The Vow-Powered Life: A Simple Method for Living with Purpose [Paperback]

Winner of the 2016 IPPY Gold Medal Award for Self Help 

How making a vow—consciously setting an intention—can be a powerful tool for achieving all sort of goals, from the author of the best-sellingMindful Eating.

Making a vow is a powerful mindfulness practice—and all you have to do to tap into that power is set your intention consciously. A vow can be as small as the aspiration to smile at someone at least once every day, or as big as marriage; as personal as deciding to be mindful when picking up the phone or as universal as vowing to save all sentient beings. It can be deeply spiritual, utterly ordinary, or both. Zen teacher Jan Chozen Bays looks to traditional Buddhist teachings to show the power of vows—and then applies that teaching broadly to the many vows we make. She shows that if we work with vows consciously, they set us in the direction of achieving our goals, both temporal and spiritual.

Bays presents secular and spiritual wisdom from both East and West, highlighting figures such as Martha Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Buckminster Fuller. She helps us examine the vows we have already made for ourselves and the vows we’ve unconsciously inherited. She supports us in repairing broken vows, crafting new intentions, and exploring what’s truly on our bucket lists. A vow is a pledge or promise to bring direction and intention into our lives. Yet, how are we to discover the distinctive direction and purpose of our lives? How do we sort the trivial from the vital and essential? As a physician and Zen teacher—a healer of both the body and soul—Jan Bays offers deep insight for discovering the true gifts we want to bring to our unique life. This gem of a book awakens our capacity for vow-empowered living. —Duane Elgin, author ofVoluntary Simplicity

“Our intentions count for so much more than we usually think. Roshi Chozen Bl£&