Regina Cates - Lead With Your Heart: Creating a Life of Love, Compassion, and Purpose

If I were asked to share one life lesson, it would be to lead with your heartexactly as Regina Cates teaches us in her beautiful book. Cates gives us the keys to creating a joyful life: Find your connection with heart and reclaim the wonder of who you really are. What a magnificent mix of inspiration, wisdom, and humility this book is!

Tavis Smiley, PBS broadcaster, author, and philanthropist

This book is like a note from a close friend, reporting on her spiritual journey from lovelessness to love. By walking you through her experiences, she casts light on your own. And not just her life, but yours too begins to change.

Marianne Williamson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Return to Love

Regina Cates has done a huge service by lighting the path for us to reconnect with our heart. Cates has made the journey herself, and each chapter resounds with her painful, all-too-human experience. Easy to read, yet filled with wisdom that will penetrate your heart, this book puts the power back in your hands. It's a must-have.

Marci Shimoff, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Happy for No Reason and Love for No Reason

Regina Cates is a beautiful human being who teaches us by sharing her own life-changing experiences. Her message is loud and clear: Trust your heart; it will never lead you astray.

don Miguel Ruiz, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Four Agreements

In Lead with Your Heart, Cates provides factual evidence that the heart is a wise spiritual organ that beats in rhythm to being true to oneself in a most noble way: living a heart-centered life.

Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder of Agape Spiritual Center and author of Life Visioning

Lead with Your Heart is an important contribution to the expansion of consciousness and the evolution of life. This clearly written book enables us to look at our lives from a different perspective, and in doing so, to sense the dazzling resplendence of life. Regina's words teach us to lead with our heart. The clarity that comes from the heart guides us to greater love, service, and wisdom. Every page of this book will open you to your heart: your best self, your highest potential, and your greatest joy.

Jorge Luis Delgado, Peruvian shaman and author of Andean Awakening: An Inca Guide to Mystical Peru

At a time when we most need it, Regina Cates has created a tour de force with Lead with Your Heart. In this down-to-earth guide, Cates speaks to us like a wise friend, showing us how to align the physical with the spiritual to promote optimum health, joy in our relationships, and peace in our heart. It just may be the best book I've read this year.

Uzzi Reiss, MD, OB/GYN, founder of the Beverly Hills Anti-Aging Center, and author of The Natural Superwoman

Regina's transformative book is a powerful awareness-raising tool I am eager to share with therapy, counseling, and coaching clients as well as my own family and friends. We are challenged to courageously evaluate and purposefully reflect on our life choices, while also encouraged and reassured that making the effort to do so will be an empowering experience that is well worth it. A buffet of wisdom nuggets, free of confusing jargon and replete with genuine, relatable examples from the author's life, there is something for everyone here. This is a must-read for anyone serious about maximizing their potential, peace, balance, and life satisfaction!

Gail D. Simon-Boyd, PhD, licensed psychologist, adjunct psychology instructor, and wellness coach

Regina Cates has given us a tremendous gift by sharing her heart on these pages. This book is for everyone who is attempting to make meaning of his or her life, for everyone who is looking for a guide on how to live the best life given the circumstances, for everyone who is desiring self-acceptance, joy, and peace while fully experiencing this crazy world we live in. I can personally attest to how leading with my heart is helping me become a more centered, joyful, truthful, and fully alive person, acceptingand even embracingmy personal journey. It doesn't matter if you don't do the new age stuff, have a million self-help books, or think spirituality isn't your forte. Get this book anyway.

Sharmila Devar, actress

Copyright 2014 by Regina Cates

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form whatsoever, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief passages in connection with a review.

Cover design by Adrian Morgan

Cover art by Valeriy Lebedev | Shutterstock

Interior design by Jane Hagaman

Hierophant Publishing

8301 Broadway, Suite 219

San Antonio, TX 78209

888-800-4240

www.hierophantpublishing.com

If you are unable to order this book from your local bookseller, you may order directly from the publisher.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013956298

ISBN: 978-1-938289-28-6

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed on acid-free paper in the United States of America

The figure on page 14 of twenty-five black blocks is from Scientific Psychic: www.scientificpsychic.com/graphics.

The pyramid and heart figures on pages 90 and 176 are by Miguel Bravo.

www.redwheelweiser.com

www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter

To Barbara Rose Simon,
for her faith, patience, and unwavering support.

For many years I was terrified of dying.

Then one day I realized I was really afraid of living.

My name is Regina, and I am creating an incredible life filled with love, compassion, and purpose. But I was not always the joyful, confident, and responsible person I am today.

On my forty-third birthday, I remember sitting on the couch with my dogs huddled around me, rapidly going through a box of tissues and about to open a second. The tears did not stop. I sobbed because it was my birthday and life sucked. I felt helpless and hopeless; I wanted someone to heal me, someone to complete me. Without someone to rescue me and cheer me on, I did not imagine much chance for contentment.

Longing to have a good, lifelong relationship with a partner, I grew up believing I would meet the person of my dreams, enjoy a deep, rewarding, lasting relationship, and somehow magically live happily ever after. After a particularly difficult breakupmy sixth in a series of not-good relationshipsit became crystal clear I did not know how to be a strong half of a healthy relationship. The bottom line was this: I did not love myself, so I did not know how to love others.

It seemed my life was a failure.

For so many years, I went along with the idea of success as defined by my peers and society, which meant having attained wealth, position, and honors. In order to be a success, I got a good education. Then I landed a series of respectable jobs with great benefits and, at some of them, a big corner office. Although I did not dislike my jobs, I was not content. My days were jam-packed with work, leaving little time for anything else. My overcrowded schedule cost me relationships with my partner, friends, pets, and myself. I had no time to really enjoy life. I was too busy being a success.

Where I lived, what I drove, what I wore, what I owned, and what I did determined my worth. I had a great house with a big mortgage, stylish furniture, and a well-landscaped yard, and yet I was unable to afford to have my dog's teeth cleaned. My car was beautiful, but I could not pay for its regular maintenance. The fancy wardrobe I thought was necessary for my successful image caused me to not keep up with, much less pay off, mounting debt.