Book Description
Harville Hendrix's New York Times bestseller Keeping the Love You Find offered essential relationship strategies to those seeking a mate for life. Now, Harville and his wife, Helen Hunt, bring the life-changing messages of that enormously popular book to The Personal Companion. Combining practical advice, humor, and enlightening wisdom, these daily meditations and exercises provide powerful insights that can help anyone create unlimited possibilities for finding -- and keeping -- love. Whatever your history, whatever your heartache, your dreams of finding a truly compatible mate are completely achievable, not through luck or extraordinary skill, but by taking daily steps toward inner growth and positive change. With The Personal Companion as your guide, you can move closer to a joyful, healing love, as you: Create hope in place of despair, companionship instead of loneliness Develop a communication skill that turns conflict into contact and bonding Transform every past relationship into a source of positive growth Reflect on your inner self -- and what you want out of love Identify and change how you prevent yourself from keeping the love you find Discover the rewards of real love -- and the little things that make it last. With wisdom and compassion, Harville Hendrix and Helen Hunt give you the keys to sharing in the deep and lasting love you desire, in The Personal Companion.


About the Author
Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., and Helen Hunt, M.A., M.L.A., husband and wife, share a common vision of empowering couples to achieve a "conscious relationship." He is the author of two bestselling books, Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples, and Keeping the Love You Find: A Personal Guide, and coauthor, with Helen Hunt, of The Couples Companion: Meditations and Exercises for Getting the Love You Want. Dr. Hendrix is also founder/president of the Institute for Relationship Therapy in New York, which offers workshops and professional training throughout the world.


Excerpted from The Personal Companion: Meditations and Exercises for Keeping the Love You Find by Harville Hendrix, Helen Hunt. Copyright © 1995. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
DAY 1: THE FIRST STEP A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. -- Lao-Tzu The life of a single person can be emotionally turbulent. Our hopes and dreams about finding a lasting love sometimes send us soaring sky high. At other times, our confusion and despair over ever finding partnership can plunge us into an abyss. It's not surprising that many singles simply give up the search. Having experienced the turmoil inherent in setting their sights on a fulfilling love relationship, they decide, grudgingly, to lower their standards and make the best of their single state. You don't have to settle for where you are, however. You can -- and will -- find and keep a lasting love if you work actively toward that goal. It doesn't require extraordinary skill or luck. It simply involves walking forward with both feet on the ground. Instead of allowing ourselves to fly up into the clouds or dive down into the caverns, we need to focus on making one small step after another toward our destination. As we gradually learn new attitudes and skills, the sheer momentum of positive change will help move us along. The Personal Companion illustrates how to realize your goal of a committed partnership -- one that heals all the hurts you've accumulated since childhood and that brings you the highest joys life has to offer. Follow this guide day by day, and trust in yourself, and your journey will be both wondrous and successful. Today, commit yourself to doing the work in this book for one year. If possible, choose a particular time of day when you can consistently set aside at least one half hour: around ten minutes to read the entry and do the accompanying task, and around twenty minutes to perform the meditation. In stillness today, I vow to bring the totality of my being into this work I am about to begin. Copyright © 1995 by Harville Hendrix

ANNOTATION

Hendrix's New York Times bestseller Keeping the Love You Find offers the essential relationship strategies to those seeking a mate for life. Now this world-renowned therapist presents a collection of meditations and exercises for daily enrichment that combines practical advice, humor, and enlightening wisdom.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Harville Hendrix's New York Times bestseller Keeping the Love You Find offered essential relationship strategies to those seeking a mate for life. Now, Harville and his wife, Helen Hunt, bring the life-changing messages of that enormously popular book to The Personal Companion. Combining practical advice, humor, and enlightening wisdom, these daily meditations and exercises provide powerful insights that can help anyone create unlimited possibilities for finding -- and keeping -- love.

Whatever your history, whatever your heartache, your dreams of finding a truly compatible mate are completely achievable, not through luck or extraordinary skill, but by taking daily steps toward inner growth and positive change. With The Personal Companion as your guide, you can move closer to a joyful, healing love, as you:

Create hope in place of despair, companionship instead of loneliness

Develop a communication skill that turns conflict into contact and bonding

Transform every past relationship into a source of positive growth

Reflect on your inner self -- and what you want out of love

Identify and change how you prevent yourself from keeping the love you find

Discover the rewards of real love -- and the little things that make it last.