The LifeQuake Phenomenon: How to Thrive (Not Just
Survive) in Times of Personal and Global Upheaval
Toni Galardi, PhD
Hardcover, 6x9 in, 204 pages
Wheatmark, February 2009
ISBN: 9781604942224
Endorsements
"When your personal foundation is being shaken to the core, you
need a road map. Look no further—here it is. Toni Galardi can
take you where you need to go."
— Hyla Cass, MD, author of 8 Weeks to
Vibrant Health
"Dr. Toni Galardi's clear-cut book offers the perfect balance of
a scholarly psychological background with practical real-life
advice. This book is a useful, accessible, and immensely effective
guide to understanding and handling our personal emotional
geology."
— David K. Haspel, co-executive producer
of Olympic Glory
"If you want meaning and purpose but fear change in these
uncertain times, The LifeQuake Phenomenon is the book to
read. Toni Galardi offers critical elements to guide you through to
a place of joy."
— Sirah Vettese, PhD, author of
Spiritual Makeover
Description
The initial signs are subtle. You're bored by activities you once
enjoyed. You rely on mindless distractions like web surfing, TV,
alcohol, or overeating to get you through the day. Though you sense
something is fundamentally wrong, the fear of making changes keeps
you clinging to outmoded habits and addictions.
And then the soul awakens and the crisis hits. You're in a
LifeQuake! It's time to evolve, but you're not sure how.
In The LifeQuake Phenomenon: How to Thrive (Not Just Survive)
in Times of Personal and Global Upheaval, Dr. Toni Galardi
provides the definitive road map through the rocky terrain of
constant change. Her book will help you turn your LifeQuake from a
seismic drama into a bold adventure.
You will learn how to:
- make changes before you're forced to
- fluidly adapt to sudden change
- transform economic upheavals into fertile opportunities
- uncover your true purpose
- joyfully participate in global transformation
Can you see yourself fearlessly walking into the unknown? With
Dr. Galardi's revolutionary approach to change, along with
inspiring stories from Ben Johnson, MD (from The Secret),
Martin Rutte (coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul at
Work), Barbara Marx Hubbard (author of Conscious
Evolution), Chellie Campbell (author of Zero to
Zillionaire), and other human-potential pioneers, The
LifeQuake Phenomenon gives you cutting-edge tools to transform
the life you have into the life you've always wanted.
About the Author
Toni Galardi is a licensed psychotherapist, syndicated columnist,
career coach, and public speaker. She has been a frequent guest on
Fox News, Good Morning San Diego, and Good Day
LA. "Dr. Toni" lives in Santa Monica, California.
Excerpt
I was born in the desert many times. My physical birth took place
in the city of Phoenix, named for the mythical bird that descended
into flames so that it could be reborn into a higher form.
Contemporary life is now calling us all to die to old ways and rise
from the ashes, over and over again. In the process we will learn
to be fearless and forward-looking, to approach the unknown with a
sense of adventure rather than dread. The ability to adapt to rapid
change is a necessary part of our survival and subsequent
evolution.
Even when we sense it's time to make a change, that feeling does
not always lead to action. The lull of the familiar keeps us
circling around the same old issues, while the lure of hope keeps
us scanning for that magic bullet that will solve the problem or
quell the boredom. The problem with quick-fix solutions is that
they rarely address the necessary burn that comes with change.
Instead of stepping into the fire of transformation, we go numb
with the help of favorite substances and distractions that
temporarily ease the pressure building up inside.
Left unaddressed, this inner pressure grows into a rumbling
discontent. Boredom, restlessness—an inner tension that has
no name—begins to cast a pall over your life. Unchecked, this
discontent deepens into a "depression" that handy prescriptions
cannot fix. What often remains unaddressed when depressive symptoms
arise is this: your soul is crying out for your attention.
Holding on to an obsolete life makes change difficult, but the
soul has its way of breaking your grip. Your innermost knows what
your mind can easily deny or pretend not to see. Every bit of
magical thinking and self-delusion must be exposed, even the
pockets that hide under a spiritual guise. Avoidance of change is
futile; put it off and you invite a crisis.
The epidemic increase in the use of antidepressants is masking
this eruption from the soul. This is not to say that pharmaceutical
treatments for despair and anxiety don't have their place; they do.
However, there is a critical context for holding these
emotions that must be attended to, if we are to stay sane in
the face of the sweeping changes occurring worldwide. To understand
our personal discontent, we must take into account the bigger
reality of our times: we are both participating in and being swept
along by a massive evolutionary moment. This vastly intelligent
force of change is breaking down old ways of being and evolving new
forms. On the human front, this is occurring through you and me. It
is this irresistible force, this inevitable progression that is
calling you to go inward, to discover your unique purpose, and to
take your rightful place in the larger whole.
Imagine that you are a bit like the Earth for a moment. Like our
lovely blue planet, you have many well-defined layers that surround
your core. Instead of shale and rock, some of your layers are made
up of obsolete beliefs and outdated programs that have accumulated
over the years. The core self is kept buried by these crusty
layers. For your core self to emerge, it must push up and through
them. These layers of the false self can be dense and hard to
penetrate. Resistance occurs as your essence begins to rise to the
surface of awareness. Quite an upheaval can ensue when your innate
potential finally breaks through. If you recognize that this
process is birthing a new you, it is easier to ride the waves of
the inner quaking. If you don't, a major crisis or catastrophe may
result.
Shake-ups like these can make you feel as if you're cracking up,
when in actuality you are cracking open. I call this a LifeQuake;
it is nature's way of pushing you to evolve beyond outdated
identity patterns so that you can live an authentic, fully
actualized life. The process can be chaotic and disorienting; it
can also rouse up tremendous resistance to change. Just as an
earthquake shakes not only the ground but the houses, buildings,
roads, and bridges above it, a LifeQuake can rock every aspect of
your life. The very foundation and values on which you've built
your life—your professional world, relationships, finances,
and innermost thoughts and feelings—all can be thrown into
disarray. Are you experiencing more than a little upheaval in your
own life right now? Think of your friends and loved ones; I'll bet
you know quite a few people who've experienced a LifeQuake or are
quivering at the shake, rattle, and roll going on in their
lives.
We've yet to invent elaborate seismic equipment to read the
rumblings of the psyche. Most of us pretend not to notice the
subtle tremors and wait until a major quake forces us to change.
The intent of this book is to help you discover that you actually
can recognize when a cycle of life is ending. Your journey through
a LifeQuake need not be slowed down or complicated by resistance.
This is really the entire thrust of my work: you can learn to move
forward with elegance and possibly even prevent the devastation of
a major life crisis. To do this, you need a specific skill set that
allows you to relax your resistance to change and become adaptable.
In so doing, you develop an agile, fluid mind.
The pace of twenty-first-century change need not bring on
catastrophic crisis. Chaos can be reinterpreted; it can be reframed
as natural to the process rather than disastrous. This
extraordinary morphing process that I have named a LifeQuake can be
weathered and mastered with the help of the simple techniques
contained in these pages. As you take this journey, an inner
structure will build that has the kind of emotional retrofitting
that allows you to actually trust chaos—to recognize it as
the precursor to transformation. This transformation happens at a
foundational level, dissolving old programs so that you readily
interpret change as gain, rather than loss. Easier said than done,
right? If you don't have a road map for such a journey, you can get
lost in perpetual crisis, a hellish spin cycle of drama and
trauma.
What you have in your hand is that road map—the manual for
developing an adaptive mind; it can carry you through this
phenomenon called a LifeQuake to a surprising and unexpected
destination. I will show you the way by charting the course for
you, identifying the obstacles and hazards, pointing out landmarks,
helping you read the road signs, and giving you a custom-designed
set of master tools. These tools develop a body that is mobile, a
mind that is agile, and a spirit that is responsive to the
daily demands of accelerated change. They work with your
electromagnetic field through accessing light energy. All the parts
of self that have been rigid and resistant to change will
alchemically soften.
This is the new paradigm for our evolution: we are being
summoned by the future to become emotionally, mentally, physically,
and spiritually fluid. The prolific French writer Anais
Nin once said, "We need blueprints for the creation of human
beings the way we do for architecture." This book will lead you
through this new territory. You can develop your own unique,
ever-changing blueprint that allows you to build and maintain a
vital life. Furthermore, once you've mastered change in your own
life, you will become a more effective change agent for others.
If your LifeQuake has not reached a disruptive level, you may be
asking yourself if your experience qualifies. Start by taking the
questionnaire that follows chapter one. You will see that there are
many subtle signs in the early stages. The seven-stage model set
forth in this book will serve different functions at different
times as you make your way through it. Use it to guide you from
stage to stage. Return to this map when you feel lost and need a
safety net or when your journey leaves you feeling as if you've
fallen from a high wire.
You will find clearly delineated building elements in each of
the seven stages. These will make up your new foundation as an
evolutionary being. As you put each building element to use, you
evolve from being "defunctional" (one who is holding onto an
obsolete identity that resists change) to being transfunctional. As
a transfunctional being, you learn to foresee and adapt to
necessary change, moment to moment. You can achieve change mastery
by practicing these tools. Furthermore, I have sprinkled references
throughout the text to a multitude of cutting-edge resources to
support your body, mind, and spirit during this radical transition.
There are also thirteen interviews with individuals who have
pioneered the new frontier of evolutionary consciousness, as well
as anonymous stories from clients who trusted me to be their guide
as they bravely pioneered their way through the unknown territory
of their own LifeQuake journeys.
Before we start, here's a quick preview of what's ahead: in
stages one and two, you will discover how to transform the inherent
feelings of boredom and depression so that you can gradually
release dated aspects of your life and create space for the newness
taking shape. The momentum created by these first two stages
prepares you for stage three, where you will either consciously
make a definitive break from your old life or magnetize crisis to
accelerate the unavoidable change that wants and needs to
happen.
Do the work in these first three stages, and you will be weaned
from any dependence on crisis as a way to bring about meaningful
change. Awareness—not catastrophe—becomes your
springboard. Stage four shows you how to integrate the denied parts
of yourself into the emerging you; this prepares you to discover
your true calling. Stage five teaches you how to create a fluid
blueprint that allows you to experiment and become an apprentice in
your new life. Stage six shows you how to create and live in the
spirit of true wealth. Finally, stage seven gives you user-friendly
tools that allow you to discover that what you do for others, you
truly do for yourself. The good feeling that comes from altruism
allows you to really experience the concept of "we are all one."
When this happens, you will know the face of the new
humanitarianism.
If this sounds daunting, do not be alarmed. We're all standing
at the very same crossroads. One path looks solid and well tread,
while the other may look unsteady and uncharted. I invite you to
choose the latter; imagine my hand being extended to you through
these pages. You can make this book your personal "stagecoach" by
opening the door and entering this remarkable adventure. May it
carry you safely as you travel through this new territory. Although
the ride may be bumpy at first, this trip will lead to the ultimate
destiny: your liberation.
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