Setting Your Heart on Fire: Seven Invitations to Liberate Your Life [Paperback]

Raphael Cushnir (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2004

“To live in accord with love is to set your heart on fire. In the crucible of such an inferno all convention burns away. What’s left is an entirely new kind of existence, one full of passion, presence, and infinite possibility.”

This book is a wake-up call from your own heart. It is a roadmap to love--not the romantic, familial or platonic kind, but a love that most of us have rarely tasted. This love exists prior to and apart from any specific type of expression. It is a dynamic, primal force that connects us with the surrounding universe, and provides the key to our deepest and most lasting fulfillment if we can learn to tap into its awesome power.

Raphael Cushnir’s own experience has taught him that we often close ourselves to love–that life’s challenges, losses, and disappointments can shut us down emotionally and physically, leaving us stagnant in our work and relationships, and feeling empty and alone. Setting Your Heart on Fire presents his invigorating, step-by-step process for reopening and reawakening your heart and spirit, and for learning to use this ever-present love to blaze through any obstacle you may face.

The Seven Invitations in this book will guide you through a courageous assessment of your choices, emotions, behaviors, and beliefs, revolutionizing your approach to stress and adversity, and revealing a brand new way of thinking and being. In accepting the Invitations, you will learn how to let go of harmful thoughts and heal deeply rooted emotional wounds. You will begin to open yourself to love’s creativity and wisdom, struggling less yet achieving more. You will discover how to infuse everyday experiences with a breathtaking sense of joy and wonder. And your relationships - with family, friends, co-workers and romantic partners - will become a vehicle for profound and thrilling change.

Each Invitation provides practical, easy-to-grasp examples that allow you to put its teachings immediately into practice. Over time, you will learn to access love in even the most difficult situations, unlocking the door to a fearless, authentic life. When your heart is on fire, the whole world is transformed by its light.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Spiritual guru Cushnir (Unconditional Bliss) contends that "to live in accord with love is to set your heart on fire," and offers readers a life-encompassing technique that promises to spark that blaze and liberate their lives by calling forth their best attitude. Drawing from his own transformation following a painful divorce and from years as a lecturer, and writing in a compassionate, inspirational tone, the author emphasizes the need for patience and practice when learning his seven interconnected "invitations" (including requests to question everything, live like you're dying, love like you're dancing and feeling everything). Tips on identifying triggers that cause emotional shutdowns, exercises to stretch one's perspective beyond limiting notions about self and others, and role-playing to see others as an expression of oneself are just a few of the creative exercises Cushnir employs to expedite the process to becoming a stronger, wiser person.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Inspirational speaker Cushnir, recently featured in O: The Oprah Magazine, discloses what he has learned since a painful divorce.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (April 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076791385X
• ISBN-13: 978-0767913850
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #661,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Bridge Home, June 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Setting Your Heart on Fire: Seven Invitations to Liberate Your Life (Hardcover)

This is a simply wonderful book. If you are reading this, you have probably been "searching" awhile and have read more than your share of "self-help" books. This is NOT another self-help book. Also.... if you are reading this... you have probably heard of or read books by people like Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj or Sri Ramana Maharshi (along with more contemporary teachers of what could be considered "non-duality", or Advaita Vedanta) or possibly something like A Course In Miracles. While people like Ramana and Nisargadatta were truly "Awake" beings (in my opinion), and works like A Course In Miracles point to that same Ultimate Truth, these books and teachers are often very difficult to understand, much less apply to your everyday life. (much of the writing is "dense" and overly poetic or steeped in Eastern verbiage and tradition) Well, Raphael's book, Setting Your Heart On Fire, is not like that, although it certainly points to that same Truth, which is what makes it so valuable. Most of us know that "self-improvement" in the way we've always thought of it, just doesn't work. At the same time, we sense, deep down, that the possibility of "Awakening" or "Enlightenment" (call it what you will) is no longer just for people like Jesus, Buddha, Ramana (not that it ever was just for certain people). It's what we all ARE, and it's time for us to become aware of the fact that WE are what we've been searching for. So, that leaves a world filled with people who are tired of "self improvement" and at the same time sense that there's something MORE....something REAL, but who don't have any idea how to embody and live that State. Well.... this book is a great place to start. That is why I'm describing it as a "bridge". This book, along with Raphael's first one, Unconditional Bliss, are fantastic "bridges" for people who can "see" the possibilty of discovering Who and What they really are, but who don't know how to get there. (not that there's anywhere to "get to"... one of the great paradoxes) Raphael is a wonderful writer and does a fabulous job of expressing these ideas... making them ACCESSIBLE, which is a rare thing in the world of "spiritual" books. He brings these Truths right down into the middle of your everyday life... the "messiness" that we all live with. The days of people feeling they need to run off to an ashram or monastery are over. If we are going to become a more spiritual, loving and compassionate people, we are going to have to do it in our daily lives, with kids, jobs, a mortgage, etc. When reading this book, I constantly found myself saying, "That is so true, that's exactly how I feel." Rarely does that happen when reading Nisargadatta! (laugh) Although both Raphael and the non-dual writers are pointing to the same Truth, Raphael makes it seem much more attainable and less "mystical". I think it's a great blessing to us all to have teachers like Raphael and books like this which point the way. So, get this book and let Raphael lead you across the bridge.... the bridge Home.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "silver bullet" I'd been searching for, June 13, 2003

By 

sharlene k yabe (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Setting Your Heart on Fire: Seven Invitations to Liberate Your Life (Hardcover)

"Setting Your Heart on Fire" is the "silver bullet" I was searching for to help me finally dig out of a major depression that has raged through my life for over 3 years, threatening my relationships with coworkers, family and friends. Despite two therapists and anti-depressants, I couldn't seem to through an unknown "block" within my center that was keeping me from experiencing my true self and the natural flow of love and enthusiasm I hadn't experienced in so long. Through "Setting Your Heart on Fire," I've finally experienced a release of the "lock" around my heart and am feeling more like my true self again-happy and whole. What an incredible relief to no longer feel like a stranger in my own skin anymore.

Amongst other things, Raphael's work lovingly empowers us to change our lives by changing the self-limiting thinking and behavior we learned from our parents, who learned them from their parents, etc. The cycles of self-destructiveness stop at the cover of the book and the path to thinking that works FOR us is laid out inside. I've discovered that life really doesn't have to be the struggle I'd experienced it to be for the last 3 years.

A definite must-read for anyone who wishes to change their life. It has certainly played a vital role in mine.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And you won't need Maalox., June 11, 2003

By 

Tess Harding (LA CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Setting Your Heart on Fire: Seven Invitations to Liberate Your Life (Hardcover)

If you'd like to lead a more expansive life, this book can help. Raphael Cushnir is a compassionate, caring person whose goal for you is nothing short of libertion.
So put down the Maalox, and pick up this book. It's about heart, not heartburn.