Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

by Elizabeth Lesser

Book Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - This inspiring guide to healing and growth illuminates the richness and potential of every life, even in the face of loss and adversity.

In the more than twenty-five years since she co-founded Omega Institute--now the world's largest center for spiritual retreat and personal growth--Elizabeth Lesser has been an intimate witness to the ways in which people weather change and transition. In a beautifully...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375759913
• ISBN13: 9780375759918
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Villard Books
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

I have treasured this book

It is one thing to espouse spiritual or philisophical teachings. It is another thing to offer a humanistic understanding of what it means to seek, grow, evolve and endure until we can each transform. I found myself lulled with the voice of the writer and my head kept nodding because I understood the journey. I find that empathetic witnessing is a great teacher for me, so hearing the story of others creates a wider canvas for me to see things on. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has the gift for introspection and perspective. If you are looking for a "how to be a better person" manual, you're not going to find that in any book. If your life is your onw manual on how to strive to change, grow and break open... this book with sooth, uplift and inspire you.

Life's little survival manual

When I had to place my partner of eighteen years in assisted- living this summer,I felt such sorrow, guilt and despair that I barely functioned in my professional job. I would cry for hours, letting the phone ring when I couldn't compose myself enough to speak. At only 56, my partner had a massive stroke, followed by two more. By January of this year, she was showing all the signs of dementia. When I knew she could not live with me any more, I was heart-broken and tortured by guilt. A friend invitated me to visit her, and I noticed the title of a book laying on my friend's bedside table,"Broken Open". That really described me. I began to read it, and I spent much of my visit finishing it! Suddenly I knew I would eventually move through all this awfulness and out the other side. Lesser's image of the Phoenix rising from the ashes resonated with me, for ashes was an apt metaphor for my life then. So I began to follow the path Lesser lays out for the reader. She combines the use of emotional and spiritual growth tools that can lead toward healing and growth. I was not able to feel the Phoenix in me when I opened these pages the first time. But after many readings of this gentle and sometimes humorous book, I'm on my way to owning such strength. I read many of the other books Lesser recommends to the reader. I also prayed, meditated, and kept going to therapy. But this book started the whole miraculous passage toward recovery. Elizabeth Lesser, with her poetic and supportive writing, held my hand, week after week. Her words created a virtual hologram that held me when I cried, and patted me softly as I raged. Lesser's loving mission for this book must have been to help the reader see how she is feeling normal fear and pain that comes with crisis. Lesser acknowledges the unbearable and out-of-control nature of the crisis and loss experience. She helps the reader grow in confidence that she will come through it all, alive and sane... like almost all of us do. I just read her book 3 months ago, and have also now read her book "A Seeker's Guide", another excellent, beautifully- written guide to spiritual growth. So I haven't yet risen from the ashes of my burnt-out self. But Lesser's book has given me the courage to keep on facing reality, being present with my feelings, and meditating as if my life depended on it. Thanks, Elizabeth.

Wonderful Book to Guide Us to Grow and to Transform

I think this book, Broken Open, is definitely a great book to read for spiritual growth. I respect the author having the courage in bringing her personal past experience to teach us how to break open and to blossom. It is simply wonderful to read other individuals' Phoenix process (transformation). Most importantly, it allowed me to understand I am not the only one going through some drastic changes in life. Sometimes, we all just need to have that extra support system to realize we are not the only ones going through challenges in life. This book simply has the effect to provide me that extra support that I need so much in order to grow. I also appreciate how the author sections the stories, with sections presenting personal stories around different topics such as relationship, birth, death and life changes. The book taught me how to "break open" than to "break down" and suffer. It is a beautiful book to recommend.

A Great Read

Don't let the Publisher's Weekly review stop you from buying this wonderful book. The idea is not that we MUST embrace our evils in order to grow, but that we can use our times of depression,anxiety, or pain to transform us into more open people. I spotted it in Barnes and Noble the other day, bought it, and haven't been able to put it down since. Lesser calls this process of transformation "The Phoenix Process." She beautifully illustrates how difficult times really can help us grow by giving us the story of her first marriage and how the pain she endured during it made her better afterward. She also includes stories of others who have gone through their own struggles in life. Broken Open is well written, and interesting from the first page to the last. The stories in it are truly amazing and inspirational. I reccomend this book to everyone!

Simply Amazing...

With Broken Open, Elizabeth Lesser has written a book that is more than capable of changing ones outlook on life. She explores the ways we can use the hardships we face in life to become better people. Through her own "breaking open" story and the true stories of others, she masterfully weaves a web of spiritual and emotional wisdom, showing how times of pain and strife can awaken us to new ways of living more meaningful lives. I'll never look at an emotional problem the same way again. The imagery that Elizabeth Lesser creates in this majestic work of literature is some of the best I have ever experienced. Not only is Broken Open emotionally educational, it is also interesting and entertaining. From the first chapter, you will be drawn into this book, only to emerge later on with a completely different outlook on the pain and strife of your daily life. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in having a more meaningful life, and anyone who likes to read amazing stories.