valuable and important guide to psychic health."—Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun and author of The Left Hand of God

About the Author

As a psychotherapist, teacher, and author, John Welwood has been a pioneer in integrating psychological and spiritual work. Welwood has published six books, including the best-selling Journey of the Heart (HarperCollins, 1990), as well as Challenge of the Heart (Shambhala, 1985), and Love and Awakening (HarperCollins, 1996). He is an associate editor of the Journal for Transpersonal Psychology. He leads workshops and trainings in psychospiritual work and conscious relationship throughout the world.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Trumpeter (March 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590303865
• ISBN-13: 978-1590303863
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.7 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

As a psychotherapist, teacher, and author, John Welwood has been a pioneer in integrating psychological and spiritual work. Welwood has published several books, including the best-selling Journey of the Heart (HarperCollins, 1990), as well as Challenge of the Heart (Shambhala, 1985), and Love and Awakening (HarperCollins, 1996). He is an associate editor of the Journal for Transpersonal Psychology. He leads workshops and trainings in psychospiritual work and conscious relationship throughout the world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A noble support for a genuine spiritual path, March 16, 2007

By 

William Okin (Ojai, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart (Hardcover)

Although this book is presented as a book on relationships, it is really about connecting with one's own deepest essence. This will, of course, have a profound effect on all of one's relationships.

This is an essential book for anyone on a genuine spiritual path who seeks to take the leap into the non-conceptual awareness of being. The practices presented here are a tremendous support for meditation and prayer. By bringing the concepts of grievance, longing and absolute love into the realm of the body, the simple exercises in this book, if fully engaged, make the tricky business of opening one's heart easier.

John Welwood has offered the world a tremendous gift. May all beings benefit.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect love, imperfect relationships, February 21, 2007

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CHEONG SUI HUNN (Singapore) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart (Hardcover)

This book will insightful regarding the way the mind works. This book highlight the unawareness of us human beings that it is our habitual thinking patterns and response that is the greatest obstacle in us having fulfilling relationships and happy life.

However, to bring out the gold from this book, one needs to read this book again and again and use it as a personal guide of practice.

I thank the author for his generous sharing and ernest effort in writing this book. He should continue to write. I hope to meet and talk to him one day.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, March 6, 2006

By 

K. L. Hanson "Peace Monger" (Dayton, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart (Hardcover)

Wow, I wish I had read this about 10 years ago. It really got me to think about and see my relationship patterns in a different light. It hit a couple of bones right to the marrow. I recommend it to anyone who has ever struggled with relationship problems, especially ones with themselves. Thanks for this awesome book, John.