Everyday Simplicity: A Practical Guide to Spiritual Growth

Getting a life of any kind is hard enough in a world that has us going around in circles—from the stresses of our workplace to the demands of home and back again tomorrow. Getting a spiritual life can seem like a luxury to be put off to another, quieter time. Robert Wicks, however, believes that the search for a spiritual life begins not in some exotic, unreachable place, but right where we are—in the midst of all the craziness. It starts within our busy, stressed-out human hearts, not in some other "more spiritual" place. The more we are able, therefore, to be our true selves, the more successful we will be in developing a spirituality that will be real and satisfying. Here's solid, common sense advice on how to get a spiritual life—no matter how busy your day. Perfect for beginning spiritual seekers and a welcome companion for continuing pilgrims.

Psychologist and popular speaker Robert J. Wicks is the author of more than sixty books for individuals and professionals, including the bestselling Riding the Dragon.

He speaks internationally about resilience, self-care, and the prevention of secondary stress to audiences from the US Congress to Walter Reed Army Hospital, from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to Harvard Children’s Hospital, and from the Princeton Theological Seminary to the NATO Intelligence Fusion Center in England. Some of Wicks’s presentations include speaking at the commemoration of the Boston Marathon Bombing at the Boston Public Library; a keynote for the American Medical Directors Association; a course in Beirut, Lebanon, for relief workers from Aleppo, Syria; and the psychological debriefing of relief workers evacuated from Rwanda during the genocide in 1994. He also regularly speaks at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress.

Wicks serves as a professor emeritus at Loyola University Maryland, and has taught in universities and professional schools of psychology, medicine, nursing, theology, education, and social work. He earned a doctorate in psychology from Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital and has received honorary degrees from Georgian Court, Caldwell, and Marywood universities.

In 1996, Pope John Paul II awarded Wicks a papal medal for his service to the Catholic Church. He also received the first Alumni Award for Excellence in Professional Psychology from Widener University and the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the American Counseling Association’s Division on Spirituality, Ethics and Religious Values in Counseling.