There are some things I’m good at, if I do say so myself. I know about generosity. I know from patience. I know how to try really, really hard. I’m devoted to the search for wisdom.  However there is one skill that I truly suck at and, without it, all these other good qualities are considerably weaker than they could be. That skill?

Discipline.

Readers of my blog may be aware of an experiment I conducted about a year or so ago called “The Great Discipline Experiment” or GDE, in which I took all the things I KNOW I want to (and should) do—meditate, journal, write, exercise, drink a lot of water, answer all my emails, eat healthy, take vitamins, spend time focused on those I love—and tried to do them. Every day. Period.  For a month. I had become sick of being all “I need to take better care of myself” and “I must write Every Single Day” and “Susan, you are WASTING YOUR LIFE. Get with it.”

I should have been able to do this, right? I mean, these are things I want to do, should do, must do in this life. They are non-negotiable. [Read more →]

Am planning to create an unabridged audio book of “The Wisdom of a Broken Heart.” I’m going to record and edit it myself and I’m really excited about it. I see it as a chance to add some of the insights and stories I’ve garnered in the 4 months since the book was published.

I’m also going to include “extras,” such as the following:

Meditation instruction for The Practice of Tranquility

Loving kindness meditation instruction

Loving kindness meditation instruction for the one who broke your heart

Interview excerpts

As a bonus, I’ll include a 5-minute video of me giving additional tips for starting the 7-Day Rescue & Relief program. It requires a certain mindset and I want to go into some detail about how to prepare mentally.

Is there anything else you’d like to see included? I’d love to know!!

Thanks so much for all your support–

xo Susan

It often happens that I wake up completely devoid of self-confidence. I have no idea when or why this is going to happen. It drives me mad. I sit down to write and some inner Miss Thing tells me I have nothing of interest to say. I want to call a friend but Miss Things says, oh she has no interest in talking to you. I want to ask a colleague to collaborate with me on something and she pops up with Ha! He is busy with way more interesting people and would have to find a nice way to blow you off. Uncomfortable. Better go back to playing online solitaire. Trolling Ebay for the perfect whatever. Rechecking email for the 11ty thousandth time. I procrastinate. I fight with myself. I develop many theories for why I lack confidence and which strategy to employ to combat it.

Then I remember something very important. I’m a Buddhist. I know exactly what to do, and it has nothing to do with self-analysis or strategizing, although at the right time (meaning a time I feel confident), such things can be enormously fruitful.  But my practice has taught me to do something else instead, and that something is quite radical, almost un-American. [Read more →]

The “short form” of my New Dimensions Café interview is now available for listening and downloading for FREE on the New Dimensions website.

From their website:

Program Description:
“Love is the least safe thing there is. It’s fierce. You can’t domesticate it. It’s wild. When you find it you should rejoice. When you lose it you should grieve.” So says Susan Piver, because she knows the joy of loving, the devastating groundlessness of betrayal, and the deep crushing loss when love goes away. But she also knows how to turn that trauma into something sacred, a means of learning the truth of who and what is most valuable in your life. In this rich and insightful conversation she invites you to step into your heartbreak with the courage of a warrior,and to embrace your tenderness and fragility with a calm, steady heart. She’ll show you how, with a few simple techniques, you can gain authority over your pain and release its hold on you. Best of all, she points out, “Who doesn’t want to be loved by someone like that, someone who can stand in their vulnerability, can stand with you in yours? This makes you a lover of the highest order.” (Hosted by Justine Willis Toms)