Wake Up Before Your Wake-Up Call: The Five Pillars for Deeper Love, Joy, and Connection in Midlife

Do you wake up most mornings and go along with the day as usual, taking for granted that things will unfold the way they always have? Do you go through your days on autopilot, with no real thought that something life-changing could happen at any moment? By the time we reach our middle years, many of us have established well-worn patterns and habits that no longer serve us—from what we eat to how we relate to others, to how we take care of our bodies or the environment, to how we express compassion for the whole web of living beings. Yet many times our bodies are sending us feelings and sensations meant to wake us up as if from sleepwalking, so that we can be more attuned and alive to our experiences, aligned with our values, and alert to the impulse to change before calamity happens. Through real-life examples and practical exercises for meditation and self-reflection, Toni Parker unpacks the five pillars for waking up: Body Sensation Awareness, Mind Kindness, Emotional Equanimity, Self-Compassion, and Waking Up to the World. She shows readers how to identify the signs and offers proven strategies for tuning in to the telltale whispers and sensations that alert us to when a wake-up call is building. This self-awareness and strength to stay in the present moment, see and accept a situation for what it is allows us to move forward differently―awake, centered, and prepared for the smallest experiences and the biggest changes in life.