Radical Generosity: Unlock the Transformative Power of Giving

By M.J. Ryan, Sylvia Boorstein and Vicki Saunders

Generosity Stories to Touch Your Heart and Lift Your Spirits

Gratitude and generosity go hand in hand. The more we appreciate our lives, the more we want to give to others. In Radical Generosity, best-selling author M. J. Ryan provides tools for expressing thanks. In a series of short, heart-felt essays, Ryan encourages us all to stop living from what she calls "the ledger sheet mentality" of obligatory gifting and to begin giving from the overflow of a loving heart.

Generosity is the great act of kindness that sustains the world. In her best-selling Attitudes of Gratitude, M. J. Ryan taught us the inner work of realizing the many blessings we take for granted. Now, in Radical Generosity, she presents an examination of the virtues we need to cultivate for the twenty-first century and takes a look at generosity: what creates it, what blocks it, and what the practice of generosity can bring to our lives. In her down-to-earth, accessible style, Ryan takes us to the heart of what it means to truly give, and what that giving can do not only for the recipient but for ourselves as well.

Generosity is a habit of mind and the gift of freedom. M. J. Ryan asks her readers to consider where and how they are stingy as well as where they are meant to give. And, she asks that we contemplate all the types of possible generosity, because ultimately the giving of time, energy, kind words, loving gestures, and forgiveness may matter more than any amount of money. Radical Generosity shows us how to experience joy, peace, and fulfillment when we live from a place of generosity and when we also learn how to receive.

If you have read and learned from books such as How Happiness Happens, The Complicated Heart, Love Lives Here, The Laws of Human Nature, Thirst, Make Time, or Enough; we believe you will love and learn from M. J. Ryan’s Radical Generosity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Conari Press
• Release date: Oct 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781633410985

M.J. Ryan

Known internationally as an expert on change, MJ Ryan works as an executive coach to senior executives and entrepreneurs around the world to accelerate business success and personal fulfillment. She combines a practical approach gained as the CEO of a book publishing company with methodologies from neuroscience, positive psychology and asset-focused learning to help clients and readers more easily meet their goals. Her clients include Royal Dutch Shell, Microsoft, Time, the U.S. Military, and Aon Hewitt. She's a partner with the Levo League career network and the lead venture coach at SheEO, an organization offering a new funding and support model for female entrepreneurs. She's the founder of Conari Press, creator of the bestselling Random Acts of Kindness series, and author of many books, including Habit Changers: 81 Game-Changing Mantras to Mindfully Realize Your Goals.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Opening Our Hearts and Hands

Above all let us never forget that an act of goodness is an act of happiness.

—COUNT MAURICE MAETERLINCK

I was sitting in a café one day, waiting for a friend, when I noticed a middle-aged woman walking toward a nearby table, juggling three cups of coffee and the paraphernalia that goes along with them. She handed two of the cups over to two gentlemen who were sitting there. Thank you, one of them said. My pleasure, she replied and flashed such a radiant smile that I knew down to my bones that her simple act had brought her pleasure, and even happiness.

If you are like me, you want to be happy. Like me, you've probably spent a lot of time trying to be happy. Are you? As study after study has found over the past decades, the number of Americans who consider themselves happy has been steadily declining. There are many reasons for this—the world is increasingly more complex and challenging; we have all sorts of economic, environmental, political and social challenges. These are real and should not be underestimated.

The good news is that these challenges give us an opportunity to re-imagine the world and ourselves. That's why I am so excited to be involved with SheEO, as Vicki Saunders describes in the introduction. But we can't change the outside world if we don't transform ourselves internally as well. And I know that's possible, because I did it myself.

I don't profess to have all the answers. All I know is that in my twenties and thirties, I was your average unhappy and fearful person. Then, about twenty-five years ago, through a series of circumstances, I began to refocus my life on what truly mattered and stopped being miserable. And that's made all the difference.

It started when I, along with several others, published the book Random Acts of Kindness.™ It seemed like a good idea at the time—let's all do nice little things for strangers—but once I began to see and hear about its effects, I sensed I had stumbled upon something very important. Suddenly I was inundated by letters from people telling me about the joy they had experienced as either doers or receivers of these acts. I will never forget the letter from a high school student who said he was going to kill himself until he read our book and decided that life was worth living. I became fascinated by the power of kindness and went on to help write a series of books on the topic. I tried to enact what I was writing about and became more kind both to strangers and to those I am close to. Like the boy who didn't kill himself, I got