Renée Peterson Trudeau - Nurturing the Soul of Your Family: 21 Ways to Reconnect and Find Peace in Everyday Life

Praise for Nurturing the Soul of Your Family

A must-read for parents, Nurturing the Soul of Your Family is the guidebook on self-care and stress management for families. Rene Trudeau gives us what we need most: practical strategies for managing the sometimes outrageous expectations of modern parenting. Not only that, but Rene delivers her instructions for a more balanced life with a huge dose of inspiration and compassion. This book is a joy to read and a delight to put into practice.

Christine Carter, PhD, author of Raising Happiness
and sociologist at UC Berkeleys Greater Good Science Center

What an inspiring balm of a book, a beckoning invitation to see your family as a sanctuary instead of an obligation or another to-do on your list. This is the road map you crave to find the river of peace you desire let it carry you toward true well-being. I cannot imagine a more timely nor more desperately needed book.

Jennifer Louden, author of
The Womans Comfort Book and The Life Organizer

In a world where many of us wear our stress and ambition as badges to prove we are not wasting space, Rene Trudeau delivers permission and real inspiration to slow down, relax, and nourish ourselves, our families, and our communities. What a timely, important, and enjoyable book.

Dr. Claudia Welch, DOM, author of
Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life
and senior faculty member of the Ayurvedic Institute,
Kripalu School of Ayurveda

Nurturing the Soul of Your Family is the owners manual I wish Id received as a child. Rene Trudeau skillfully and compassionately reminds us that we each possess an innate sense of well-being that is always present and that it is possible to feel safe and secure with ourselves even when life delivers the most challenging of circumstances. She points the way, step-by-step, through powerful yet simple exercises so that we can rediscover our innate ability to trust ourselves and discover that we have, inbuilt, the perfect response that will enable us to make our way skillfully and harmoniously through each and every interaction we face in life. May you feel as blessed as I do to have Renes book in our lives as a beautiful, timely guidebook to lead us back home to ourselves.

Richard Miller, PhD, clinical psychologist, author of Yoga Nidra,
and founder of Integrative Restoration Institute (iRest)

A gift to families, this handbook for everyday spirituality is filled with practical, down-to-earth, and transformative wisdom. Renes accessible and empowering approach provides new ways to stay connected to your true nature and help your family do the same. A must-read for peace in the midst of chaotic family life!

Amy McCready, founder of Positive Parenting Solutions
and author of If I Have to Tell You One More Time

Rene Trudeaus book gives families the support, tools, guidance, and inspiration to define who they are and align this with how they live. Empowering and encouraging, Nurturing the Soul of Your Family will motivate you to create the life you desire for yourself and for your family!

Vicki Abeles, creator and director of the award-winning documentary
Race to Nowhere: The Dark Side of Americas Achievement Culture

Praise for The Mothers Guide to Self-Renewal
by Rene Peterson Trudeau

Of all the books on balance, this is the very best one. Practical, clear, and true, it invites you to engage deeply with your own experience. Only then can the superb guidance that Rene provides find its way out of your mind and into your life.

Joan Borysenko, PhD, author of Inner Peace for Busy Women

I love your book!!! Loving mothers are self-loving mothers; Renes book informs, supports, and completely inspires this essential journey. This book is a jewel!

SARK, bestselling author and artist of
Glad No Matter What and Succulent Wild Woman

Copyright 2013 by Rene Peterson Trudeau

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Live Inside Out and New Way of Being are registered trademarks of Rene Trudeau & Associates, www.ReneeTrudeau.com.

The material in this book is intended for education. No expressed or implied guarantee of the effects of the use of the recommendations can be given or liability taken. Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

Text design by Tona Pearce Myers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Trudeau, Rene Peterson, date.

Nurturing the soul of your family : 10 ways to reconnect and find peace in everyday life / Rene Peterson Trudeau.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60868-158-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)ISBN 978-1-60868-159-4 (ebook) (print)

1. Families. 2. Interpersonal relations. 3. Work-life balance. I. Title.

HQ734.T848 2013

306.85dc23 2012041213

First printing, February 2013

ISBN 978-1-60868-158-7

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

New World Library is proud to be a Gold Certified Environmentally Responsible Publisher. Publisher certification awarded by Green Press Initiative. www.greenpressinitiative.org

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my six siblings Kert, Geoffrey, Shiva Sean, Nathan, Teresa, and Timothy and their life partners. When one of us heals a part of ourselves, we all heal. May we continue to support and uplift one another and remember each day who we really are.

And to my nephews, Aidan, Luca, Grayson, and Guthrie, and my niece, Fiona Grace thank you for choosing our tribe. The gift of your presence blesses us all.

When you do things from your soul,
you feel a river moving in you, a joy.

Jelaluddin Rumi

Its 6:45 Monday morning. Your kids are arguing over the iPad, and your phone keeps chiming with new messages. You feel exhausted and overwhelmed; things are moving too fast. Your weekend was a blur of activity, and now you watch your distracted partner rush out the door to work as you make lunches and get the kids ready for their day. You glance at your weekly calendar, overflowing with appointments and kids activities, and your chest tightens. Everyone seems to be moving in different directions at once. You crave a slower, simpler, more spacious life. You long to feel more connected to your family and to experience more peace and harmony in the everyday. But it feels like too much work, too impossible. Youre not even sure where to begin.

Nurturing the Soul of Your Family is a call to explore a new way of being. Its an invitation to live an awakened life in the midst of the ordinary tasks of everyday living. Its a guidebook to help you and your family learn to nurture your hearts and souls by slowing down, reconnecting, and beginning to live the life you desire.