Knowing Acts by Heidi Love, art by Linden O’Ryan
A calming practice workbook for emotional balance.
“This inspiring book is a touchstone, a safe harbor to return to again and again as we navigate the courageous journey toward healing.” Anne Hallward MD, Executive Director Safe Space Radio. Harvard Medical School (former faculty), Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry Tufts University Medical School.
Develop a Calming Practice for Emotional Balance
Knowing Acts—Engage in Healing
Knowing Acts—Engage in Healing is a calming practice workbook for emotional balance. Filled with beautiful healing illustrations, it offers engaging ways to defuse sadness, grief, anger, and feelings of panic, numbness, or loss. It includes thirty, pleasant-to-use exercises with music, art, mindfulness, haiku, and more. There are also selections of brave books, websites, personal anecdotes, and free resources.
Personal Healing Journeys
Thoroughly reviewed and endorsed by trauma experts, it is hailed as a lifesaving resource. If you or someone you know is suffering from overwhelming feelings, Knowing Acts presents a positive new approach for personal healing journeys.
NOW AVAILABLE at IndieBound, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, or order at your local bookstore. And if you like it, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads.
Download Free Sample Acts
Free downloads of sample acts are now available on my new website. There are also free sample playlists, haiku, and more.
More Resources
For more on sexual assault please click here. ; For crisis services call 800-656-4673 or dial 988 for the crisis and suicide helpline.
After posting this link, I just heard from two amazing women advocates who work with domestic assault, abuse, and sexual assault survivors. I wanted to share their resources here. The first is Maine’s own Finding our Voices and the second is Helping Survivors. I’ve written about breaking the silence and being a part of a Tribe of Transcendence and am grateful for these connections. To whomever is reading please know—you are not alone.
I would love to hear from you. Do you have ways that bring you calm or brave books and resources to share. Please join the conversation below.
Give a Free Book to a Survivor
I wrote this book during my five-year, 12,000 nautical-mile sail to the Bay of Virgins in French Polynesia—my lifelong dream. When I started the sail I had PTSD at sea when I was really afraid. By developing this calming practice I was able to short-circuit my PTSD. I found it lifesaving. I am now sharing it with survivors. If you would like to give a give a free book to a survivor who calls a helpline please check out this Go Fund Me program. Heartfelt Thanks! Singular acts of compassion can have profound impacts on generations. You never know whom you might inspire or where it might lead.
Excited to hear about your new book, Heidi! Congratulations. I ordered your book and look forward to receiving it. Your five-year sailing adventure is amazing, too!
Thanks so much Cindy! Every purchase helps survivors. And, I was excited to read you may have moved a bit closer—is that true?! Would love to meet one day. Please let me know if you visit Maine or speak in greater Boston. with love, Heidi
Congrats on this great accomplishment! It’s quite admirable of you to help others after suffering such trauma yourself.
Thanks Linda. When a friend said it was “lifesaving” I thought others could benefit. Now with over 500 books being donated to people who call trauma helplines, I hope it will help more.
This is a beautiful workbook! I love how someone who’s been traumatized or suffers from PTSD can customize this workbook to help reduce stress. The artwork is stunning and has a calming effect. A great resource for those struggling with trauma.
Thanks so much Nancy. Linden’s artwork comes from her heart after losing her son; having her work enhanced by Maine’s beauty makes it stunning for me too and also inspirational. I have one of Linden’s prints in my home with the Rumi quote, “The wound is the place where light enters”and it touches my heart. I’m really glad you find the workbook beautiful and a great resource.
I could not more highly recommend this workbook. Unlike other self-help workbooks for victims of trauma, this one is a slim thirty-pages that slips into my purse and under my pillow. Rather than being daunting, the creative, entirely pertinent activities open a space within me not to confront my tormentor and relive bad events, but instead to build up reminders of my own strength and resilience.
This book was clearly written by a survivor of trauma, who knows how to support and guide others —using their own small acts— to the other side of moments of crisis.
It wasn’t too many years ago that a snapshot of my tormentor would invade my thoughts about every 19 seconds, regardless of what I was doing. Needless to say, it was extraordinarily disruptive to my life and well being. At the time, I wasn’t familiar with Knowing Acts. But since I’ve become aware of it, I’ve — a little at a time— filled out the activities, so that they’re there to help me in times of flashbacks, despair and increasing anxiety.
Lastly, the workbook could not be more beautifully illustrated. Sometimes, I open the book just to get lost in the peaceful world of the illustrations.