Eh. It's a play-by-play of the book, including sections of the book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior. I loved that book…but this one isn't as good.

Reviewed this book for my running blog. The author has a nice way with highlighting many principles we all know but rarely follow.

Haven't read it yet, but I'm willing to bet it is as good as the rest of Millman's books!

Not as punchy as WotPW, but still worth the time reading.

Parallels and pre-dating to the celestine prophecy by James Redfield in terms of folding in idease that are titled as new age. Ideas of focusing and acting in the now (which aren't so new)are similar to how we perceive animals to be - like a puppy, or cat. Other ideas: "Mind is illusion, being is body". moderation is like warm tea - embrace with an awareness and celebration, controlled desire with understood consequences and not excessiveness.

Fun and a Easy Read

I In Joyed reading Wisdom of the Peaceful Warrior. It is a fun and easy read. Seeing the movie or reading The Peaceful Warrior is recommended but not required.

Good book, goes a bit further into many key passages in the original Way of The Peaceful Warrior. Thoroughly enjoyed both books.

I actually liked this better than the original book.

If you found some of the imagery and lessons unclear in Way of the Peaceful Warrior, this book clarifies them. It's existence shows how popular that book is.

Good to read along with Way of the Peaceful Warrior.

Here’s some takeaways copied from the book:
The only way we can “change our past” is to change our behavior in the present, because the present will soon become our past. We also shape our future by the actions we take right now.

No matter what we’re thinking or feeling - whether we’re sad or motivated, shy or assertive, confident or full of doubt - our quality of our lives will always depend, in large part, on what we do today. Today is the doorway to the future; today we build the foundation for what follows.

You don’t reject the conventional activities of life but to move beyond the conventional mind - to realize that there’s far more to life than the usual distractions and temporary diversions.

We’re here to discover our own depths, and thereby to understand life itself. To do so, we need to see and acknowledge our shadow as well as our light.

Out of a fundamental fear, we cling to the familiar and wish to avoid change.

Face the great fear and find the willingness to let go of who we think we are.

Most often, however, the mind stuff appears in the form of problems, concerns, and unfinished business.

Make peace with your mind, whether it’s filled with positive or negative thoughts. Mental activity is as natural as the nature. The most important thing is to avoid mistaking our thoughts for reality. We don’t have to change them or give them power over our lives.

You have more control over what you do than what you think or feel. Not how to fix your insides, but how to rise above the ever-changing wheather of the mind and emotions. Focus on your actions and let the rest be.

Accept or surrender. Stress happens when the mind resists what is. Aligning ourselves with this law does not require that we abandon all preferences - it’s natural to prefer pleasure over pain, for example - though imagine what our lives might feel like if we could just relax our preferences and learn to make the best of whatever arises in a gracious manner, with an attitude of nonresistance.

When we develop the ability to go with the flow, and flow with the moment, we experience less stress and psychological turmoil. This ability doesn’t develop overnight but matures through life experience and expanding perspectives as we learn to find value in adversity.

Life unfolds as it will; making the best of it is an acquired skill. Beginners in the martial arts tend to resist a force, but masters go with the force and use it to their advantage. This is also a warrior’s approach to life.

If we face our dark nights squarely, however, making it through such experiences can lead to greater light and a newfound sense of compassion. Important lessons emerge from the trials and testing. There’s a natural phase in our spiritual growth involving almost obsessive self-focus - self-remembering, self-observation, self-reflection. We have to know the self before we can transcend it.

Self-focus is a necessary phase up the mountain path of personal evolution. Chronic self-preoccupation leads to dissatisfaction. So while this study of the self is necessary and useful stage, it’s at best a temporary one.

Once we developed the capacity to see ourselves realistically through objective self-observation, it’s time to turn our attention outward.

Those willing to let go of resistance can, through faith and surrender, awaken spontaneously and gracefully, in unexpected ways. Insights and awakenings can happen anywhere, anytime we open our hearts without conditions. We can be reborn in an instant.

You are a story in the making, and no one can predict what the next chapter, the next day, the next moment, will bring. No matter how dark it may seem, whatever the pain or emptiness we may feel - the sense of despair, the loss of hope or meaning - our dark night will be followed by a new dawn if we just endure. So take no desperate action; face th fear. Let the ego die, but protect the body. Allow this “death” to become a rebirth. And as day follows night, the dark tunnel will lead to a greater light.

By “lose your mind”, it means to pay attention in the reality around you, rather than merely thinking about it. Remove the veil of thought that interfered with your direct perception. Over time, as your awareness focused on the world around you, you will begin to feel the temperature of the air on your skin, smell aromas carried on the breeze, notice the sights and sounds in this multimedia realm we call daily life.

Pull out of your subjective mental existence - your preoccupations and attachments in every passing thought, impulse, or emotion - into a spacious sensory world. In letting go of the smaller self, you awake to a larger life.

You paid more attention to your thoughts about the world than to the world itself.

We direct our attention wherever we choose - or left to its own devices, it wanders inside and out like a child sleepwalking through a dream.

We’re always paying attention - to something. The question is, moment to moment, what are we paying attention to - inside or out, the mud or stars?

Your emotional and mental suffering comes not so much from what was happening, but from your thoughts about what was happening.

Even physical pain is influenced by thought and stress. When the body hurts but we’re paying attention to what is going on around us in the present moment, not thinking about when the pain started, or how long it may last, or what it all mean - when it’s only pain, without extras or complications - we suffer less. (Pain without fear or tension is far less intense than pain plus fear.)

Mental and emotional suffering stems from resistance - and attachment to beliefs about what should or shouldn’t be. The first step to liberation is to resign as general manager of the universe and embrace life as it is.

Don’t presume to know how life come or go; letting go in this way brings a sense of freedom. This doesn’t mean you don’t care or have no preferences. Your actions naturally follow the call of your heart, your interests, your values. You make efforts in your personal and professional life in alignment with your goals. But once you’re taken aim and loosed the arrow from the bow, you can only wait with interest to see where it will land.

There is no single best approach for everyone -only a appropriate practice for each individual at a given stage.

We improve with practice over time. Meditation practice involves a commitment to release all that arises in the field of awareness - to sit on the shore and watch it all float past rather than drifting downstream with it.

Such meditation practice doesn’t necessarily lead to enlightenment but rather is in itself the practice of enlightenment. As we sit with spine erect, relaxing the body, watching the natural cycles of breathing, as thoughts, feelings, and sensations arise, we maintain the posture and disposition of the witness, a pure, detached, transcendent awareness, observing all, allowing all, clinging to nothing, until we realize that we are the awareness that exists beyond the body, mind, or identity.

Once we open our eyes and get on with the day, thoughts continue to arise. The point of the practice is not to get rid of thoughts but to make peace with them, to realize their lack of substance. Once we see the nature of mind, the practice is no longer necessary, except as a pleasure respite from the business of the world - an inner retreat, rest, and refreshment.

The world is far more interesting than our thoughts about it. Looking inward has benefits, but so does looking outward. The peaceful warrior’s way involves the ability to do both with full attention, so that the world around us also becomes an object of meditation.

How we live and what we do, moment to moment, tells our story.

Paradox, humor, and change - the 3 external truths which summarize the state of the world, life, and the universe.

Even the idea of “living in the present moment” is a paradox, since the present moment doesn’t actually exist. We cannot grasp the moments have come and gone. We cannot grasp the moment or seize the day; all we can do is go with the flow of time. There’s no past, no future, no present - no time at all. When I speak of “staying in the present,” I’m referring to focusing on what’s right in front of us and not getting preoccupied with either memories or imagined futures. (The past and future may be nice places to visit, but we don’t want to live there.)

Let’s make peace with paradox, view the world through humorous eyes, and embrace change without resistance.

Das Buch ist eine gute Ergänzung zum "Pfad des friedvollen Kriegers". Millman gibt Interpretations- und Umsetzungshilfen. Ohne das Hauptwerk gelesen zu haben weniger empfehlenswert

Another one

Dan has put together such inspiration with these books. I'm glad to have stumbled across his writings as they have proven beneficial to my every moment