Invocation to Mindfulness: A Personal Journey of Change

by Linda Heller, Dan Brulé (Foreword), Georgina Taylor (Editor)

Sometimes we do not see the profound consequences of saying yes. We see our life journey as a linear one measured in years, in bench marks, in accomplishments, in acquisitions of money, jobs, offers, status, power, influence, clients, and recognition from others.When I began to post Invitation to Mindfulness quotes on Facebook in 2015 I saw it as an assignment from my mentors and teachers Matthew J Peters and Ivonne Delaflor, as part of their course Voices of Power. They intended to get me out of my comfort zone and comfortable with using social media as a platform. Every post in which I openly shared my own process, my fears, my doubts, my judgmental self-talk became a gift. I discovered that gratitude for all of my life, both the challenges and rewards, begin to deepen. My gratitude became more inclusive as my awareness that all of my life experiences held golden nuggets of wisdom, understanding and self mastery. I grew to appreciate that my challenges, my "enemies", those who loved me, those who didn't, all contained a gift of self-awareness, understanding and growth. YET, it was not until this sharing of my life experiences as they related to the daily quotes that the belief literally became integrated within me, became a part of me. I was humbled by two discoveries: 1. There were many experiences I thought I "understood" that I didn't. Memory of an experience is not the same as understanding, there is a gift hidden beyond the simple recall of the experience. 2. There were moments, people and understandings within my life experiences that transformed from being a memory to into wisdom through the process of self-reflection. Some of the things that I discovered are included in this book. For over 1 year, I experienced deep lethargy, feeling that my life had no meaning. Life became grey, I felt myself becoming more withdrawn. Soon getting up was an effort. All the tools in my tool box of skills were not enough. I had the tools but somehow, I had lost my way, I felt unable to resource my true self, unable to access a lifetime of skills and tools. I was going through the motions of living, yet, I only existed. I was ready to leave if life was going to be this eternal greyness, stretching into the limitless future. I transformed my doubts and dissolved my negative self-talk about what I should have done through the remembering. I re-awakened to what happens when I reframed my thoughts, that I did not lack commitment, purpose or persistence. I was in a pregnant pause. For those of you who judge yourselves, whose thoughts of self-doubt and judgment take you away from mindfulness, and create an endless cycle of blame, negative self-talk and paralysis I have a question: "What happens when you define and re-frame your thoughts to describe the feeling of inertia as a "pregnant pause"?I recognized that my life truly was an embodiment and a living expression that we are all connected.Come and join with me and walk the road of my journey of change, a journey that you too can create and walk for yourself.Welcome to the Invocation to Mindfulness.

174 pages, Paperback

Published July 27, 2019

About the author

I was born in New York City and continue to live there. I received a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design and began my professional career as an animator. My film Album was shown at Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at the Venice Biennale. I also worked on numerous TV commercials and television shows.

I received a 1996 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction and had an honor story in The Best American Short Stories 1991, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, won a Literal Latte Fiction Award in 1998 and has had stories in Boulevard, the Northwest Review, New Letters, the Alaska Quarterly Review, Quarter After Eight, Ascent and other publications. My stories have been selected for several anthologies.

I have also written and illustrated eleven children’s books. My books received the Parents Choice Award and the Bank Street Award among other honors. Today is the Birthday of the World was released by Dutton in April, 2009. The Castle on Hester Street was reissued in a special anniversary edition by Simon & Schuster in 2007 and is the only book in the forty year history of the Sidney Taylor Award to be honored twice.
I taught children’s book writing and illustrating at the Parsons School of Design and haven given writing and art workshops for children throughout the city.