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The Art of Meaningful Living

4.2 of 5 stars 4.20 · rating details · 5 ratings · 4 reviews

b]"Meaningful living is choosing your passions over your fears. It is accepting what you cannot control and focusing on what is in your power." /b]Too often our meaningful lives and the things we are passionate about are buried under disappointments and lost dreams.Christopher F. Brown, LCSW, MBA, offers a powerful book combining psychological concepts with beautiful, prov...more

Hardcover, 113 pages

Published September 1st 2009 by Synergy Books

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Feb 02, 2011 Christie rated it 3 of 5 stars

When I worked at Indigo there was an entire section of the store devoted to Well Being. People looking for help with their relationships, sex lives, food addictions, spirituality, and just about everything else related to their personal lives could be found in this section. Perhaps by some weird fluke though, Christopher F. Brown’s new book The Art of Meaningful Living could have been found over in the Art section and, strangely, it would have been equally at home there, too.

The Art of Meaningfu...more When I worked at Indigo there was an entire section of the store devoted to Well Being. People looking for help with their relationships, sex lives, food addictions, spirituality, and just about everything else related to their personal lives could be found in this section. Perhaps by some weird fluke though, Christopher F. Brown’s new book The Art of Meaningful Living could have been found over in the Art section and, strangely, it would have been equally at home there, too.

The Art of Meaningful Living is a clever hybrid which marries self-help with art. Brown offers practical advice on how to live a meaningful life and John Palmer contributes abstract art to the book which makes The Art of Meaningful Living a rare bird indeed: it’s the kind of book you’d actually leave on your coffee table for your friends to see.

Many of us reach a certain age and start to wonder about our place in the world. I don’t mean to be morose, but let’s face it - we don’t have infinite time on the planet. More often than not we push that thought away, planning for an unforeseeable future. Eventually, though, life catches up and many of us need help reorienting our ’ship’, so to speak. Brown offers thoughtful and meaningful advice on how to chart your course and he does it without psychobabble. The book is divided into four sections: Wisdom, Action, Resilience and The Art of Meaningful Lives. Brown asks us, first of all, to consider our lives and acknowledge our cast - that is the people who had a hand in bringing you to the place you are right now. He also encourages us to commit to change and assures us that the book will help the reader “learn to build wisdom, take action, develop resilience… manage your mind, cope with the world around you, define what is valuable to you, and move forward with the life you want.”

Palmer considers Brown’s advice and each page offers his colourful, (and although I can’t claim to have any expertise in art at all) often very beautiful interpretations of the ideas.

Brown and Palmer began their collaboration after they had each lost a parent. They believe The Art of Meaningful Living “provide[s] hope to move past those dark moments.”

Perhaps it is fate, then, that this book came across my desk when it did. My father died of esophageal cancer as I was about half way through it. As a person who has always struggled to balance my creative instincts with the day-to-day slog, The Art of Meaningful Living gives me the tools to move past the grief I feel and on towards attaining a life worth living.

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Nov 09, 2009 Ti rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-sent-to-me

The Short of It:

The Art of Meaningful Living walks us through the various stages of what it takes to live a meaningful life. Filled with artwork to emphasize each stage, this book is both refreshing and different.

The Rest of It:

This is a really interesting book. I’m at a point in my life where the everyday routine gets to me. Normally having a routine is very soothing but of late, my routine has been running me into the ground a bit. I think that is one of the reasons that I have been turning to...more

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Nov 11, 2009 Gaby rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: art-book, nonfiction

The Art of Meaningful Living
The Art of Meaningful Living by Christopher F. Brown may appear like a beautiful coffee table book, but it isn't. There are attractive and interesting illustrations but book's strength is in its text. The book is divided into five main sections: Start, Wisdom, Action, Resilience, and The Art of Meaningful Lives. The sections of the book are organized according to the change process. The Wisdom section contains the preparation that you need before change can happen. Ac...more The Art of Meaningful Living
The Art of Meaningful Living by Christopher F. Brown may appear like a beautiful coffee table book, but it isn't. There are attractive and interesting illustrations but book's strength is in its text. The book is divided into five main sections: Start, Wisdom, Action, Resilience, and The Art of Meaningful Lives. The sections of the book are organized according to the change process. The Wisdom section contains the preparation that you need before change can happen. Action covers behaviors that can help you move towards your meaningful life each day. Resilience helps you battle avoidant behavior and return to your goals. While the last section, The Art of Meaningful Lives contains profiles of people who are successfully living their passions.

It may be that I'm reading it during a time of uncertainty and change, but I found the book personally helpful and wish that I could share it with several close friends and relatives that are going undergoing upheavals in their own lives.

In Start, Brown writes about highly functioning individuals that are successful but have a sense that "this is not how things are supposed to be" and wonder "Where did the excitement and passion go?" He describes such a life as one of quiet desperation and contrasts it with "meaningful lives with personal fulfillment and passion." Surely, most of us has felt that our jobs or lives have lacked passion and personal fulfillment. For this reason, I believe that the book speaks to a broad range of people.

Out of all the sections of the book, I found Wisdom to be the most helpful and would like to focus on this section of the book for my review. In Wisdom, Brown provides ways to build self-awareness and exercises to help develop mind management skills. Brown suggests that we begin by building self-awareness, countering negative self-talk with positive back chatter. He proposes this exercise: count the times that you put yourself down or make a negative self-assessment during the day. As you notice the negative self-talk, assign a new meaning and counter the negativity and be kinder to yourself. Replace the negative statement with something positive - you may have to tap into the group of people that have supported you throughout your life (mentors, family, friends, colleagues who know you) and think of what they would say to the question, "What are all of the good things about me?" Each time that you criticize yourself, imagine the supportive person chiming in and countering the criticism with several compliments. Develop the compliments, be honest and revel in your strengths, celebrate them instead of being uncertain or embarrassed. Commit these compliments to memory so that you can respond with them often.

Brown encourages us to identify the patterns that hold us back from living meaningful lives. He also points out several important mind management skills. "Notice" - neutrally observe your experiences for what they are, just observe the facts and the products of your mind (feelings, thoughts, memories, sensations, and urges) so that you can have them but not automatically believe them. "Reflect" by being curious instead of judgmental - ask yourself what is causing the response instead of reacting in a self-critical way. Try to see the situation from different points of view, how would your partner, mother, therapist, best friend, colleague see the experience? Consciously "assign meaning" and choose what the experience means based on which interpretation would work best for you. "Pause" and take the time to collect your thoughts and feelings before choosing your response to difficult or anxiety inducing situations.

We all recognize that decisions may involve the rational mind or the emotional mind or both aspects together. Brown cites psychologist Marsha Linehan, PhD, who characterizes the use of both the rational and emotional aspects of thinking as "using your wise mind." Brown encourages us to use the "wise mind skill" by focusing on a particular question (i.e., what is causing this response, is this the right response for me, etc.) while noticing your breathing.

Here is another helpful exercise that helps develop the wise mind: Hone your wise mind through asking the question while doing breathing exercises. Ask yourself the question as you inhale, listen for the answer as you exhale. Even if the answer doesn't come to you right away, the process of reaching for the answer and the breathing exercises give you time to process the question using different levels of consciousness.

The Art of Meaningful Living struck me as both interesting and helpful. I recommend the book in large part because of the exercises that encourage mindfulness and mind management skills. While some of the skills and advice may be familiar, it helps to have them written out and explained, after all, the development of the wise mind skills and mindfulness comes in large part from the practicing of these skills.

Publisher: Synergy Books (September 1, 2009), 128 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.(less)

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Nov 05, 2009 Harvee rated it 5 of 5 stars

I find something new each time I open this book...

"You experience the learning curve each time you try something new. It's a process, like change, of varied duration." (p. 48 Learn the Learning Curve)

"Significant discrepancy between what is meaningful to you and how you spend your time is a warning sign of quiet desperation." (p. 67 Spend Your Time on Your Passions)

Wish I could show the colorful artwork that is on every page of this coffeetable-sized book. Art by John Palmer.

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Jun 29, 2009 AuthorsOnTourLive! rated it 5 of 5 stars

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