Search Results for: Mindfulness for Health

Every faith has its stories of angels – radiant apparitions or invisible guides, messengers that bring the wisdom of heaven into the hearts of men and women. Yet it is not only the great prophets and seers who have had these experiences. All over the world, people have stories to tell: of shining figures standing by hospital beds; of ordinary-looking strangers offering help in times of urgent need before vanishing, leaving no trace; of guardians giving support in the darkest hour.

Walking with Angels offers a glimpse into the mystery and glory of this world. It relates the theological facts as understood by the different religions, and gives breathtaking accounts of ordinary people touched unexpectedly by a divine hand.

Throughout history, the human quest for knowledge of the divine, has ruffled the wings of many an angel, but also tested the wrath of the demon. This book not traces the history of angels and demons from their earliest roots to their modern day renaissance, but also reveals their most intimate secrets. Whether through personal stories, literature, myth, religion or art, this book is the story of how belief in angels and demons has cast a powerful spell over the popular imagination.

In the tradition of Steven Pinker’s How the Mind Works, popular psychologist Sian Beilock, an expert on performance and brain science, reveals the astonishing new science of why we choke under pressure. She explains what happens in the body and mind when everything clicks and the perfect golf swing, tricky mathematical problem, or high-pressure business pitch suddenly become easy.

With surprising insights on every page, Beilock examines how: attention and working memory guide human performance; how experience and practice, innate factors, and brain development interact to create our abilities;how these interconnected elements react to stress – explaining counterintuitive realities, like why the cleverest students do worst on standardized tests; why we may learn foreign languages best when we’re not paying attention; why early childhood athletic training can backfire; and how our emotions can make us both smarter and dumber.the mind and body are in even closer communication than was ever thought – and breaks new ground on top of 30 years of integrative health investigations.

Emotions bring purpose, pleasure and meaning to our lives. However, for many people, they are synonymous with distress, pain and suffering. Anger and rage can wreck relationships and cause problems at work; anxiety can prevent us from socialising or engaging in things we would like to; sadness can feel overwhelming and never ending. These types of difficulties are often referred to as emotion regulation problems, and can prevent us from developing stable and happy relationships, communicating our needs, and flourishing.

This practical self-help book based on Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) will help you to take a new approach to managing difficult emotions. It outlines why we experience emotions, how they can be helpful but also how and why we can get in to struggles with them. It outlines the Compassionate Mind model, and guides you through a series of exercises that will help you to develop your compassion mind, and use this to develop more helpful emotion regulation strategies, and bring greater balance to your emotions.

We can all get angry from time to time but when it gets out of hand it can have a serious impact on many aspects of our lives. As well as having an impact on our physical and mental health and our ability to engage in healthy relationships, it can also potentially have an enormous impact on society. The media is rife with stories of domestic violence, tragic stories of shaken babies, road-rage incidents and bullying.

Mounting evidence suggests that all this anger can be harmful to us in a number of different ways. As well as the enormously damaging impact chronic anger can have on our relationships with other people, it is being linked to health problems such as cardiovascular disease and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and mental illnesses such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

This invaluable self-help guide will enable the reader to recognise their personal anger problems, gain an understanding of what lies behind their anger, and use techniques based on Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) to deal with their anger more effectively.

CFT was initially developed by Professor Paul Gilbert, author of The Compassionate Mind, to treat those with high levels of self-criticism. It uses the proven, research-based techniques of CBT and other therapies with a special focus on the importance of developing inner compassion, in order to alleviate feelings of shame, develop a more balanced outlook and promote resilience. It incorporates elements of mindfulness and Tibetan Buddhism with recent research on human development and studies of the brain. It is increasingly used to treat a wide range of emotional and psychological problems including depression, overeating, shyness, trauma, anxiety and anger.

We know what it’s like to worry from time to time, but for some of us, our worrying can take over and have a serious impact on our lives. When our anxiety gets out of hand and starts to dominate our lives, affecting how we function and our general sense of wellbeing, it’s time to do something about it.

This accessible self-help guide provides the reader with a clear understanding of how problem anxiety develops, the kinds of problems it’s causing them and sets out ground-breaking Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) techniques to overcome their anxiety .

CFT was initially developed by Professor Paul Gilbert OBE, author of the bestselling The Compassionate Mind which set out his ground-breaking approach, to treat those with high levels of shame and self-criticism. It uses the proven, research-based techniques of CBT and other therapies with a special focus on the importance of developing inner compassion, in order to alleviate feelings of shame, develop a more balanced outlook and promote resilience. It incorporates elements of mindfulness and Tibetan Buddhism with recent research on human development and studies of the brain. It is increasingly used to treat a wide range of emotional and psychological problems including depression, overeating, shyness, trauma, anxiety and anger.

Experienced sex therapist Vicki Ford provides a guide to understanding sexual problems including impotence and loss of sexual desire, premature ejaculation and lack of orgasm. The links between mind and body are explained, and how they tend to go wrong. She sets out simple and effective techniques based on CBT that can restore confidence and bring about a mutually satisfying sex life for both partners.

– Suitable for both singles and couples

– Practical exercises to develop responsiveness and an understanding of your body

– Looks at the impact of aging, disability, religion, infidelity, abuse, infertility, childbirth, bereavement, medication and addiction

– Specific techniques for specific problems

– Contains a complete self-help program and monitoring sheets

– Based on clinically proven cognitive behavioural therapy

A Books on Prescription Title

Take control of your anger and improve your quality of life

Constant irritability or flashes of bad temper can cause difficulties in relationships with friends, family or colleagues and leave us feeling unhappy and exhausted. If you find yourself struggling to control your rage and often regret inappropriate reactions, this book can really help. It explains clearly what provokes anger and what you can do to prevent it. Techniques based on cognitive behavioural therapy offer a positive approach with long-term goals in mind, and show how you can stay cool and successfully handle situations that would tax even the most easy-going person.

Contains a complete self-help program and monitoring sheets

Based on clinically proven cognitive behavioural therapy

From a trusted mental-health practitioner with experience in working with prisoners and those exhibiting extreme behaviours

A Brief History of the Holy Grail charts the origins of the grail story from early Christian gospels through to eastern mysticism and the rise of medieval romances and Arthurian legends. The grail reappears once more in the story of the Crusades and in particular the rise and dramatic fall of the Knight Templars, who it is said were the guardians of the cup, newly discovered in Jerusalem.

The myths have been more powerful that the facts and the allure of the Grail has attracted the attention of modern writers and artist in search of an ancient symbol of purity: psychologist Carl Jung, composer Richard Wagner, poets William Blake, and T S Eliot, the Pre-Raphelite painters have all been seduced by the legend. Today the grail quest can be found in films such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Excalibur, as well as Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code

Stress is an unavoidable part of life that we will all encounter at various times in our lives, be it due to a one-off event such as losing a job or the break-up of a relationship, or from facing long-term difficulties such as working in a stressful environment or caring for someone who is ill. How well we deal with stress will influence the extent to which it affects our lives.

In this ground-breaking book, Maureen Cooper explains why we are designed to respond to stress in a certain way and why this can even be helpful at times. She goes on to explain, using practical examples and techniques, what we can do to change our stress response if it becomes overstimulated, thereby improving our sense of control and wellbeing.

This self-help book is based on the Compassionate Mind Approach, which has been developed by Professor Paul Gilbert, a clinical psychologist who is internationally renowned for his research and clinical work on depression. The Compassionate Mind Approach combines proven, research-based Western therapy techniques such as CBT with Mindfulness, Tibetan Buddhist practices and recent research on human development and studies of the brain.

Throughout history people have sought to cope with a life that is often stressful and hard. We have actually known for some time that developing compassion for oneself and others can help us face up to and win through the hardship and find a sense of inner peace. However in modern societies we rarely focus on this key process that underpins successful coping and happiness and can be quick to dismiss the impact of modern living on our minds and well-being. Instead we concentrate on ‘doing, achieving’ and having’. Now, bestselling author and leading authority on depression, Professor Paul Gilbert explains how new research shows how we can all learn to develop compassion for ourselves and others and derive the benefits of this age-old wisdom.

In this ground-breaking new book he explores how our minds have developed to be highly sensitive and quick to react to perceived threats and how this fast-acting threat-response system can be a source of anxiety, depression and aggression. He describes how studies have also shown that developing kindness and compassion for self and others can hep in calming down the threat system: as a mother’s care and love can soothe a baby’s distress, so we can learn how to soothe ourselves.

Not only does compassion help to soothe distressing emotions, it actually increases feelings of contentment and well-being. Here, Professor Gilbert outlines the latest findings about the value of compassion and how it works, and takes readers through basic mind training exercises to enhance the capacity for, and use of, compassion.

Illustrated by Na’ama Golomb

There is a soul bird who lives inside us all.

This special bird has the keys to our innermost emotions and feelings. It knows the secret places where we hide away our happiness, anger, joy, jealousy and sorrows.

Many of us don’t listen to our soul bird often enough. But we should all try, mabye late at night or at another time of peace and quiet, to hear what the soul bird is telling us.

Are you ready to listen to your soul bird?

This gentle and poetic book has become a firm favourite with both children and adults. Showing how the consolation and encouragement we need can be found in small, everyday places, it is a lovely resource for those moments when we feel in need of spiritual refreshment. Its deceptive simplicity conceals a deeper philosophical message for us all.

Over the past thirteen years, New Labour has made us wade through a quagmire of petty rules, health and safety lunacies, madcap laws and nitpicking regulations. We have been snooped on, hectored and hounded by state nannies from cradle to grave, all because government and its agencies have nothing better to do than to interfere in our lives.

It would not be so bad if the Government ran the country well, but we have to put up with high taxes, street crime, late and dirty trains, the unjustified and disproportionate use of fines and charges, bloody-minded parking restrictions, excessive public sector waste, preposterous European directives, useless and unaccountable council officials and multi-culturalist busybodies.

In this explosive and groundbreaking new book, Philip Johnston makes a stand and exposes the ‘Bad Laws’, those irritating laws, regulations and Whitehall idiocies that make life in Britain the day-to-day nightmare that it is today.

He covers the following laws amongst many others:

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) or “snooper’s charter”, allows a wide range of government bodies and quangos to watch over people, check on what they are doing and monitor their communications.
The Safeguarding Vulnerable People Act…which will require 11 million people working with children or the elderly to obtain a certificate allowing them to continue to do so yet will be easily evaded by those few individuals who are a danger to children.
The Hunting Act. More foxes have died every year since the Act came into force.
The Children Act. All 25,000 state and private nursery schools, child minders and playgroups are required to follow a new statutory framework dubbed the “nappy curriculum”.
Smoking Ban – It has interfered both with personal freedom and with commercial enterprise.
Housing Act – which brought us Hips in the midst of a property price slump.
European Arrest Warrant – which allows British citizens to be extradited to another jurisdiction to stand trial for an offence that is not a crime in the UK.
Dangerous Dogs Act, which became synonymous with hasty and ill-thought-out legislation.
Firearms Act which wiped out the sport and livelihoods of thousands of law abiding people.
War Crimes Act, pushed through using the Parliament Act but which has resulted in not a single conviction.
Religious Hatred Act which made a bad thought a crime.
Numerous Health and safety laws of every description.
The Licensing Act which made it an offence to play a piano in a pub without authorisation.

If you love sport and want to spend your working life in that environment this book will help you to find the right job for you. The sports and leisure industry continues to grow worldwide and it offers some exciting career opportunities. You’ll be amazed at the range of careers available for all levels and types of sports enthusiasts – both at home and abroad. Whatever your passion, if you’re a sports-minded job seeker this book will give you a head start. This new edition includes a new chapter on the 2012 Olympics and the opportunities it offers for working in sport.

Use this dream handbook to decode hidden aspects of your psyche, as well as to inspire you to grow and achieve personal goals

Dreams are an integral part of who we are and carry valuable messages. They can reveal our true selves, unmasking our fears, hostilities, hidden talents and desires. Enabling us to explore and learn from hidden aspects of the psyche, dreams can teach you a lot about yourself and others, helping you with problems and guiding you throughout your life. This book gives advice and guidance on exploring and interpreting your dreams, and using them for personal and creative development.

It includes:
* The place of dreams in human culture.
* How to prepare for, and how to record your dreams.
* Dream analysis, including common dream types and the strange but powerful world of symbolism.
* Advanced dream exploration, including joining a dream group and working with others.

Skillfully woven together with empathic insight into the lives and minds of those who self-injure, “Healing the Hurt Within” is replete with the latest developments in the field, informative statistical data, instructive diagrams, carefully selected resources, case studies, expert testimonies, and practical self-help activities. The author’s warmth, compassion, and regard for those caught in the cycle of self-injury shines through the pages of this profoundly enlightening and extensively updated 3rd edition. “Healing the Hurt Within” offers: solace, hope, and direction to those who self-injure; guidance to family and friends supporting a loved one who self-injures; and, guidelines to professionals and voluntary caregivers on how to respond to clients that self-injure.

Whether it’s the boss, clients, friends or lovers, getting relationships right matters. This book shows how to make yours shine. Drawing on the latest research and the experience of 500,000 people who use The Mind Gym, Relationships reveals how to: be loved, respected and even obeyed; build trust in moments that lasts for years; turn an angry argument into an unbreakable bond; get on with people who don’t get on with anyone else; and repair a broken relationship so it’s stronger than ever.

You don’t even need to read this book. Fill in the questionnaire at the beginning and discover which chapters will help you and which to skip. Even better, you get free membership for The Mind Gym Online. And all royalties will go to The Mind Gym Foundation, a programme to help young people improve their lives by thinking differently.

If you can find a gym that does more for less, we’ll come with you.

Seeking the truth about UFOs in America, Mark Pilkington and John Lundberg uncover a 60 year-old story stranger than any conspiracy thriller.

Through the fascinating account of their quest Mark Pilkington reveals the long history of UFOria and its parallels in little known tales from the murky worlds of espionage, psychological warfare and advanced military technology. Along the way he discovers that the truth about flying saucers is stranger and more complex than either the ufologists or debunkers would have us believe.

As he crossed the US meeting intelligence agents, disinformation specialists and UFO hunters Pilkington was confronted with a dizzying array of ever more outrageous claims and counter claims. As a result he began to suspect that, instead of covering up stories of crashed flying saucers, alien contacts and secret underground bases, the US intelligence agencies had actually been promoting them all along. Meanwhile he has to deal with his own uncertainties, the suspicions of the UFO community and a partner who is starting to believe that conspiracy theorists might be right after all.

With a fresh, funny and objective approach, Pilkington is the ideal guide to steer us through these strange territories, where nothing is quite as it seems and reality is just a matter of managing perceptions.

This bumper collection of well over one hundred first-person accounts of sexual experiences details the most daring and outrageous liaisons the contributors have ever had. Some will amuse you, some may cause a raised eyebrow, and some are downright outrageous, but each and every one is arousing. Categories have been deliberately avoided to seduce readers into each, fresh confession with an open mind, but whatever your kink, you will find it here. Whether you’re into good old-fashioned spanking, bondage, solo, foursomes, watersports . . . you’ll find it here. Stories include:

‘Sharing My Wife the Back Way’, Martin, Hertfordshire
‘Getting the Job’, Kitty, Los Angeles
‘College Reunion’, Liza, Denver
‘Seducing My Daughter’s Girlfriend’ Isabelle, Chicago
‘You Have the Right to Remain Silent’, Kathleen, Liverpool

THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLER

Do you ever feel worried, miserable or unfulfilled – yet put on a happy face and pretend everything’s fine? You are not alone. Stress, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem are all around. Research suggests that many of us get caught in a psychological trap, a vicious circle in which the more we strive for happiness, the more it eludes us.


Fortunately, there is a way to escape from the ‘Happiness Trap’, a ground-breaking new approach based on mindfulness skills. Using the six principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Russ Harris can help you to:
· Reduce stress and worry
· Rise above fear, doubt and insecurity
· Handle painful thoughts and feelings more effectively
· Break self-defeating habits
· Improve performance and find fulfilment in your work
· Build more satisfying relationships
· Create a richer and more meaningful life

This giant collection includes a huge range of 20th-century first-hand accounts of hauntings, such as the American troops who repeatedly saw the ghosts of a dead platoon of men while on patrol in Vietnam; and the witnessed haunting of a house near Tintagel in Cornwall that led actress Kate Winslet to pull out of buying the property.

It covers the full spectrum of credible hauntings, from poltergeists (the noisy, dangerous and frightening spirits that are usually associated with pubescent girls, like the Bell Witch), to phantoms (like the Afrits of Saudi Arabia) and seduction spirits (such as the Lorelei, which have lured German men to death).

Also included are the notes of the most famous ghost hunters of the twentieth century such as Hans Holzer, Susy Smith (USA); Harry Price, Jenny Randles (UK); Joyce Zwarycz (Australia), Eric Rosenthal (South Africa), and Hwee Tan (Japan).

Plus essays by such names as Robert Graves, Edgar Cayce, and M. R. James outlining their own – often extraordinary – conclusions as to just what ghosts might be; along with a full bibliography and list of useful resources.

Praise for MBO Haunted House Stories:

‘A first rate list of contributors … Hair raising!’ Time Out

‘All we need say is buy it.’ Starlog

The history of the Freemasons has often been shrouded in mystery and suspicion.

Since 1717, with the establishment of the Grand Lodge in London, the Freemasons have been a power within the nation, withstanding public disapproval and attacks, from the Catholic Church among others.

Throughout the last three hundred years, the Freemasons have been influential in some of the most important turning points in world history.

Jasper Ridley explores the role of the society in both the American and French Revolutions and whether Mozart’s The Magic Flute was an exposé of secret rituals. He reveals that Pushkin, Winston Churchill, Booker T. Washington, Clark Gable, Walter Scott, members of the royal family and at least sixteen US Presidents have all been Freemasons.

The Assassination of JFK, 9/11, the Da Vinci Code, The Death of Diana, Men in Black, Pearl Harbor, The Illuminati, Protocols of Zion,Hess, The Bilderberg Group, New World Order, ElvisFluoridization, Martin Luther King’s murder, Opus Dei, The Gemstone Files, John Paul I, Dead Sea Scrolls, Lockerbie bombing, Black helicopters…

In other words everything ‘they’ never wanted you to know and were afraid you might ask!

Jon E. Lewis explores the 100 most terrifying cover-ups of all time, from the invention of Jesus’ divinity (pace the Da Vinci Code) to Bush’s and Blair’s real agenda in invading Iraq. Entertainingly written and closely documented, the book provides each cover-up with a plausibility rating.

Uncover why the Titanic sank, ponder the sinister Vatican/Mafia network that plotted the assassination of liberal John Paul, find out why NASA ‘lost’ its files on Mars, read why no-one enters Area 51, and consider why medical supplies were already on site at Edgware Road before the 7/7 bombs detonated.

Just because you are paranoid, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t out to conspire against you.

If someone close to you has dementia (Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common type) you will know that communication gradually becomes more difficult and at times frustrating. This jargon-free book explains why this happens and how you have to rethink your whole approach by:

Making key changes to the way you communicate
Creating the right physical environment for good communication
And bear in mind that communication in the broadest sense goes well beyond talking; there is also a wide range of non-verbal communication such as facial expression, posture and touch.

The person with dementia in your life needs your help. This straightforward book will help you to acquire the knack for improving and facilitating communication that works in a wide variety of situations including:

Improving conversation
Finding stimulating activities
Dealing with challenging situations
Making important decisions
Reducing stress and agitation
Moving into residential care

This book provides invaluable information for people helping to care for people with dementia at home and also those who do so as part of their job.