Search Results for: Mindfulness for Health

His Holiness The Dalai Lama’s indispensible advice for achieving wisdom, balance and happiness.

In this rare personal investigation, His Holiness the Dalai Lama discusses his vision of science and faith working hand in hand to alleviate human suffering. Drawing on a lifetime of scientific study and religious practice, he explores the great debates and makes astonishing connections between seemingly disparate topics – such as evolution and karma – that will change the way we look at the world.

While he sees science and faith as ‘complementary but different investigative approaches with the same goal of seeking the truth,’ the fact is that the two have often been at the root of human conflict for centuries. The Dalai Lama challenges us to see that the benefits of opening our hearts and minds to the connections between science and faith are far preferable to perpetuating the divisive rhetoric that often surrounds them.

Now, as we face such troubled and uncertain times, the need has never been greater for this extraordinary man’s compassion and wisdom.

Hunched exhausted at his computer one ordinary Monday morning, world-class workaholic Nick Thorpe has reached the end of his tether. Fearing for his health and family life, he knows something has to change. But where to start when trying too hard is part of the problem?
Nick makes a bold resolution: he will spend a year learning to let go. Beginning with a plunge off a Cornish cliff, he soon graduates to wing-walking on a bi-plane, city-centre clowning and a revealing weekend at a naturist convention. But the more he tries to relax, the bigger the questions: can you be happy if you’re not in control? Is true contentment all in the mind? And what does his small, brown dog know that Nick doesn’t?
From a school where pupils make the rules, to meditation and rafting in Sweden; from the chaos of a Durban street shelter to a silent monastery in New Mexico, URBAN WORRIER charts a humorous and often moving quest for the ultimate modern grail: how to find balance and fulfilment in today’s high-speed world.

No country, no culture, no person today is untouched by what happens in the rest of the world, and globalization presents many challenges. The Dalai Lama understands that the essential task of humanity in the twenty-first century must be to cultivate peaceful coexistence.

In this book the Dalai Lama shows how in our globalized world, nations, cultures and individuals can find opportunities to connect through their shared human nature. All faiths turn to compassion as a guiding principle for living a good life. It is the responsibility of all people with an aspiration to spiritual perfection to help develop a deep recognition of the value of other faiths, and it is on that basis alone that we can cultivate genuine respect and cooperation.

Towards the True Kinship of Faiths is a hopeful yet realistic look at how humanity can embrace a harmonious future.

First published in 1925 THE OLD STRAIGHT TRACK remains the most important source for the study of ancient tracks or leys that criss-cross the British Isles- a fascinating system which was old when the Romans came to Britain.

First in the Herefordshire countryside, and later throughout Britain, Alfred Watkins noticed that beacon hills, mounds, earthworks, moats and old churches built on pagan sites seemed to fall in straight lines. His investigation convinced him that Britain was covered with a vast network of straight tracks, aligned with either the sun or the path of a star.

Although traces of this network can be found all over the country, the principles behind the ley system remain a mystery. Are they the legacy of a prehistoric scientific knowledge which is now all but lost? And was their purpose secular or religious?

Why are we drawn to the ocean each summer? Why does being near water set our minds and bodies at ease? In Blue Mind, Wallace J. Nichols revolutionizes how we think about these questions, revealing the remarkable truth about the benefits of being in, on, under, or simply near water.

Grounded in cutting-edge studies in neurobiology, cognitive psychology, economics, and medicine, and made real by stories of innovative scientists, doctors, athletes, artists, environmentalists, businesspeople and lovers of nature – stories that fascinate the mind and touch the heart – Blue Mind will awaken readers to the vital importance of water to the health and happiness of us all.

Nineteen-fifty-three is synonymous in the British memory with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June. But less well known is what happened in 10 Downing Street on 23 June. With Anthony Eden vying for power, the elderly Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, must maintain the confidence of his government, the press and the public. But after a diplomatic dinner in which he is on typically sparkling form, Churchill’s Italian dining companions are rushed out of the building and his doctor called. The Prime Minister has had a stroke.

Churchill is bedbound throughout the summer, and while secrecy agreements have been struck with leading newspaper barons, the potential impact of his health on public life is never far from the minds of his inner circle. With the help of a devoted young nurse and his indomitable wife, Clementine, Churchill gradually recoups his health. But will he be fit enough to represent Britain on the world stage?

Most people think of ecstasy in terms of sexual ecstasy, which Tantric sex expert Margot Anand wrote about in her bestselling The Art of Sexual Ecstasy. Now, in The Art of Everyday Ecstasy, Anand expands our definition of ecstasy and shows how we can harness its energy to help us live, work, and love more passionately, joyfully, and with true spiritual focus.

Based on the spiritual path of Tantra, Anand shows how to use the natural energy system of our bodies – the seven chakras – as a map to ecstasy. As she guides us through the chakras, she explains how each one plays an important role in transforming energy into erotic passion, healing, empowerment, compassion, creativity, insight, and gratitude. Blocked chakras manifest themselves in surprising ways; wholeness can be achieved only when all of the chakras are open with energy flowing freely. By transforming negative behavioural patterns into positive ones and strengthening ourselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually, we can improve our health, sex life, career, relationships, and find profound meaning in everyday moments.

With personal anecdotes, exercises, meditations, and rituals, The Art of Everyday Ecstasy shows us how to bring ecstatic energy into the body, mind, heart, and spirit – ‘to embrace every moment in our totality, to respond bodily, feel from the heart, perceive with clarity, and be fully present to others and to life.’

What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? If you’ve ever doubted yourself, allowed other people’s negativity to stop you from doing what you want, or assumed that any success you’ve had in the past was just a case of ‘pure luck’, then you need The Mind Makeover.

For many years Sharron Lowe has been the go-to coach for global luxury brands. She has coached thousands of people, helping them to make positive changes in how they think, feel and what they believe is possible. In doing so she has transformed the brands and people she works with.

In The Mind Makeover, Sharron Lowe shares her success strategies. She will show you how to: create a positive inner voice, stop negative influences ruling your life, and build your confidence and self-belief. So what are you waiting for? A mind lift is much better than a face lift, and your mind is the key to living your best life yet. The Mind Makeover is essential reading for anyone who wants to take control of their life.

Bestselling author and New York Times family columnist Bruce Feiler found himself squeezed between caring for ageing parents and raising his children. So he set out on a three-year journey to find the smartest ideas and the most cutting-edge research about families of all varieties, novel solutions to make his own family happier. Instead of the usual psychologists and family ‘experts’, he sought out the most creative minds – from Silicon Valley to the set of Modern Family, from top negotiators to the army – and asked them what team-building exercises and problem-solving techniques they use. Feiler then tested these ideas with his wife and kids. The result is a fun, completely original look at how families can draw closer together.

Felier’s life-changing discoveries include a radical plan to reshape your family in twenty minutes a week, Warren Buffett’s guide for setting an allowance, and the Harvard handbook for resolving conflict. The Secrets of Happy Families is a timely, counterintuitive book that answers the questions countless parents are asking: how do we manage the chaos of our lives? How do we teach our kids values? How do we make our family happier?

Written in a charming, accessible style, The Secrets of Happy Families is smart, funny and fresh, and will forever change how your family lives every day.

The way we look and feel has very little to do with our chronological age: positive thinking and changing your belief system are the most important factors in staying young.

In this exciting new book, leading therapist Marisa Peer explains how you can arrest the ageing process by harnessing the power of your subconscious mind. By changing your thinking, you can change your body and become physically and mentally at least ten years younger.

You Can Be Younger contains a ten-step programme to teach you how to:
Retrain your mind so you can stay young and vibrant
Use Marisa’s cell regeneration therapy to counteract the ageing process
Boost energy and visibly improve your skin’s appearance

Marisa Peer shares the secrets her celebrity clients know so that you too can look and feel more youthful.

When Dr Eben Alexander wrote about his own startling near-death experience in Proof of Heaven, he was contacted by countless people from all walks of life. His story had touched them personally and they in turn had their own miraculous experiences of the afterlife to share with Eben.

In The Map of Heaven, Eben recounts the astonishing stories he has heard on his travels, from near-death experiences and encounters with angelic beings to inspiring messages from departed loved ones. Each account helps us to understand just how vast the universe really is. Drawing on these accounts and lessons from religious leaders, philosophers and scientific investigations into the role of consciousness, Eben explores our true place in the universe and what exactly exists beyond death.

Everyday Blessings is a practical and inspiring book which offers a clear outline for people who want to understand and embrace mindful parenting. It is one of the few books on parenting that embraces the emotional, intuitive and deeply personal experience of being a parent and shows you how to apply the practice of mindfulness meditation to parenting children of all ages.

In the rush, rush, rush of too-much-to-do-and-no-time-to-do-it , the important, nurturing aspects of parenthood can easily disappear. Even the smallest degree of mindfulness can have profound effects on children, no matter how old they are, and on the quality of parent-child relationships. Jon Kabat-Zinn, a mindfulness pioneer, and his wife Myla share their experiences of using mindfulness within their own family. By encouraging moment-to-moment awareness and acceptance, this thoughtful and practical book will help you to slow down, grow in compassion, enrich your life as a parent and nourish the internal life of your children.

The hunger for authenticity guides us throughout our lives. People strive for joined-up living, where on the one hand what they say and do reflects what they think and feel, and on the other what they think and feel reflects who they are.

Stephen Joseph has pioneered developments in research into authenticity, drawing on the solid science of positive psychology to develop what has become one of the gold-standard tests for assessing authenticity. His and others’ findings reveal that when people are in relationships in which they feel accepted, understood and valued, they drop their defences. They naturally begin to examine themselves psychologically, accommodate new information and live more authentically. What’s more, the latest studies reveal that it is authenticity that leads to true happiness.

In Authentic, Stephen Joseph presents his fresh and inspiring perspective on the psychology of authenticity alongside practical advice and exercises for the reader. Drawing on the wisdom of existential philosophers, the insights and research of psychologists, and case studies from his own and others’ clinical experiences, he shows how authenticity is the foundation of human flourishing – as well as how the ideas relate to debates about the importance of happiness.

There are now thousands of students completing Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and other mindfulness programmes around the world. However, on completion many will struggle to continue or will stop, with the intention of starting again in the future. Why Can’t I Meditate? addresses this problem. It combines accounts by new meditators of their struggles, and successes, with insights from a wide variety of the most accomplished teachers, representing every school of mindfulness teaching. It identifies, investigates and offers many practical solutions to get our mindfulness unstuck and firmly establish a regular practice. This is a book for anyone who has sat on their meditation seat or cushion and wondered whether they should go on.

Contributors include: Stephen Batchelor, Rebecca Crane, Christina Feldman, Geshe Tashi Tsering, Choji Lama Rabsang, Willem Kuyken, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Franklin Sills, Philippa Vick and Martin Wells.

‘[A] timely book on compassion and its cultivation’ The Dalai Lama

‘The bravest, cleverest and most engaging book I know on why we need to cultivate compassion’ Jon Kabat-Zinn

‘A practical toolkit for becoming a better human being’ Daniel Goleman

Self-compassion is the overlooked key to achieving our goals. It can lead to increased happiness, stress reduction, a stronger sense of purpose, better health and a longer life. Yet many of us resist compassion, worrying that if we are too compassionate with others we will be taken advantage of and if we are too compassionate with ourselves we won’t achieve our goals in life.

Using the latest science, psychology (from contemporary Western and classical Buddhist sources) as well as stories from others and his own extraordinary life, Jinpa shows us how to train our compassion muscle. His powerful programme, derived from his remarkable course in Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT), is the perfect guide to achieving a greater sense of wellbeing.

‘This book is brilliant – read it and be prepared to reset your mood to happy. Your life won’t be the same again’ Daily Express

Everyone wants to be happy and successful and yet the pursuit of both has never been more elusive. We are urged to craft careers that matter, to achieve more and waste no time on the small stuff, to be actively engaged in our communities and, while we are at it, to relish every second. Rather than thriving, all this pressure leads to declining wellbeing, relationships and, paradoxically, productivity.

In The Happiness Track Emma Seppälä explains that behind our inability to achieve sustainable fulfillment are counterproductive theories of success. Success doesn’t have to come at our personal expense. Drawing on the latest research into resilience, willpower, growth mindset, stress, creativity, compassion, mindfulness, gratitude training and optimism, Seppälä shows how nurturing ourselves is the most productive thing we can do to thrive professionally and personally. Filled with practical advice on how to apply these findings to your daily life, The Happiness Track is a life-changing guide to fast-tracking your success and creating an anxiety-free life.

A relationship begins with the meeting of two unique energies. This union of energies determines the way you communicate, fight, love, and want to be loved. Donna Eden and David Feinstein draw on the real-life experiences of couples who have attended their popular ‘Energies of Love’ workshops, as well as their own experience as husband and wife, to show how an understanding of your energy system and that of your partner can help you build a more harmonious and loving bond.

We all have different ways of making sense of the world around us, but when faced with conflict, especially with those we care most about, we tend to revert to one of four ‘Energetic Stress Styles’:

* Visuals are extremely passionate and inspire others. In moments of conflict, their take on the situation can overshadow what is occurring, undermining their ability to empathize with their partner.
* Kinaesthetics are generous and compassionate but their caring nature pulls them in too many directions. They try to meet others’ needs at the expense of their own, causing resentment.
* Digitals are rational and principled but they can become closed to others’ perspectives and feelings.
* Tonals have a gift for understanding others but during conflict they can often misinterpret the signs, hearing what was never said, felt, or thought.

The Energies of Love is filled with tools to help you diffuse arguments and energy exercises to increase your overall sense of joy and wellbeing. This practical guide serves as a powerful resource for anyone who wishes to build a rich partnership while maintaining the spark that keeps a relationship exciting.

Plagued by anxiety and depression for much of his twenties and early thirties, Ed Halliwell frantically searched for ways to understand and relieve his distress. Eventually he stumbled on meditation and Buddhism, and discovered a path that was different from the other medical, psychological and spiritual cures he had tried. That path was mindfulness and the deeper he went into the practice the more it transformed his life, easing his depression and helping him see each moment as precious. A one-time editor for FHM magazine, Ed’s life has changed radically – he now teaches mindfulness to others.
In this book, Ed explores how mindfulness can help us see and transform our unhelpful biases and habits, enable us to live more at peace with stress and uncertainty, cultivate cheerfulness and compassion, and help us to find our life’s calling – if we are willing to journey to the heart of the practice. Offering his own experiences as inspiration, Ed emphasises that mindfulness training is a lifelong path and complete way of being rather than just a short course or quick fix. With practical advice and refreshing candour, he explores how working with the realities of our minds, bodies and day-to-day existence – rather than striving for positive results – can, paradoxically, help us rediscover a richly nourishing, deeply-textured life.

Living With Angels offers a practical introduction to angels and how to experience and communicate with them, as well as easy-to-follow exercises on how to contact your guardian angel. You will learn: how to call and work with your guardian angel and the archangel of your zodiac sign; how to call on angels and archangels for specific purposes, including protecting your family, travelling in safety, or nurturing close relationships; how you can work with angels to create a better life for yourself and others

Work deadlines, to-do lists, family commitments, pressure to perform… Our frantic lives demand so much from us that we can often feel locked into a cycle of frustration, anxiety and stress, unable to tackle the tasks before us or see a way out of our habitual ways of thinking and doing things. Yet there is a way out. The simple mindfulness techniques at the heart of this book can help us lead a more creative and productive life – one that is isn’t governed by the chaotic pace of life. They also dissolve anxiety, stress and depression while enhancing mental resilience. The four week programme takes just 10-20 minutes per day.

The easy-to-follow programme works by soothing and clearing your mind, allowing innovative ideas to take form and crystallise. This helps you to spontaneously ‘see’ the solution to a problem, to conjure up new ideas, or to create works that have true insight and flair. The programme helps build the courage necessary for you to follow your ideas wherever they should lead – and the resilience to cope with any setbacks. It will help your mind work more effectively so that you canlive more intuitively and have the inner confidence to drive your ideas forward.

The accompanying download link contains 6 meditations that you can use to build an ongoing practice, mixing and matching meditations to suit your circumstances

Transformational health expert Alexandra Jamieson is a woman on a mission. Having overcome her own food addictions and the weight and health problems these habits caused, she learned something life-altering: when we listen to our cravings, they will lead us onto the path of deep healing. Since her own personal breakthrough more than a decade ago, Alexandra has dedicated her life to helping other women learn to listen to the wisdom of their cravings and make food their greatest ally as they step into their lives with authentic passion.

In this powerfully feminine manifesto, Alexandra dares us to face our cravings head-on, to make the self-commitment to no longer hide out behind food, self-loathing or the limiting expectations of others. With love, deep compassion and fearless honesty, she calls upon all of us to boldly use food as a tool to cleanse ourselves of the nutritional, emotional, physical and mental blocks that limit our ability to live full, meaningful and joyful lives.

In this book she’ll show us how:
· Our cravings are the gatekeepers of our deepest longings and desires
· Transforming habits sets us free
· Detoxing unclutters our bodies and minds so we may engage in our lives with more power and authenticity
· Embracing our sexual selves makes us more powerful
· Trusting ourselves and surrounding ourselves with a nurturing community is essential for a vital, healthy, hot life

Alexandra Jamieson burst on to the scene when she co-starred in Super Size Me, the award-winning documentary by Morgan Spurlock. When the film wrapped, she wrote her first book, The Great American Detox Diet, which outlined the plan that first restored her, then Morgan Spurlock, back to health, and which revolutionised our thinking around using nutritional detox as a foundation for finding more balance in all areas of our lives.

Peter Lemesurier presents a gripping, blow-by-blow account of what we must expect for the next 50 years. He confronts the controversies surrounding Nostradamus and the seer’s dating system, and shows that the prophecies retain their potency at the dawning of a new era. For this new edition, Lemesurier includes many verses dealing specifically with the threat of invasion. Predictions include: The rise of a massive military power destined to move out of Asia via the Middle East into Europe; The apathy and incompetence of European leaders, with disastrous consequences for their countries; The resulting occupation and devastation of many parts of Europe, including Greece, Italy, Spain and France; Repression of Christianity and persecution of the Church; Severe flooding in various parts of the world, including Britain; A successful counter attack against the Asiatic invaders starting from British shores

Simple, effective exercises to reduce stress and renew your sense of contentment and joy

No matter who we are, or what stage of life we are at, we all long for similar things; to be happy, connected with others, in touch with a sense of calm and peace, vital, alive and joyful. And we long to be able to ride out the tough patches that hit all of us from time to time with some degree of grace and dignity.

The good news is that we can fulfil these longings at any time, in any place. They are only a moment away, a breath away. We can learn how to be comfortable with our body, know and understand our mind, and love our heart. It isn’t difficult, long-winded or time-consuming. In doing so you’ll feel happier in your own skin, less stressed, more confident, more capable and more at ease with yourself and life.

This is what Mindfulness for Women is about. It is a practical guide for busy women to coming home to yourself in each present moment. To finding the ledge behind the waterfall. To resting in the depths of the ocean rather than being tossed about by surface waves.

Mindfulness is a potent antidote to anxiety, stress, depression, exhaustion and irritability. It leads to a greater sense of contentment and can also reduce addictive and self-destructive behavioural patterns. This book will enable you to experience the benefits for yourself. It’s not designed as a lengthy course but is solutions-based. It’s fast – evidence shows that a little bit of mindfulness goes a long way. It’s also bespoke – you can read all of it cover to cover, or simply dip in and out, depending on what you want to focus on. You can listen to whichever meditation track suits you at any given time and you can run tracks together if you want to meditate for longer periods. It’s designed to suit your life and priorities now and well into the future.