Today, I’m happy to welcome Daphne Michaels, author of The Gifted, to my blog. She’s talking about her experience at Book Expo America.

The Buzz at Book Expo America

This year at the International Book Expo in New York someone had a great idea to do something new and wild. While the Book Expo has traditionally been limited to trade professionals, this year they opened the last day to the public. It was amazing to be a part of this experience! One day people were holding business meetings and talking shop, the next day up to ten thousand readers made their way through long lines to be a part of the international readers experience. From tiny children being carried by adults to teens hoping to meet their favorite authors, people looking for gifts for loved ones and book club members deciding on their next selection, the enthusiasm that readers brought to the event was incredible.

I was there to launch my new book, The Gifted: How to Live the Life of Your Dreams. While it was amazing to see Neil Patrick Harris, Tavis Smiley, Anjelica Huston and Lisa Scottoline in person (and they all gave fabulous talks) I must say that for me the highlight of the entire show was when the readers poured in.

It has been said before that writing can be a lonely profession. It is easy to feel this when we, as writers, spend so much time in our own thoughts and in front of computers. Launching my new book at Book Expo America where a sea of enthusiastic readers brought the “business” of writing into proper perspective has forever changed my experience of writing. As a steady stream of book fans pushed through joyfully crowded aisle ways their smiles, appreciation and words of encouragement vaporized any sense of separation I may have had. Writers and readers are inextricably linked — I not only know this in my mind … but now in every cell of my being.

It was wild — in a blissful sense — to be part of such a successful experiment. Someone had a great idea — and acted on it!

The Gifted 7

About the Book:

In The Gifted: How to Live the Life of Your Dreams author, speaker and licensed psychotherapist Daphne Michaels celebrates the nine gifts that are our birthright, guiding readers in how to recognize and use them to transform their lives.  In her author’s preface, Michaels reveals how her own journey of life transformation began when she was young and realized that human existence wore two conflicting faces–one of love and joy, and one of fear and despair. She decided then to commit her life to reconciling these two visions because she knew that, irreconcilable though they seemed, together these two faces held the secret to living a life of endless possibility and authentic happiness. Her personal journey and formal education in social science, human services and integral psychology led to the founding of the Daphne Michaels Institute, which has helped hundreds of men and women design the lives of their dreams.

These three allow us to identify and use the remaining six with a life-changing power:  Disharmony, Harmony, Ease, Clarity, Freedom

While the human universe’s face of love is celebrated in The Gifted, so is the face of fear that haunted a young girl decades ago. As Michaels shows us in her book, even Disharmony—the “quagmire” of life born of the human ego’s fear, defenses, delusions and despair—is a gift, too, and one as important as the others if we know how to see it clearly and use it. Once we understand Disharmony, we are ready to understand the real purpose of Harmony in our lives. Disharmony does not need to rule us.  It is ours to use as we design the lives of our dreams.

The final gift in The Gifted, Michaels tells us, is the gift of Engagement. Engagement—with the universe and with ourselves—allows us to use all of the other gifts with more power and joy than we ever imagined possible.

That mountaintop decision never left me. It drove my life’s work and over the years led me to understand that there are gifts – nine of them, in fact – that we are all born with but rarely experience in their full glory and potential. These gifts – which make each and every one of us “The Gifted” of this book’s title – are the keys to living lives of endless possibilities and, in turn, achieving an authentic happiness that cannot be lost. They are, in other words, the keys to achieving the life of our dreams.

Purchase your copy: AMAZON

About the Author

Daphne Michaels is an author, speaker and licensed psychotherapist whose institute has helped hundreds of women and men transform their lives through the “gifts” every human being is born with. Daphne began her own journey of transformation at a young age, pursued it fearlessly, and later studied formally in the fields of social science, human services and integral psychology. The Gifted: How to Live the Life of Your Dreams launches both Daphne Michaels Books and The Gifted series, whose goal it is to share with the widest audience possible the principles that guide the Daphne Michaels Institute. Daphne’s earlier book, Light of Our Times, featured her conversations with such international figures in the fields of spirituality and personal development as Ram Dass, Julia Cameron, Dr. Masaru Emoto, and Thomas Moore.

Visit her website at www.daphnemichaels.com.

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