Arnie Kozak - The Awakened Introvert: Practical Mindfulness Skills to Help You Maximize Your Strengths and Thrive in a Loud and Crazy World

Mindfulness is made for introverts. In The Awakened Introvert, Arnie Kozak, PhD, provides you with simple steps to help you tap into your inner strengths and quiet the noise between your ears. Youll emerge with ninja-like powers to tap into the worlds leading expert on all things you. Quick tip: It starts with an inhale. You know what to do next. Then, without missing a beat, read Kozaks book.

Nancy Ancowitz, business communication coach and author of Self-Promotion for Introverts

The Awakened Introvert is the perfect answer to an introverts need for solitude and sanctuary in a noisy world. Kozaks writing reflects the clarity and flow that introverts can achieve through the mindfulness exercises he weaves throughout the book. I highly recommend The Awakened Introvert for every introvert who wants to explore their inner world and emerge feeling more self-aware and at peace with who they are.

Michaela Chung, creator of Introvert Spring

How can we be true to our deepest nature with so many claims on our time, senses, and energy? In The Awakened Introvert, psychologist and author Arnie Kozak offers a road map based on the teachings and practices of mindfulness that helps us stay connected to inner clarity, creativity, and peace in the midst of daily living.

Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

Arnie Kozaks merging of the two paradigms of introvertedness and awakening to the truths of ones existence is a potent reminder of how a thoughtful person can negotiate his or her way in a world fragmented by noise and chaos. Kozak has created an exciting new language to explore the same landscape of human dilemma that the Buddha spoke of. Hopefully more people can listen to this voice and benefit from the message it brings.

Mu Soeng, Buddhist scholar and author of The Heart of the Universe and other books

This is a wonderful, practical guide for all those introverts (and extroverts as well) who need to be awakened to their boundless strengths. The author finishes what Susan Cain has begun with her best-selling Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Cant Stop Talking. Arnie Kozak provides an extensive tapestry of quiet exercisesmindfulness strategies, social communication skills, energy activitiesthat enrich self-care and self-restoration, and, most of all, boundless support for how to flourish as an introvert. After all, as the author points out, the Buddha was an introvert. Arnie Kozaks book teaches us how to discover the introverted Buddha that lies within all human beings.

Robert J. Nash, EdD, professor and Official University of Vermont Scholar in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Creative Arts, director of the graduate Interdisciplinary Studies in Education program, and author of fifteen books and over one hundred scholarly articles

Everyone can benefit from reading The Awakened Introvert. In the first part of the book, those of us who self-identify as extroverts will discover that our personalities also have introverted qualities. Thats a revelation in itself! Then, through the use of multiple easy-to-learn mindfulness and cognitive behavioral exercises, the author shows us how to draw on the strengths of introversion to awaken to our full potential as human beings. This is a superb book!

Toni Bernhard, author of How to Be Sick and How to Wake Up

Introversion is both a psychological attitude and a way of life. Those of us born introverted must take care not to feel too isolated, exhausted, and inferior or superior with our more extroverted friends, family, and society. Kozak does a superb job here offering us psychological and spiritual wisdom, practices, and research that allow us to engage with the best of what introversion can bring. This workbook is well written and easy to use. I strongly recommend it if you are an introvert or if you live with someone who is.

Polly Young-Eisendrath, PhD, author of The Present Heart: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Discovery

Like so many introverts, Id always sensed my introversion was a gift. But in those times when I tried to conform to an extrovert-driven world, Id often lose faith in that intuition and feel flawed. Reading The Awakened Introvert has helped me trust my own instincts and deepened my mindfulness practice in surprising ways. I wish this book had been around twenty years ago (it would have saved me a lot of confusion), but Im glad its here now. Id recommend it to any introvertas well as any extrovert struggling to understand an introverted loved one.

Jaimal Yogis, author of Saltwater Buddha, The Fear Project, and the forthcoming Harper Collins memoir, All Our Waves Are Water

There are two reasons why this book is important. The first is obvious: introverts can hugely benefit from the focus strategies provided here. The second reason is perhaps less obvious. After practicing mindfulness for a while, some people become hypersensitive and resistant to interacting with the normal world. Its important to know that this is merely a temporary situation, an awkward intermediate stage between semi-coping (through tighten up and turn away) and super-coping (through open up and turn toward). Arnies suggestions and encouragements can help speed people through that transition.

Shinzen Young, author of The Science of Enlightenment

Publishers Note

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Excerpts from East Coker and Little Gidding from FOUR QUARTETS by T. S. Eliot. Copyright 1940, 1942 by T. S. Eliot; copyright renewed 1968, 1970 by Esme Valerie Eliot and the Estate of T. S. Eliot. Reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd. and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Copyright 2015 by Arnie Kozak

New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

5674 Shattuck Avenue

Oakland, CA 94609

www.newharbinger.com

Cover design by Amy Shoup

Acquired by Wendy Millstine

Edited by Jean Blomquist

All Rights Reserved

ePub ISBN: 9781626251625

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file

This book is dedicated to all the introverts in the world, especially my favorite one, Alexis.