Detox your heart

Drawing on her own experiences with abuse and addiction, Valerie Mason-John presents a well-grounded series of meditations that transform anger, hatred and fear to heal emotional trauma.

After years of abuse and struggles with addiction, Valerie Mason-John was mired in the toxic emotions of anger, resentment and fear. But through meditation and willingness to forge a new path, she learned how to disarm such toxins and find peace.

In Detox Your Heart Mason-John helps us recognize our emotions, good and bad, and to develop the self-care to heal ourselves. Chapters that explore and clearly define negative emotions are paired with chapters on how to transform them. Meditation exercises based on the Buddhist principles of mindfulness, loving-kindness and compassion provide tools to help us heal our own hurts and to close the gap that toxic emotions create between heart and mind

Click onto courses and public speaking for more information about courses, workshops and public speaking on this theme.

valerie mason john

  • At this crucial time when the world needs clarity and wisdom, Detox Your Heart calls us to our power, offering guidance in letting go and befriending our world from the inside out. Valerie Mason-John’s words spring from the heart and ring with unmistakable grace and genuineness.

    Ruth King, author of Healing Rage and Mindful of Race

  • On this course, I have learned to draw positive experiences from my suffering. I have learned to formulate a project and to find my inner resources to do it. I have strengthened my space of choice!

    Participant

  • May this MBAR program prove to be just the door you need to open, and if so, then enter, enter, enter, and give yourself over day by day, thought by thought, moment by moment to this reliable and profound form of nurturance and healing.

    Jon Kabat-Zinn - Founder of MBSR

  • Author Valerie Mason-John knows trauma from the inside out, and also the practices that can heal and free our hearts.

    Tara Brach, Ph.D. Author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

  • Vimalasara Mason-John is one of the most profound teachers of our time. She leads her studies with love, compassion and lived experience. Her teachings will change the way you see and treat yourself and other living beings.

    Ani Mac - an addictions professional

  • Valerie Mason-John is a human in deep recovery, Buddhist teacher, writer, performance artist.... the lasting impression is that of striking presence, a genuine person with joyful wisdom extracted from profound suffering.

    Gabor Mate

  • On this course, I have learned to draw positive experiences from my suffering. I have learned to formulate a project and to find my inner resources to do it. I have strengthened my space of choice!

    Participant

  • 'May this MBAR program prove to be just the door you need to open, and if so, then enter, enter, enter, and give yourself over day by day, thought by thought, moment by moment to this reliable and profound form of nurturance and healing.'

    Jon Kabat-Zinn - Founder of MBSR

  • A dynamic and honest book which searchs among the members of the 1190s British culture for a Black lesbian identity, it transcends labels to explore herstory, racism and seperatism among the voices of Black lesbians living in Britial today.

    Maya Chowdry Author, Poet, Film Maker

  • I can't believe i found this book. And when i did it changed my life. I realize that I wasn't an anomaly. I realize that lesbian sexuality has always existed in my culture of origin.

    Indian Reader

  • This is a book i can give to my family

    a reader

  • ... Making Black Waves is a welcome testimony to the complexity and diversity of the black British lesbian experience

    Shameem Kabir Diva Magazine

  • ‘Wonderful collection of prose, poetry, monologues, and play…. The most remarkable book which has come across my desk since I started this column. Must read.’

    Shirley Wilson G Scene

  • ‘Finally a book that isn’t about the African American experience. At long last we have a book that talks about the Black British experience.’

    A reader

  • ‘The anthology format is well chosen to present differing voices and experiences…As well as an inspiration for Black lesbians, the publication of Talking Black is an important event for all women…There is a good balance of political analysis and personal reflection,’

    UK publication

  • ‘Luminous and deeply funny’

    Bonnie Greer

  • ‘A riveting, truthful, touching read that tells us new things about the secret lives of children’

    Maggie Gee

  • ‘An extraordinary piece of work’

    Sara Maitland

  • ‘Mason-John fuses magic realism with the grittiest of true life to spin a young tale of a Nigerian girl who grows up in care’

    UK

  • ‘A major new talent in literary fiction’

    Sainsbury Magazine UK

  • ‘It speaks from the heart with a skillful stylistic assurance which keeps the pages turning and doesn’t miss a beat.’

    The Independent – Bernadine Evaristo

  • “Mason-John pens the British Color Purple’

    The New Nation UK

  • “What makes it so affecting is its authenticity, the real sense of someone reliving their Barnardo's childhood'.

    Faye Weldon, Michele Roberts, Blake Morrison, judges of Mind's 2005 Book of the year award

  • While some of the ideas in Detox Your Heart are familiar from other self-development books, Valerie Mason-John has many unique insights to offer. Unlike some authors in the field, she has a gentle way with her when making suggestions for personal change. The author uses her own life-story of recovering from childhood abuse, drug use and eating disorders as an example. A Buddhist, she presents simple exercises which use techniques from meditation, without assuming that the reader has learnt meditation or is any good at it. Recommended for anyone who wants to deal with difficult feelings, Detox Your Heart is unusual for the New Age bookshelf in talking about racism and touching on homophobia.

    Diva Magazine December 2005

  • This is a passionate and lively self-help book offering insight and practical exercises to support and challenge the reader to face and process their personal pain.... Mason-John intersperses her knowledge and practical exercises with fable, stories and illustrations from her own history, which is powerful and moving - and I found these the most engaging parts of the book. Her evidence of her hard experience adds weight to her teachings and helps soften the didactic style that can be characteristic of self-help books.... The energy in her writing and the imaginative stories she tells help to make this a very readable book.

    Karen Minikin, Therapy Today, April 2006

  • Offers readers both the inspiration and the insight to work on themselves...

    C. Titmuss, author, Transforming Our Terror

  • Most of us will be familiar with the principle of detox - the process of cleansing the body so that its natural healing energies can circulate and restore harmony. However, it is just as important to cleanse the mind and spirit, and this book is a guide to doing just that. The author is an ordained member of the western Buddhist Order and her experience and teachings are found in the short and helpful exercises that flow through this book. She also works as an anger management trainer, and all the skills she has developed are reflected in the personal and other stories which illustrate the teachings. The author invites us to "Liberate our heart" through creativity, kindness and compassion, pointing out that these qualities are the building blocks of the spiritual life. With her gentle and caring help, we are able to face the toxins of these negative emotions, and find release and healing. This is a most worthwhile book, containing both theory and practice. It will amply repay those who are willing to work with the techniques she advocates.

    Beyond, The Magazine of the Seekers Trust, December 2005

  • “...She writes with simple boldness and candor so much so, that you sense off the pages of her book the sheer force of her desire to be free of her toxic heart full of pain and suffering, and the inspired momentum to help others to do the same...She admits she grew up angry and whilst her life story, masterfully integrated as a teaching device, arouses spontaneous compassion, it took until she was 29 to recognize that she needed to change on the inside in order to heal from the pain of loveless, abuse and abandonment from her childhood... Years of holding on to a hardness of heart, closed around layers of toxic feelings takes gentle, consistent loving kindness and compassion for oneself and others to be able to soften, open and detoxify...There is a need for tools to heal and tools to deal with the fear of healing, and letting go that arises from a deep and often overwhelming sense of vulnerability...Valerie Mason- John gives you the tools and they work. Whatever your story, and it doesn’t have to be abuse, if you do what she says, you too will discover that the power to heal is inside you.’

    Positive Health UK

  • ‘Our ability to love and be open is often blocked by toxins inside the heart. With short exercises that encourage pausing, connecting, feeling and loving, Detox Your Heart helps us to renew and open our hearts.’

    Pride Magazine UK

  • `This is a book full of heart which explores with compassion many layers of human emotions’

    Jackee Holder, author of Soul Purpose

  • ‘I’m generally not a fan of self help manuals, but this is something different. Valerie Mason-John has been there, done that and got the proverbial t-shirt when it comes to sex, drugs and rock and roll and she's suffered the consequences. This is an author passing on the wisdom of hard experience and showing there is a way to get yourself back on track. Her honesty, warmth and humanity are a precious and all to rare commodity’

    Jenni Murray – BBC Women’s Hour – UK

  • “This fascinating course led by Vimalasara gave us a great insight, on both a practical and theoretical level, of the various ways in which mindfulness techniques can be used to help others recover from addiction – and more importantly stay inrecovery. I would highly recommended it to any professional working in the healthcare or substance misuse field.”

    Liam Watson (MSc, BSc (hons), PGDip), Director

  • Was lucky enough to attend The MBAR course with Vimalasara. An empowering experience on many levels .Chance to get to grips with theory personal practiceAnd course delivery with feedback. Essential tools for those recovering from or working with addiction. Also for those of us working in The field at risk of burnout a chance to reframe our experience and find an anchor to help others from.

    Dr Neil Stephenson - medical doctor and runs a addiction clinic in Norway

  • "Vimalasara Mason-John is one of the most profound teachers of our time. She leads her studies with love, compassion and lived experience. Her teachings will change the way you see and treat yourself and other living beings."

    Ani Mac - an addictions professional

  • Valerie Mason-John clearly understands how to handle anger skillfully, in ways that support the healing of the heart. Because she understands it from her own experience, Valerie is well-positioned to help others work with it. If you suffer from anger and don't know what do about it - this is a book for you.

    Sharon Salzberg , author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness

  • 'Valerie Mason-John is a human in deep recovery, Buddhist teacher, writer, performance artist.... the lasting impression is that of striking presence, a genuine person with joyful wisdom extracted from profound suffering".

    Gabor Mate