What inspired you to write about relationships?
Shakti Gawain: My book is based on a workshop that I have led for many years, exploring how our relationships mirror our own consciousness. I believe this way of working with relationships is one of the most direct and powerful tools we have at our disposal for healing and growth.
2. What did you learn about your own relationships in writing this book?
That regardless of how long we have been on the path of consciousness, the Universe always has more to reveal to us, and our relationships provide the perfect opportunities for expanding our awareness and for continuing our growth. A path of consciousness is an adventure that never ends!
3. What do you believe holds us back from cultivating meaningful connections?
Simply put, fear. My book explains how to give voice to the many different aspects that live within each of us, including the parts that are afraid. Through awareness of “the good, the bad, and the ugly” within us, we can experience acceptance for ourselves, which opens the door to deeper connections with others and a greater sense of intimacy in our relationships.
4. In your book, you suggest our “Inner Child” is the cornerstone to consciousness. How can we tap into that?
The Inner Child is central to our consciousness process because it is how we access our vulnerability and emotions. We begin to connect with this aspect through the awareness that he/she still exists within us. Simply taking the time to sit quietly while inviting the energy of your Inner Child to come forward can be a powerful and revealing process.
5. What is your favorite creative visualization practice?
I enjoy quite a few, but the “Pink Bubble Technique” is by far the most popular. To do this, sit or lie down comfortably, close your eyes, and relax deeply. Imagine something you would like to manifest in your life as if it has already happened. Picture it as clearly as possible. Then, in your mind’s eye, envision your manifestation in a pink bubble. Imagine letting the bubble go and watching it float away. This symbolizes that you are emotionally “letting go” of it, and turning it over to the Universe to bring it back to you.
It has taken many years, but Shakti Gawain has done it again: written something so simply and clearly that it can have a wonderful impact on our lives. Her first book, Creative Visualization, launched our company into the ranks of serious publishers. It has become a classic, selling year after year since its publication in 1978. We’ve sold over three million copies in the U.S. alone; total worldwide sales have surpassed six million copies.
I’ve met literally hundreds of people who have said that Creative Visualization changed their lives — and many of them have said it was the first book of its kind that they read. At first it sold just through word of mouth — we had no sales department of any kind when we originally published the book. I don’t think we sent out one review copy, or tried to get any endorsements from other authors in the field, or did anything else a publisher is supposed to do to promote a book.
We just shipped the book to our distributors — first Bookpeople and then Publishers Group West, both in Berkeley, California — and then watched the book sell to what became a large, appreciative audience.
Shakti has focused most of her work — most of her life — on the area of relationships, specifically on discovering how our relationships can become a path to consciousness, healing, and growth. And she has finally written a book that sums up what she’s been living and teaching for decades.
Reading The Relationship Handbook is just like taking a workshop or seminar with Shakti and Gina Vucci, her collaborator and coauthor, as our guides. We see immediately that this book, this approach to our relationships in our lives, is unique and powerful. It is unique because all the processes it describes take place within us. There isn’t a chapter on communication with others, and it isn’t necessary for anyone other than ourselves to change before we can create lasting relationships that work beautifully for us.
That’s why this book is so powerful: We’re not dependent on anyone else before we can find fulfillment and wonder and love in our lives. When we turn within and explore our many selves (such as our Inner Critic, Perfectionist, Pleaser, and Rebel — all of which Shakti explains in detail), and when we become aware of which self is talking at any given moment, we become much more conscious of the dialogues going on within us. And Shakti shows us how we can direct those dialogues, and change those dialogues, and return, always, to a state of conscious awareness in the process.
This book may prove to be Shakti’s greatest contribution to the world, for it shows us, so simply and clearly, with gentleness and honesty, how to transform our relationships and our lives.
— Marc Allen, Publisher, New World Library
