Recommendations based on "The Breathing Book"

Mental health is . . . being yourself.A prescriptive and positive guide, illustrated with line drawings, making the case that mental well-being, like physical health, can be strengthened over time and with specific techniquesWe all want to feel less anxiety, guilt, anger and sadness. We want to obsess less and be less lonely, free ourselves from our demons, compulsive habits, and stress. But as humans (unlike rocks) we experience all of these. And paradoxically, trying to avoid and control them only makes things worse.Having struggled with serious mental illness for many years himself, Mark Freeman has become a dedicated mental-health advocate and coach. He makes the case that instead of trying to feel less and avoid pain and stress, we need to build emotional fitness, especially our capacity for strength, balance and focus. With wit, compassion, and depth of experience and anecdotes, he shows that we can recover from many mental disorders, from mild to very serious, at all ages and stages of life, and even if other methods have failed. Freeman's innovative approach makes use of a range of therapeutic techniques, mindfulness training, peer support, humor, and common sense.

“Inspiring, refreshing and practical - a delightfully lucid guide to healing yourself.” –Bessel van der Kolk, MD., New York Times bestselling author of The Body Keeps the Score From two mind-body practitioners comes the new essential self-healing bible—a revolutionary body-first guide to reducing stress, resolving long-term pain, and healing from trauma for good using your body’s own nervous system. Your autonomic nervous system is responsible for the constant but mostly subconscious communication between your brain and body. When you experience stress, anxiety, or trauma, your nervous system formulates responses to keep you alive. But you can also become trapped in survival mode if you’re consistently exposed to unsafe environments, toxic relationships, or destructive thought patterns. When this happens it’s known as nervous system dysregulation or sensitization, which can result in chronic mental and physical pain and confusion, leaving you unable to cope with life’s strains and stresses. Mind-body practitioners Jen Mann and Karden Rabin, co-founders of the Chronic Fatigue School now provide the first in-depth look at nervous system regulation, somatic therapy, Polyvagal theory, the vagus nerve, and the mind-body connection. Combining science-backed insights and hands-on techniques, The Secret Language of the Body teaches you how to move out of survival mode, regulate your nervous system, and heal your mind and body. Rabin and Mann don’t teach stress management, but something far more powerful–how to control your body’s nervous system. With this revolutionary book, you will learn to skillfully speak the language of your body and train it to not only manage stress but achieve personal transformation. The Secret Language of the Body includes helpful illustrations.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER A vital approach to combating climate change and creating a better world for us and our future generations—from beloved Buddhist and environmental activist Thich Nhat Hanh We face a potent intersection of crises: ecological destruction, global warming, inflation, rising inequality, racial injustice, and the lasting impacts of a devastating pandemic. As shown time and time again, the situation is beyond urgent. To face these challenges, we need to find ways to strengthen our clarity, compassion, and courage to act. As beloved Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh said, “When you wake up and you see that the Earth is not just the environment, the Earth is us, you touch the nature of interbeing.” He is blazingly clear: there’s one thing we all have the power to change, which can make all the difference, and that is our mind. Our way of looking, seeing, and thinking determines every choice we make, the everyday actions we take or avoid, how we relate to those we love or oppose, and how we react in a crisis. This book is for anyone who cares about the growing and devastating impacts of climate change, mindful consumption, how human and nature’s interconnectedness is paramount for the well-being of all humanity, and creating a better, regenerative world for us future generations. Energetic and altruistic, and filled of Thich Nhat Hanh’s inspiring meditations, Zen stories and experiences from his own activism, Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet shows us individual actions help guide institutional change, and bring healing and harmony to ourselves, our relationships, and our planet Earth.

The Zen master and one of the world's most beloved teachers returns with a concise, practical guide to understanding and developing our most powerful inner resource—silence—to help us find happiness, purpose, and peace.Many people embark on a seemingly futile search for happiness, running as if there is somewhere else to get to, when the world they live in is full of wonder. To be alive is a miracle. Beauty calls to us every day, yet we rarely are in the position to listen. To hear the call of beauty and respond to it, we need silence.Silence shows us how to find and maintain our equanimity amid the barrage of noise. Thich Nhat Hanh guides us on a path to cultivate calm even in the most chaotic places. This gift of silence doesn't require hours upon hours of silent meditation or an existing practice of any kind. Through careful breathing and mindfulness techniques he teaches us how to become truly present in the moment, to recognize the beauty surrounding us, and to find harmony. With mindfulness comes stillness—and the silence we need to come back to ourselves and discover who we are and what we truly want, the keys to happiness and well-being.

For the benefits of meditation to become widely accessible to humanity, it cannot just be the domain of bald people in funny robes living in mountains, or small groups of New Age folks in San Francisco. Meditation needs to become "real." It needs to align with the lives and interests of real people. —from Search Inside Yourself Early Google engineer and personal growth pioneer Chade-Meng Tan first designed Search Inside Yourself as a popular course at Google intended to transform the work and lives of the best and brightest behind one of the most innovative, successful, and profitable businesses in the world . . . and now it can do the same for you. Meng has distilled emotional intelligence into a set of practical and proven tools and skills that anyone can learn and develop. Created in collaboration with a Zen master, a CEO, a Stanford University scientist, and Daniel Goleman (the guy who literally wrote the book on emotional intelligence), this program is grounded in science and expressed in a way that even a skeptical, compulsively pragmatic, engineering-oriented brain like Meng's can process. Whether your intention is to reduce stress and increase well-being, heighten focus and creativity, become more optimistic and resilient, build fulfilling relationships, or just be successful, the skills provided by Search Inside Yourself will prove invaluable for you. This is your guide to enhancing productivity and creativity, finding meaning and fulfillment in your work and life, and experiencing profound peace, compassion, and happiness while doing so. Search Inside Yourself reveals how to calm your mind on demand and return it to a natural state of happiness, deepen self-awareness in a way that fosters self-confidence, harness empathy and compassion into outstanding leadership, and build highly productive collaborations based on trust and transparent communication. In other words, Search Inside Yourself shows you how to grow inner joy while succeeding at your work. Meng writes: "Some people buy books that teach them to be liked; others buy books that teach them to be successful. This book teaches you both. You are so lucky."

This is your year of self-discovery, a journey to create a life filled with grace, meaning, zest, peace, and joy. ONE OF HEALTHLINE’S 8 BEST MEDITATION BOOKS OF THE YEAR With warmth and wisdom from a lifetime of spiritual seeking, inspirational force Agapi Stassinopoulos guides you through fifty-two weeks of letting go of what doesn’t work for you and finding what does. You’ll cultivate the building blocks of self-care (meditation, health, making time for yourself) and confront the common roadblocks we all face, like pouring your energy into other people or living in denial. You’ll explore your “conflict” areas, such as relationships, money, self-esteem, anxiety, and your childhood. And you’ll learn to trust your creativity, keep your heart open, and connect to the bigger spirit that lives inside you.   Keep this book by your bedside. It is your loving companion. Be creative and have fun with it. Use it as a tool to unlock your goodness, and wake up to the joy of you!

Its time to embrace the Italian way of lifeThe Sweetness of Doing Nothing explores the southern Italian philosophy of Dolce Far Niente to help you find pleasure in the everyday.How often do you focus on being in the moment, doing nothing Whether its sitting outside at a cafe watching the world go by, whiling away the hours with your loved ones sipping a glass of wine or being immersed in nature at the beach taking in the sun, these seemingly ordinary moments are the ones that bring happiness in the long run and highlight the joy in living.The Italians know the importance of enjoying good food and good company and the pleasures of being idle. The Sweetness of Doing Nothing will share this philosophy, with recipes, suggestions and advice to help you to let go of anxiety and savour lifes precious moments.

Providing an introduction to "flow," a new field of behavioral science that offers life-fulfilling potentialities, this study explains its principals and shows how to introduce flow into all aspects of life, avoiding the interferences of disharmony

'Exhilarating... Wise and compassionate' New Statesman An expert, empathetic guide to the science, psychology and physiology of breaking, from the acclaimed author of How We Are What happens when our minds and bodies are pushed beyond their limits? Vincent Deary is a health psychologist who has spent years helping his patients cope with whatever life has thrown at them. In How We Break, he has written a book for all of us who sometimes feel we have reached our breaking point. Drawing on clinical case studies, cutting-edge scientific research, intimate personal stories and references from philosophy, literature and film, How We Break offers a consoling new vision of everyday human struggle. The big traumas in life, Deary points out, are relatively rare. More common is when too many things go wrong at once, or we are exposed to prolonged periods of difficulty or precarity. When the world shrinks to nothing but our daily coping, we become unhappy, worried, hopeless, exhausted. In other words, we break. Breaking, he shows us, happens when the same systems that enable us to navigate through life become dysregulated. But if we understand how the wear and tear of life affects us, then we have a better chance of navigating through times of burnout, stress, fatigue and despair. By equipping us with a better understanding of what happens to us when we're struggling to cope, and making a bold case for the power of rest and recuperation, How We Break helps chart a path through difficult times.

Anyone interested in psychotherapy or personal growth will rejoice at the publication of The Gift of Therapy, a masterwork from one of today's most accomplished psychological thinkers.From his thirty-five years as a practicing psychiatrist and as an award-winning author of nonfiction and fiction, Irvin D. Yalom imparts his unique wisdom in The Gift of Therapy. This remarkable guidebook for successful therapy is, as Yalom remarks, "an idiosyncratic mélange of ideas and techniques that I have found useful in my work. These ideas are so personal, opinionated, and occasionally original that the reader is unlikely to encounter them elsewhere. I selected the eighty-five categories in this volume randomly guided by my passion for the task rather than any particular order or system."At once startlingly profound and irresistibly practical, Yalom's insights will help enrich the therapeutic process for a new generation of patients and counselors.