Nathalie W Herrman - The Art of Good Habits: Health, Love, Presence, and Prosperity

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

The Art of Good Habits: Health, Love, Presence & Prosperity 2015 by Nathalie W. Herrman.

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First e-book edition 2015

E-book ISBN: 9780738747026

Book design: Bob Gaul

Cover art: iStockphoto.com/4658396/emrah_oztas
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Cover design: Ellen Lawson

Editing: Ed Day

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Herrman, Nathalie W.

The art of good habits: health, love, presence & prosperity/Nathalie W. Herrman.First Edition. pages cm

ISBN 978-0-7387-4600-5

1. Well-being. I. Title.

BD431.H4519 2015

650.1dc23

2015029970

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

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Llewellyn Publications

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Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents

: Health

: Honesty, Awareness, Attitude, and Food

: Turning Honesty into Health as a Habit

: Love

: Authenticity, Willingness, and Compassion

: Turning Willingness into Love as a Habit

: Presence

: Awareness and the Purpose of Time

: Turning Awareness into Presence as a Habit

: Prosperity

: Fear, Appreciation, and the Abundance Mindset

: Turning Appreciation Into Prosperity as a Habit

Acknowledgments

Silent Gratitude isnt much use to anyone.
G. B. Stern

I would like to thank Angela Wix for being my guiding light on this project. I couldnt have done it without her vision and unending support. And everyone at Llewellyn for their willingness to bring The Art of Good Habits to life. And my husband, Gruff, for his steady love, his ready availability to discuss all kinds of ideas and philosophical musings that were sparked by my writing, and his Herculean trust in the work. This has been an enlightening and invaluable process for me, and I am deeply grateful and forever changed by the fascinating experience of authoring this book.

Disclaimer

This book is not intended to provide medical advice or to take the place of medical advice and treatment from your personal physician. Readers are advised to consult their doctors or other qualified health-care professionals regarding the treatment of their medical problems. Neither the publisher nor the author take any responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, action, or application to any person reading or following the information in this book.

Introduction

Let perseverance be your engine and hope your fuel.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

I have come to believe, and believe powerfully, that when we are willing to take responsibility for changing ourselves, we become unlimited in potential. We have the ability to improve by gradual degrees in any direction we choose for as long as we live. And everything that happens can be something to grow us and evolve us and raise us to the next level of understanding and contentment and the next.

The trouble with notaccepting responsibility for ourselves is that we feel helpless, and that makes us grabby and greedy. It empowers the more mentality. We dont realize our ability to be patient and trusting, so we push to the front and demand our share first, or demand more than our share. And the people we meet on this path are doing the same thing. We are all pushing and grabbing and trying to get there first, wherever there might be.

When we act this way, we have no faith in time, no faith in there being enough, and no faith in our being enough. We are empty and crazy with lust. Our wants are urgent, and we dont care who we hurt in order to satisfy them. But by maintaining this mindset, we entirely miss the point, and our dissatisfaction becomes a vicious cycle. We grab for as much as we can get, and in so doing, we show no love and compassion for others. And maybe we spend money that we dont have to try to change our internal feelings of isolation, or maybe we overeat, or maybe we bounce from one empty intimate relationship to another. All this because we refuse to own the divine spark within us and the power of our own light. As a result, our problems are largely the product of our not believing in our own wholeness and lacking faith in our ability to step up and take responsibility for the condition of our lives.

We are famously good at the blame game. We blame our parents, our upbringing, our jobs, and our bosses. We blame our financial condition. We blame our ex-husbands, ex-wives, current husbands, and current wives. We blame our third-grade teacher and our old friend. We blame our digestion, the traffic, the weatheranything will do as long as it takes the responsibility off of us. We point the finger and create imaginary distance. These are the things responsible for our dissatisfaction. If only they were different, we would be happy. Our unhappiness is their fault. Or is it?

Perhaps not. Perhaps, our unhappiness exists primarily inside of usin our perspective, our attitude, and our system of beliefs. And if thats the case, thats good news, because these are things we have the power to change! This is the thinking behind this book. My hope is to empower you as the reader to claim your happiness by changing whats not working in your life. It can be done by making adjustments in your habits and your point of view.

I have learned this from my own experience. As a young adult, I struggled with addictive and compulsive behaviors. I was grabby to the extreme. I turned to anything and everything to make me happy; sometimes I would get a burst of temporary euphoria, but nothing that I landed upon ever kept me happy. I was in a cycle of constantly seeking, and I was empty on the inside.