Coming Alive

4 Tools to Defeat Your Inner Enemy, Ignite Creative Expression & Unleash Your Soul's Potential

By: Barry Michels, Phil Stutz

Narrated by: Phil Stutz, Barry Michels

Tap into the life force to deepen your emotional and spiritual experience and realize your full potential with this transformative book by the New York Times bestselling authors of The Tools (and the resident shrinks on Goop).

In The Tools, Barry Michels and Phil Stutz revolutionized the world of personal growth and self-actualization by offering doable, dynamic actions that transformed challenges into opportunities for change. Now, in Coming Alive, they provide four vital tools for tapping into the Life Force that resides within each of us—a wellspring of positive energy that is the source of creativity, renewal, confidence, and engagement.

The first step in gaining mastery over one’s life is identifying the enemy within, which Michels and Stutz have named Part X. This formidable adversary is a shape-shifter—it may be the voice in your head that is a torrent of negativity, persuading you of the futility of finding love, starting a business, or pursuing a creative passion; it may sap you of energy, convincing you that your inner resources are limited; it may take the form of outside forces that conspire against you. In whatever guise it appears, Part X aims to derail your progress, keep you small and stuck, and defeat hope.

The tools in Coming Alive help you connect to the Life Force and harness the energy and will to combat Part X. These are tools of ascendance—they activate your aspirational self; they spark creativity and resilience; they help you to transcend the mire of negative thoughts and circumstances and align with a powerful ally that unites us in our common desire to live lives of meaning and engagement.

Drawing insights from their decades of psychotherapeutic practice, their lived experience, and their moving and generous understanding of our interconnectedness, Michels and Stutz have created a paradigm-shifting guide to achieving optimal mental health and spiritual well-being.

Includes a bonus PDF with images from the book.

Advance praise for Coming Alive

“There is something indescribably beautiful about living life in integrity. The tools Barry and Phil teach in Coming Alive gave me the courage and clarity to align myself with the truth—no matter how hard or painful it seemed at the time.”—Gwyneth Paltrow

“What a gift! A riveting exploration of four (bone-chillingly relatable) modern ailments and their thrillingly practical solutions . . . Singular in its approach and deeply spiritual in its concerns, Coming Alive is a book I’ll be pressing on friends and foes alike.”—Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette

Critic reviews

“There is something indescribably beautiful about living life in integrity. The tools Barry and Phil teach in Coming Alive gave me the courage and clarity to align myself with the truth—no matter how hard or painful it seemed at the time. It’s an incredibly fulfilling and meaningful way to live.”—Gwyneth Paltrow

“What a gift! A riveting exploration of four (bone-chillingly relatable) modern ailments and their thrillingly practical solutions . . . Barry and Phil have written a manual for moving beyond impulsivity, exhaustion, demoralization, and victimhood, toward a life of self-control, vitality, optimism, and resilience. Singular in its approach and deeply spiritual in its concerns, Coming Alive is a book I’ll be pressing on friends and foes alike.”—Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Today Will Be Different

“‘Practical’ and ‘effective’ are words psychology has always been afraid to embrace. But after working with Barry and Phil for years, I can tell you that they deliver spiritual and psychological transformation. The results, at least for me, have been life changing.”—Adam McKay, Academy Award–winning writer, director, and producer

“When I was going through the most difficult years of my life, I was able to use this method to find my strength. We all have the ability to save ourselves, yet we need guidance when we are lost. In Coming Alive you can find the road map to enlightenment.”—Drew Barrymore

“Part X is another way of describing the addict mind, the obsessive mind, the Jungian shadow, or any fear- or anger-based thought or action. It’s been Phil and Barry’s collective life work to deconstruct Part X and explain it to the rest of us mortals so that we can work with it and not be a slave to it.”—Hank Azaria

life changing slow read if you actually implement

Life changing slow read if you actually implement it into your life . Requires active effort but is well worth it. soooooo many mind blowing links between spirituality, psychology & self development. paradoxes too!

Amazing

changed my life! I will use these tools in my life! The best audio book I have listened to.

Life changing

Literally. This is real. This is truth. This is beauty. I listen over and over and get more each time.

Amazing book! Everyone benefits!

Such a great book and practical tools to learn how to reach a higher state of being in a fast paced world!

A Stunning Work of Generosity

In the 15 or so years that I've been listening to audible, this (and their first book) is perhaps the most consequential book I've ever listened to. This book offers an incredibly helpful roadmap to overcoming emotional challenges the prevent us from achieving our full potential. The instruction may be too "spiritual" for some. I approached both their books with an open mind and I'm glad I did. I've felt enormous positive change from using the tools. This is the only roadmap that has worked for me. Thank you, Phil and Barry. God bless you both.