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The Zero Point Agreement: How to Be Who You Already Are
A practical guide to stop searching for meaning by creating meaning from within
• Explains how we can only discover who we are by naming what we want to be and taking steps to make it a reality
• Offers simple evidence-based methods to generate enthusiasm, creativity, and direct spiritual experience and to co-create with the natural world as our ancestors did
• Presents 11 core principles for living life from within, such as how to take full responsibility for motivation and effort, express gratitude, and focus your intention
Everyone wants to experience purpose and inspiration in their lives, but the search for meaning often leaves a seeker in the hands of fate. Offering a different approach to self-discovery, one where we create our meaning from within rather than seek it from the outside world, Julie Tallard Johnson shows there is a science behind personal spiritual experiences and creativity. She reveals simple evidence-based methods that can be applied to any situation to generate enthusiasm, inspiration, and direct spiri- tual experience and transform the inner and outer landscapes of your life.
Drawing from the Heart Sutra, the I Ching, indigenous wisdom, and the teachings of the Dalai Lama, Joseph Campbell, and the Kadampa master Atisha, Johnson out- lines a practice centered on what she calls the Zero Point Agreement—the realization that you are the zero point of your life, that life’s purpose comes from within. She explains how to discover who you truly are by naming what you want to be and taking steps to make it a reality. Providing 11 core principles for the Zero Point Agreement as well as thought exercises, meditations, and journaling practices, Johnson shows how to break free from negative habitual states, liberate yourself from your attachment to the behaviors of others, take full responsibility for motivation and effort, express gratitude, focus your intention, and learn to co-create with the natural world. She also explores how to transform repressed material and how to apply the Zero Point Agreement to heal both personal and global relationships.
Revealing how we can tap in to the creative, creational power that lies within and around each of us, Johnson offers a spiritual technology for self-illumination, creative restructuring of your life, and manifestation of your life’s purpose.
• Explains how we can only discover who we are by naming what we want to be and taking steps to make it a reality
• Offers simple evidence-based methods to generate enthusiasm, creativity, and direct spiritual experience and to co-create with the natural world as our ancestors did
• Presents 11 core principles for living life from within, such as how to take full responsibility for motivation and effort, express gratitude, and focus your intention
Everyone wants to experience purpose and inspiration in their lives, but the search for meaning often leaves a seeker in the hands of fate. Offering a different approach to self-discovery, one where we create our meaning from within rather than seek it from the outside world, Julie Tallard Johnson shows there is a science behind personal spiritual experiences and creativity. She reveals simple evidence-based methods that can be applied to any situation to generate enthusiasm, inspiration, and direct spiri- tual experience and transform the inner and outer landscapes of your life.
Drawing from the Heart Sutra, the I Ching, indigenous wisdom, and the teachings of the Dalai Lama, Joseph Campbell, and the Kadampa master Atisha, Johnson out- lines a practice centered on what she calls the Zero Point Agreement—the realization that you are the zero point of your life, that life’s purpose comes from within. She explains how to discover who you truly are by naming what you want to be and taking steps to make it a reality. Providing 11 core principles for the Zero Point Agreement as well as thought exercises, meditations, and journaling practices, Johnson shows how to break free from negative habitual states, liberate yourself from your attachment to the behaviors of others, take full responsibility for motivation and effort, express gratitude, focus your intention, and learn to co-create with the natural world. She also explores how to transform repressed material and how to apply the Zero Point Agreement to heal both personal and global relationships.
Revealing how we can tap in to the creative, creational power that lies within and around each of us, Johnson offers a spiritual technology for self-illumination, creative restructuring of your life, and manifestation of your life’s purpose.
- GenresSelf HelpPsychology
320 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2013
17 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
About the author
Julie Tallard Johnson
18 books34 followersPraise for The Zero Point Agreement
“In this beautiful book, Julie Tallard Johnson--a gifted teacher and writer--brings fresh insight to an ancient truth: each of us must live from the inside out. This book--full of resources that range from heart-deep insight to helpful, practical exercises--can help us reclaim the treasure-trove of our own experience and being.”
Parker J. Palmer, author of Healing the Heart of Democracy, Let Your Life Speak, and The Courage to Teach
“In this resource-rich book of practical wisdom and wise practices, Julie Tallard Johnson offers readers multidimensional insights, inspiration, and skills for living with greater authenticity, creativity, and happiness. Integrating science, spirituality, and art in an engaging and deeply thoughtful approach to becoming who you already are, this gifted teacher demonstrates how each of us can create more meaning and joy in our lives--in ourselves, in the world around us, and for our power to create and shape the stories we tell ourselves and others.”
Amber Ault, Ph.D., clinical sociologist and psychotherapist
“In The Zero Point Agreement, Julie Tallard Johnson intelligently presents elegantly simple yet remarkably powerful practices for personal and societal transformation. Through the masterful weaving of teaching stories that touch the heart and inspire, she helps foster the development of an authentic identity. This is what our children, our families, our communities, and the land need.”
Corinna Stevenson, ecopsychologist and creator of Dragonfly Healing
“Julie Tallard Johnson’s The Zero Point Agreement is full of wisdom. We are invited to challenge our beliefs, habits, and assumptions and make ourselves vulnerable so that we can easily access the truth within our lives and experiences. Julie teaches us that by becoming our own meaning maker, we transform ourselves and the world in which we live. A true gift!”
Amy DeLong, M.D., Ho-Chunk Nation Department of Health
“I was captivated by Julie Tallard Johnson’s accessible treatise on how we are all charged with making meaning in our daily lives. I found The Zero Point Agreement dazzling because it is so packed with actual, practical wisdom. I can honestly say it has already changed my life.”
Meg Cox, author of The Book of New Family Traditions
“I love that the big beautiful zero is a central tenet of this book. What I see is a big round open door through which we can all walk on our journey toward wholeness. It’s a journey with no destination, of course, since wholeness is not a place as much as a perspective, ever-shifting. Put on your dancing shoes; this is not a book to be read propped up in your La-Z-Boy!”
Claudia Schmidt, singer-songwriter
“The Zero Point Agreement offers a clear, practical path to taking control of what you are able to and living the life you want to live.”
Dinty W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life
“Julie Tallard Johnson’s The Zero Point Agreement is a brilliant resource for deep and lasting change. I have used the zero point agreement in my own life and have shared it with clients and students. It is not another pie-in-the-sky promise of change. It is straightforward and effective.”
Tamar Zick, LPC, RYT, licensed psychotherapist and registered yoga teacher
“What a generous, wise, and useful book this is! Each chapter is so filled with quotes, anecdotes, hands-on exercises and more that help and inspire us to fully claim our own lives. There’s enough here to guide and inform you for many years to come.”
Ruth L. Schwartz, Ph.D., award-winning poet, and author of Soul on Earth: A Guide to Living & Loving Your Human Life
“A delightful companion for those of us seeking greater levels of balance, meaning, and joy--this book offers many gems of inspiration as well as the welcomed reminder that the journey toward wholeness always begins within.”
Karen Horneffer-Ginter, Ph.D., author of Full Cup, Thirsty Spirit
“In this beautiful book, Julie Tallard Johnson--a gifted teacher and writer--brings fresh insight to an ancient truth: each of us must live from the inside out. This book--full of resources that range from heart-deep insight to helpful, practical exercises--can help us reclaim the treasure-trove of our own experience and being.”
Parker J. Palmer, author of Healing the Heart of Democracy, Let Your Life Speak, and The Courage to Teach
“In this resource-rich book of practical wisdom and wise practices, Julie Tallard Johnson offers readers multidimensional insights, inspiration, and skills for living with greater authenticity, creativity, and happiness. Integrating science, spirituality, and art in an engaging and deeply thoughtful approach to becoming who you already are, this gifted teacher demonstrates how each of us can create more meaning and joy in our lives--in ourselves, in the world around us, and for our power to create and shape the stories we tell ourselves and others.”
Amber Ault, Ph.D., clinical sociologist and psychotherapist
“In The Zero Point Agreement, Julie Tallard Johnson intelligently presents elegantly simple yet remarkably powerful practices for personal and societal transformation. Through the masterful weaving of teaching stories that touch the heart and inspire, she helps foster the development of an authentic identity. This is what our children, our families, our communities, and the land need.”
Corinna Stevenson, ecopsychologist and creator of Dragonfly Healing
“Julie Tallard Johnson’s The Zero Point Agreement is full of wisdom. We are invited to challenge our beliefs, habits, and assumptions and make ourselves vulnerable so that we can easily access the truth within our lives and experiences. Julie teaches us that by becoming our own meaning maker, we transform ourselves and the world in which we live. A true gift!”
Amy DeLong, M.D., Ho-Chunk Nation Department of Health
“I was captivated by Julie Tallard Johnson’s accessible treatise on how we are all charged with making meaning in our daily lives. I found The Zero Point Agreement dazzling because it is so packed with actual, practical wisdom. I can honestly say it has already changed my life.”
Meg Cox, author of The Book of New Family Traditions
“I love that the big beautiful zero is a central tenet of this book. What I see is a big round open door through which we can all walk on our journey toward wholeness. It’s a journey with no destination, of course, since wholeness is not a place as much as a perspective, ever-shifting. Put on your dancing shoes; this is not a book to be read propped up in your La-Z-Boy!”
Claudia Schmidt, singer-songwriter
“The Zero Point Agreement offers a clear, practical path to taking control of what you are able to and living the life you want to live.”
Dinty W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life
“Julie Tallard Johnson’s The Zero Point Agreement is a brilliant resource for deep and lasting change. I have used the zero point agreement in my own life and have shared it with clients and students. It is not another pie-in-the-sky promise of change. It is straightforward and effective.”
Tamar Zick, LPC, RYT, licensed psychotherapist and registered yoga teacher
“What a generous, wise, and useful book this is! Each chapter is so filled with quotes, anecdotes, hands-on exercises and more that help and inspire us to fully claim our own lives. There’s enough here to guide and inform you for many years to come.”
Ruth L. Schwartz, Ph.D., award-winning poet, and author of Soul on Earth: A Guide to Living & Loving Your Human Life
“A delightful companion for those of us seeking greater levels of balance, meaning, and joy--this book offers many gems of inspiration as well as the welcomed reminder that the journey toward wholeness always begins within.”
Karen Horneffer-Ginter, Ph.D., author of Full Cup, Thirsty Spirit
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 6, 2014
I have several "go to" books that I re-read throughout the year, and a book makes the list when it changes my life for the better. This book and the wisdom inside have done just that. It is a wonderful guide in so many ways. Julie Tallard Johnson gives inspiration and wisdom in a practical, digestible way, and the concept of freeing yourself to be your own meaning maker is worth the price of admission (in the first chapter but don't stop there—so much more inside). The chapter on claiming your creative inheritance is one I have reread many times. I found wisdom, motivation and inspiration in the pages of this book, and in addition hands-on steps and exercises that deepen the reading (and human!) experience. This book is truly a treasure.
December 5, 2013
Praise for The Zero Point Agreement
“In this beautiful book, Julie Tallard Johnson--a gifted teacher and writer--brings fresh insight to an ancient truth: each of us must live from the inside out. This book--full of resources that range from heart-deep insight to helpful, practical exercises--can help us reclaim the treasure-trove of our own experience and being.”
Parker J. Palmer, author of Healing the Heart of Democracy, Let Your Life Speak, and The Courage to Teach
“In this resource-rich book of practical wisdom and wise practices, Julie Tallard Johnson offers readers multidimensional insights, inspiration, and skills for living with greater authenticity, creativity, and happiness. Integrating science, spirituality, and art in an engaging and deeply thoughtful approach to becoming who you already are, this gifted teacher demonstrates how each of us can create more meaning and joy in our lives--in ourselves, in the world around us, and for our power to create and shape the stories we tell ourselves and others.”
Amber Ault, Ph.D., clinical sociologist and psychotherapist
“In The Zero Point Agreement, Julie Tallard Johnson intelligently presents elegantly simple yet remarkably powerful practices for personal and societal transformation. Through the masterful weaving of teaching stories that touch the heart and inspire, she helps foster the development of an authentic identity. This is what our children, our families, our communities, and the land need.”
Corinna Stevenson, ecopsychologist and creator of Dragonfly Healing
“Julie Tallard Johnson’s The Zero Point Agreement is full of wisdom. We are invited to challenge our beliefs, habits, and assumptions and make ourselves vulnerable so that we can easily access the truth within our lives and experiences. Julie teaches us that by becoming our own meaning maker, we transform ourselves and the world in which we live. A true gift!”
Amy DeLong, M.D., Ho-Chunk Nation Department of Health
“I was captivated by Julie Tallard Johnson’s accessible treatise on how we are all charged with making meaning in our daily lives. I found The Zero Point Agreement dazzling because it is so packed with actual, practical wisdom. I can honestly say it has already changed my life.”
Meg Cox, author of The Book of New Family Traditions
“I love that the big beautiful zero is a central tenet of this book. What I see is a big round open door through which we can all walk on our journey toward wholeness. It’s a journey with no destination, of course, since wholeness is not a place as much as a perspective, ever-shifting. Put on your dancing shoes; this is not a book to be read propped up in your La-Z-Boy!”
Claudia Schmidt, singer-songwriter
“The Zero Point Agreement offers a clear, practical path to taking control of what you are able to and living the life you want to live.”
Dinty W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life
“Julie Tallard Johnson’s The Zero Point Agreement is a brilliant resource for deep and lasting change. I have used the zero point agreement in my own life and have shared it with clients and students. It is not another pie-in-the-sky promise of change. It is straightforward and effective.”
Tamar Zick, LPC, RYT, licensed psychotherapist and registered yoga teacher
“What a generous, wise, and useful book this is! Each chapter is so filled with quotes, anecdotes, hands-on exercises and more that help and inspire us to fully claim our own lives. There’s enough here to guide and inform you for many years to come.”
Ruth L. Schwartz, Ph.D., award-winning poet, and author of Soul on Earth: A Guide to Living & Loving Your Human Life
“A delightful companion for those of us seeking greater levels of balance, meaning, and joy--this book offers many gems of inspiration as well as the welcomed reminder that the journey toward wholeness always begins within.”
Karen Horneffer-Ginter, Ph.D., author of Full Cup, Thirsty Spirit
“The Zero Point Agreement is not only a book it’s also a beautifully written love letter to the essence of who we really are.”
Radiah Nunez, hostess of the H2O Network
“Julie’s new book goes to the sinew from the beginning, reminding us of who we really are. She invites us to listen to ourselves, especially our demons, and shows us how to navigate from desire to the dreams that comprise our core. “Living life from my side” is an inspired, pragmatic concept that will change lives. Imagine a world where each of us takes 100% responsibility for our experience. This is Julie’s offering: a spark of hope and a path of light.”
Prudence Tippins, owner/director of The Calliope Center for Reflection and Renewal and Wheel of Initiation course facilitator
“In this beautiful book, Julie Tallard Johnson--a gifted teacher and writer--brings fresh insight to an ancient truth: each of us must live from the inside out. This book--full of resources that range from heart-deep insight to helpful, practical exercises--can help us reclaim the treasure-trove of our own experience and being.”
Parker J. Palmer, author of Healing the Heart of Democracy, Let Your Life Speak, and The Courage to Teach
“In this resource-rich book of practical wisdom and wise practices, Julie Tallard Johnson offers readers multidimensional insights, inspiration, and skills for living with greater authenticity, creativity, and happiness. Integrating science, spirituality, and art in an engaging and deeply thoughtful approach to becoming who you already are, this gifted teacher demonstrates how each of us can create more meaning and joy in our lives--in ourselves, in the world around us, and for our power to create and shape the stories we tell ourselves and others.”
Amber Ault, Ph.D., clinical sociologist and psychotherapist
“In The Zero Point Agreement, Julie Tallard Johnson intelligently presents elegantly simple yet remarkably powerful practices for personal and societal transformation. Through the masterful weaving of teaching stories that touch the heart and inspire, she helps foster the development of an authentic identity. This is what our children, our families, our communities, and the land need.”
Corinna Stevenson, ecopsychologist and creator of Dragonfly Healing
“Julie Tallard Johnson’s The Zero Point Agreement is full of wisdom. We are invited to challenge our beliefs, habits, and assumptions and make ourselves vulnerable so that we can easily access the truth within our lives and experiences. Julie teaches us that by becoming our own meaning maker, we transform ourselves and the world in which we live. A true gift!”
Amy DeLong, M.D., Ho-Chunk Nation Department of Health
“I was captivated by Julie Tallard Johnson’s accessible treatise on how we are all charged with making meaning in our daily lives. I found The Zero Point Agreement dazzling because it is so packed with actual, practical wisdom. I can honestly say it has already changed my life.”
Meg Cox, author of The Book of New Family Traditions
“I love that the big beautiful zero is a central tenet of this book. What I see is a big round open door through which we can all walk on our journey toward wholeness. It’s a journey with no destination, of course, since wholeness is not a place as much as a perspective, ever-shifting. Put on your dancing shoes; this is not a book to be read propped up in your La-Z-Boy!”
Claudia Schmidt, singer-songwriter
“The Zero Point Agreement offers a clear, practical path to taking control of what you are able to and living the life you want to live.”
Dinty W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life
“Julie Tallard Johnson’s The Zero Point Agreement is a brilliant resource for deep and lasting change. I have used the zero point agreement in my own life and have shared it with clients and students. It is not another pie-in-the-sky promise of change. It is straightforward and effective.”
Tamar Zick, LPC, RYT, licensed psychotherapist and registered yoga teacher
“What a generous, wise, and useful book this is! Each chapter is so filled with quotes, anecdotes, hands-on exercises and more that help and inspire us to fully claim our own lives. There’s enough here to guide and inform you for many years to come.”
Ruth L. Schwartz, Ph.D., award-winning poet, and author of Soul on Earth: A Guide to Living & Loving Your Human Life
“A delightful companion for those of us seeking greater levels of balance, meaning, and joy--this book offers many gems of inspiration as well as the welcomed reminder that the journey toward wholeness always begins within.”
Karen Horneffer-Ginter, Ph.D., author of Full Cup, Thirsty Spirit
“The Zero Point Agreement is not only a book it’s also a beautifully written love letter to the essence of who we really are.”
Radiah Nunez, hostess of the H2O Network
“Julie’s new book goes to the sinew from the beginning, reminding us of who we really are. She invites us to listen to ourselves, especially our demons, and shows us how to navigate from desire to the dreams that comprise our core. “Living life from my side” is an inspired, pragmatic concept that will change lives. Imagine a world where each of us takes 100% responsibility for our experience. This is Julie’s offering: a spark of hope and a path of light.”
Prudence Tippins, owner/director of The Calliope Center for Reflection and Renewal and Wheel of Initiation course facilitator
July 6, 2014
This is one of the best books that I have read in a long time. Based on Buddhist philosophy it incorporates practical, straight forward insight and cuts to the chase. The book is filled with many Zen koans, quotations and words of sages - some of the paragraphs I just wanted to re-read over and over again - they were so beautifully put. This is a book that I will keep on my book shelf and share with others
January 4, 2015
I'm not ready for this book! It's packed with so much goodness, that I found myself savoring sections as opposed to reading the book all the way through.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews