Overview

""Love your neighbor as yourself."" --Matthew 22:39 What does it mean to love others ""as yourself?"" For spiritual director, therapist, and former pastor Caroline Vogel, loving God and loving others always came easy. What was much harder, as she discovered during a difficult season in her life, was the ""as yourself"" part. What did Jesus mean when he said to love others as yourself? In this heartening exploration of learning to love ourselves as God loves us, Vogel invites us to embrace God's deep and abiding love, with our whole being, just as we are, today and every day. Through spiritual practices, Biblical insights, and personal story, Vogel shows us how to move from striving for God's love to simply receiving it. With a gentle and wise voice, Caroline teaches us how to slow down, steady our minds, open our hearts, and tap into the life-giving flow of God's grace that is already within us - calling us out of our perfectionism, fear, or shame, calling us toward our own belovedness. Drawing on her own deep relationship with the Holy Spirit, Vogel reveals that when we are truly aligned with the Spirit and follow Her lead -- mind, heart, and body -- we are being infused by God's grace moment by moment. We are breathing the Spirit and the Spirit is breathing us. We are living embodied grace inside and out. If you struggle to love yourself as God does, yearn to know God's love more deeply, and wonder what it's like to embody grace in your daily life, this book is for you. Welcome to the journey of coming home to yourself in God's love, as yourself. In As Yourself, readers will explore: Why receiving God's love is as important as giving it away. How ""hustling"" for God's love is the opposite of living embodied grace. How shame is often a barrier to loving ourselves and others. How grace already lives inside us; we simply need to open to that truth. Biblical stories that illuminate the theology of ""as yourself."" A dozen spiritual practices to help you embody grace.

Full Product Details

9780835820783

Table of Contents

Reviews

""For many sincere people on a deep spiritual path, loving ourselves as much as we love others is one of the most difficult, yet essential, dilemmas on our journey to our authentic selves. Often, we see loving ourselves as being selfish rather than the missing link to wholeness and deep interior wellbeing. Through personal stories and essential practices, Caroline helps us not only read about loving ourselves but gives us practical ways to do it.""--The Reverend Canon Thom Rasnick, Sub-Dean, St. John's Episcopal Cathedral ""In sharing her own journey and wisdom Caroline offers us an invitation to slow down, to listen, to love. She has done and is doing the work of living into the fullness of an integrated mind, body, and spirit and offers a reminder that we are enough just as we are and that we are forever unfolding in the mystery of grace.""--Cami Twilling, Director, Earth & Soul, a Celtic initiative of study, spiritual practice and compassionate action inspired by the teachings of John Philip Newell ""In this refreshingly honest book, Caroline invites us on her personal journey to weave together the benefits of meditation with a deep Christian faith. Her insightful interpretations of Biblical stories, instructions for mindful breathing meditations, and purposefully constructed prayers are a loving open door to any who seek the fruits of the spirit. Caroline has written a wonderful, personal, deeply honest book that has the power to be helpful in virtually any life situation.""--Miranda Clark, Librarian, The Episcopal School of Knoxville, Tennessee ""As Yourself is a deeply pastoral and clinically wise invitation to wholeness. Vogel tenderly weaves theology, embodiment, and self-compassion in a way that honors trauma, names grace as relational and affirms that loving God and neighbor is inseparable from learning to love ourselves. This book is a gift to anyone seeking a faith-rooted, emotionally honest path toward healing, dignity, and holy self-acceptance.""--Ragan Schriver, Clinical Professor in the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee and Vicar, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Knoxville, TN

Author Information

Caroline Vogel is a spiritual companion, therapist and former pastor. She is a lover of the Holy Spirit, her family, and close friends. She has a Masters in Divinity from Harvard Divinity School and Masters in Counseling from the University of Tennessee. She is passionate about writing into the gaps people find themselves in and connecting the presence of a loving God with people's very real lives. She enjoys reading, writing, swimming, knitting, hanging out with her life partner Andy, and laughing with her sons Aidan and Shep.

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