Welcome

Heart Tales is a monthly newsletter for people on an adventure toward wholeness. It is published by Jim Cyr, storyteller, author, and crisis intervention specialist.

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Iron Shirt

A young man begged a great Kung-fu master to teach him the Iron Shirt exercises, an esoteric system reputed to make the muscles and organs so strong that they are impervious to blows.

The master first refused, but finally gave him a kung (a formidable challenge). Pointing to a thick tree, he said, “Pull up that tree and bring it to me; then I’ll teach you Iron Shirt.”

After months of futile tugging, the student noticed that he could get better leverage if he kept his back straight. With further experimentation he found the optimal way to plant his feet. He worked on, incrementally adjusting the way he hugged the tree, the way he breathed, the way he visualized the task.

After four years the tree started to give. Finally he uprooted it and laid it at the master’s feet, demanding, “Now teach me Iron Shirt!” “Now I don’t have to,” the master replied. “You just learned it.”

Adapted from Why the Chicken Crossed the Road & Other Hidden Enlightenment Teachings from Buddha to Bebop to Mother Goose by Dean Sluyter.

Thought to Ponder

What lesson(s) is life trying to teach you?

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Your Comments Welcome

Post your comments in the comment box or email them to me at jim@hearttales.net

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What’s on My Desk

Currently, I am reading…

Agnes’s Jacket. A Psychologist’s Search for the Meaning of Madness by Gail Hornstein.

Hornstein, a professor of psychology at Mount Holyoke, investigates personal testimonies of madness for what they can teach us about mental illness and its treatment. The author spent several years attending meetings of psychiatric survivor groups, such as the Hearing Voices Network in the U.K. Hornstein concludes that mental illness is primarily based in trauma, as opposed to the dominant view of biological and hereditary origins.

The stories of psychiatric survivors are heartbreaking and inspiring and will stir you to throw away your Prozac and cancel your next psychiatric appointment!

Heart Tales News

Book

My book, The Cracked Pot: Finding Grace in the Cracks of Child Abuse is available at Amazon.com

“This is one man’s true story of the unspeakable things that were done to him as a child and his rocky journey through adulthood to find God, peace AND his true self.”

Blog

If you enjoy this newsletter, check out The Heart Tales Blog at http://hearttales.net/blog. The blog is published every Monday and Thursday. Check out the current series on Gwinlan’s Harp.

About Jim & Heart Tales

The true spirit of my work is to lead people on a life-changing adventure toward wholeness by connecting their hearts to their true selves, to others, and to God, through stories of healing, wisdom, and faith. My life-changing adventure toward wholeness includes performances of folk and fairy tales, sacred stories, and personal stories, and workshops on how to tell stories in therapeutic settings.

Feedback

“Jim’s storytelling spoke to many of the problems our women face on the road to recovery from addiction and gave them options for handling those problems they had not considered before.”
Helen Raytek, Program Director, Crawford House

“Jim, I want to thank you for your time, efforts, and talents in presenting your Clinical Benefits of Storytelling Workshop. I was very impressed with your professional and fun deliverance of the material and many useful resources and examples. I felt I benefited from it both personally and professionally, and will use what I learned…”
John J. D. Schweska, L.P.C. Assistant Program Director, Mobile Response and Stabilization Services, Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen

“…your newsletter is a wonderful resource, and I hope that many will subscribe to it.”
Dr. Robert Bela Wilhelm, Storyfest Ministry

“…Thank you once again, Jim, for sharing your stories/your story and influencing my healing.”
Eileen