About the Book
“Engaging stories of modern survival with uplifting and often surprising takeaways.” —Gay Hendricks, PhD, New York Times bestselling author of The Big Leap and Conscious Loving
“Bouncing Forward shows us how adversity can turn us toward our deepest inner resources of trust, wisdom, and love.” —Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge
“Discover the advantages of adversity and find meaning in the messiness…[Bouncing Forward] shows the reader how to cultivate the mindset of resilience that can catalyze healing and growth from catastrophe. Brilliant, inspiring, to be read, re-read, and treasured.” —Linda Graham, MFT, author of Bouncing Back
Thrive in the face of challenges and radically change your perspective on adversity and loss with the cutting-edge science of posttraumatic growth and these powerful methods to grow from victim to survivor in this “great message of hope” (The Huffington Post).
Learn how to become stronger, happier, and more resilient in the face of life’s inevitable setbacks through twelve inspiring stories from survivors of cancer, addiction, PTSD, the Holocaust, loss of a love one, and childhood abuse. Michaela Haas, PhD, presents these stories with practical methods on how to transform pain into a journey to wisdom, love, and purpose.
In Bouncing Forward, Haas draws upon powerful storytelling, psychology, history, and twenty years of Buddhist practice to reshape the way we think of crisis. Through interviews with the late Dr. Maya Angelou, who shares with us how her childhood trauma led her into a passionate life of meaning; ex-POW Rhonda Cornum, who found a new purpose after being captured in Iraq; renowned autistic pioneer Temple Grandin, who overcame crippling panic attacks; and famed jazz guitarist Coco Schumann, who played for his life in Auschwitz, Haas provides a deep understanding of the strength of spirit and five powerful practices to transform your own life. This treasury of wisdom shines a light when life seems overwhelming.
About the Author :
Michaela Haas, PhD, is an international reporter, lecturer, author, and consultant. She is the owner of HAAS live!, an international coaching company that combines her experience in media with mindfulness training. With a PhD in Asian Studies, she has been teaching Buddhism at the University of California Santa Barbara, the University of the West, and various Buddhist centers in America and Europe. She has been studying and practicing Buddhism for almost twenty years. Since the age of sixteen, she has worked as a writer and interviewer for major nationwide German newspapers, magazines, and TV stations, including hosting her own successful nationwide talk show. Michaela divides her time between Malibu, California, and Munich, Germany. Visit MichaelaHaas.com.
Review :
"Michaela Haas' latest book Bouncing Forward breaks through our great confusion around how to be happy. Full of goodness, this book shares stories, including her own, of people who have suffered in many ways and come through it into strength and love. Together, these varied, living examples reveal an important truth: ultimately there is no way to avoid pain in life, and turning toward our challenges, whatever they may be, is the way to real happiness."
Bouncing Forward propels our entire understanding of posttraumatic growth to a new level. Dr. Haas’s integration of the life stories of survivors-thrivers with the latest scientific research about discovering the advantages of adversity and finding meaning in the messiness and her very practical tools for working with difficulties, even disasters, shows the reader how to cultivate the mindset of resilience that can catalyze healing and growth from catastrophe. Brilliant, inspiring, to be read, re-read, and treasured.
This groundbreaking book offers a path to peace and contentment in the midst of life’s most difficult challenges. Michaela Haas shows us how struggle and trauma can lead to wisdom, growth, and happiness. Bouncing Forward is a rich collection of inspiring and heartfelt interviews, personal recollections, and scientific research. We can train the mind to be resilient and to find life’s blessings no matter what hardships we’ve faced or are facing. This is a book to treasure and to read over and over.
Bouncing Forward is a testament to the strength, resilience, and hope of the human psyche and spirit. Michaela Haas deftly weaves interviews with a dozen individuals from across the world combined with her experiences, ideas, and guidance to help readers understand that “we are stronger than we think.” Bouncing Forward is a wonderful and entertaining read as well as a reasoned and reasonable guide to resilient living.
Michaela Haas has written one of the most helpful, engaging, informative nonfiction books I've read in a long while. It will be useful for absolutely everyone. Highly recommended.
In this volume Michaela Haas applies the wisdom of Buddhist mind training to real-life experiences in the modern world, thereby enriching the Buddhist tradition as well as our current understanding of ways to fruitfully transcend the miseries of the past, present, and future.
“Bouncing Forward shows us how adversity can turn us toward our deepest inner resources of trust, wisdom, and love. Through a wonderful mix of inspirational interviews, current science, Buddhist teachings, and her own deep understanding, Michaela Haas guides us in discovering the sacredness and grace that flows through these human lives.”
“In Bouncing Forward, Dr. Haas weaves engaging stories of modern survival with uplifting and often surprising takeaways. Readers are given tools for not only surviving life’s inevitable tough times, but consciously thriving because of them.”
