The Practice: Simple Tools for Managing Stress, Finding Inner Peace, and Uncovering Happiness

Barbara Schmidt

May 2014 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

The mind has a way of interfering with personal happiness, often causing stress and doubt. Getting in touch with one's inner source of peace and following its guidance over the mind's often-unfounded concerns requires training and discipline. Knowing this truth intimately, Peaceful Mind Peaceful Life Founder Barb Schmidt developed a three-part spiritual discipline called The Practice. The Practice is a toolkit to be used throughout the day to guide people who are looking for confidence, less stress, and deeper meaning along life's path. These tools are a compilation of the great Truths taught by authentic teachers and masters throughout the centuries from various religious and spiritual traditions.

In the first three chapters of The Practice, readers are guided through the daily routine: Waking Up, Living Present, and Letting Go. Beginning with a morning meditation, a thread of peace is followed over the course of the day through the repetition of a sacred mantra, practicing focused attention, reading for inspiration, and reflecting on the day. In the concluding chapter, readers are provided with an opportunity to deepen their experience of The Practice with engaging exercises

By regularly taking the steps to go within each morning, stay present throughout the moments of the day, and letting go of attachments when the day comes to a close, readers will find that they are better able to do the following:

• Remove the obstacles that interfere with inner peace
• Manage stress and cultivate more patience, empathy, and compassion
• Have more courage when facing fears and making changes
• Overcome habitual behaviors and make better choices
• Reduce negative thinking and ease feelings of anxiety, worry, and stress
• See the blessings beneath life's more difficult experiences
• Know a deep feeling of wholeness

About the author

Barb Schmidt is a businesswoman, philanthropist, and spiritual teacher with over thirty years devoted to spiritual development. She has studied with many notable teachers such as Thich Nhat Hanh, Deepak Chopra, and Marianne Williamson. In 2001, she partnered with Florida Atlantic University's Peace Studies Program to promote dialogue on the topic of inner and outer peace. For the past ten years, she has been offering quarterly workshops and weekly classes on spiritual practices as well as lecturing at various schools and organizations on living a meaningful life. She lives in Boca Raton, Florida.