What is meditation? What do people hope to get from practicing it and what do they really get? How can the effects of meditation be explained? And what are the best approaches to researching the psychology of meditation so we can understand more? This volume provides state-of-the-art answers to these questions. Contrary to commonly accepted wisdom, meditation comes in huge varieties and the reasons why people begin to meditate (and stay with it) are also numerous and diverse. Even mindfulness, which is often (wrongly) used as a synonym for meditation, comes in many forms. This book first describes the varieties of meditation in detail and then succinctly summarizes the beneficial effects found in the avalanche of studies available, especially in clinical contexts, and also explores recently emerging topics such as negative effects and the impact of ethics and spirituality. The author expertly provides theories of four main traditional meditation approaches, which has never been done before in this form, and gives a critical overview of Western approaches to explain the effects of meditation. In conclusion, he makes recommendations on how to improve future meditation research. This book is of interest to meditation researchers, mental health practitioners, students interested in meditation and mindfulness, and to everybody who seriously wants to know more about the topic.

Have you ever felt stuck or unmotivated about life? Are there things you want to do or dreams you want to achieve, but you don't know how to get started or how to reach your goals? In Cut the Crap and Feel Amazing, experienced hypnotherapist Ailsa Frank provides you with the knowledge and tools you need to take control of your life and ensure that it follows a more positive direction - the direction in which you want it to go. The techniques described in this book will help you to cut out the negative habits in your life and make improvements where they are needed - work, relationships, health, finance, finding love and more. Making regular small changes to your mindset will enable you to make bigger changes in your life. You don't need to know your whole life plan, you just need to focus on one small thing to get yourself started. Cut the Crap and Feel Amazing offers a helping hand to get you on track and keep your life moving forwards in a positive direction.