Excerpt from <em>Big Love: The Power of Living with a Wide-Open Heart</em>

..Scott Stabile.

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An excerpt from Big Love: The Power of Living with a Wide-Open Heart

Author and Facebook sensation Scott Stabile's parents were murdered when he was fourteen. Nine years later, his brother died of a heroin overdose. Soon after that, Scott joined a cult that dominated his life for thirteen years. Through it all, he became evermore committed to living his life from love.

In each chapter of his new book Big Love: The Power of Living with a Wide-Open Heart, Scott shares a personal experience that pulled him from his center and the ways in which he brought himself back to peace, and to love. While some of his experiences are extraordinary, like extricating himself from a cult after 13 years, most of the stories reflect on everyday challenges we can all relate to, like the weight of shame, the search for happiness, and the struggle to be authentic.

We hope you'll enjoy this short excerpt from the book.

Beyond everything else, growth requires dedication. Healing demands commitment. No number of books or podcasts or workshops will make a difference if we're not committed to healing ourselves. And when we open ourselves to look at our pain for real, our pain will present itself. For real. It's usually not a very pretty picture. I continue to learn things about myself that I wish weren't true. I see new depths to my anger, and envy, and sadness. New proof all the time that I can be much less kind and generous than I desire and a much bigger asshole than I'd ever want to be. The work of awareness and consciousness is a process, and it's endless.

I'm certain I still haven't unburied all the pain around my parents' death, or the pain I carry regarding my relationship with them while they were alive. I never liked my dad, and though I loved my mom, I resented both my parents for their lack of interest in my life. I wanted them to care more about me. I wanted them to see me. I may never expose all the wounds I've got around them, and that's okay. I'm making progress. I'm opening. I'm growing. This book is another exercise in digging, in sharing my story so that it might support deeper healing for myself, and maybe, if I'm lucky, inspire it in others. That's one of the many beautiful benefits of facing your pain: whether or not you intend to, you're likely to inspire others to look at their own pain more openly and courageously. Along with digging yourself into a more fully realized life, you end up passing out shovels to others, too.

I've been digging for a while now, and I'll continue to dig, because I want to invite any opportunity for deeper healing. I want to face the full expression of myself, past to present, with acceptance and love. Always more love. I need only to look at how far I've come to know it's possible. I need only to consider my life right now to understand the transformational power of this kind of work. I will continue to explore all the possibilities of my growth, and to live as truthfully as possible. Because I want, more than anything, to be free.

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Scott Stabile is the author of Big Love. His inspirational posts and videos have attracted a huge and devoted social media following, including nearly 360K Facebook fans and counting. A regular contributor to the Huffington Post, he lives in Michigan and conducts personal empowerment workshops around the world. Visit him online at www.scottstabile.com.