Resources

Tara Brach is the author of "Radical Acceptance" and leader of The Insight Meditation Community of Washington near the nation's capital (http://imcw.org).  Her book is a must read for anyone who wants to explore how awareness and acceptance creates unlimited opportunities for happiness.  One useful goal of reading this book is to see how you might be living in a trance -- really asleep at the wheel.  To her many fortunate follwers, Tara gives a dharma talk most Wednesdays.  These talks are invaluable as well and can be heard on the IMCW website.

David Richo is an author, pyschotherapist and teacher.  He is the author of eleven books and several insightful audio tapes.  His CD's and book are available at http://www.davericho.com.  On relationships, his latest book is outstanding and is call "When Past Is Present: Healing the Emotional Wounds That Sabotage Our Relationships."  The book focuses on transference and how we unconsciously select relationships, in large part, to relive and "fix" portions of our past lives.  I highly recommend his book "How To Be An Adult In Relationships."

Most of the "Who's Who" of the marriage education movement can be found at the Smart Marriages annual conference in July.  Their web site contains many marriage hints as well as archives of who is doing what (workshops, lectures, articles, etc.).  It is a great tool for marriage educators, but also couples who wish to try new things and see what is available in their area or over the internet.

In the popular media, there are two TV shows that have excellent content on their websites:  Oprah and Dr. Phil.  The content on Oprah's website is constantly updated and you can search it for anything you are interested in.  One particular author, Eckhart Tolle, is featured on her website.  All of his interviews as well as his latest book "A New Earth" are highly recommended.  There are many more people Oprah has interviewed that will make an impact on your life.  There is also a great deal of information (and many more sales pitches) at Dr. Phil's website.  Look under relationship tabs, but also all the marriage ones.  He focuses on marriages that are in trouble.  Some of it is hard to watch (far too real and scary), but all of us can go to where these couples now reside.  It is important to hear the advice they get and to witness the behaviors that get couples to danger points.

Less popluar in the media except for PBS fundraising TV shows, but far more significant is the work of Dr. Wayne Dyer.  He has written many books including "The Power of Intention," but his new book, "Excuses Begone," is a must read for everyone whether you are in a relationship or not.  In this book, he takes the best of all the personal growth learning on living spiritually, combines it with new ways of looking at thinking, and provides practical ways to achieve anything you want.  Now that is a powerful statement -- "anything you want."  It is not a self-help book that shakes you up overnight, rather it can serve as a practical guide to coax certain thinking into the background while bringing new thoughts to the foreground.  His website is also useful and he has a blog.  If you are particularly insightful into yourself, take a look at Dr. Dyer's affirmations (new thoughts) even if you don't read the book.  They are worth reading over and over again and again.

Check out our review of "Save My Marriage Today" by Amy Waterman