This essential meditation manual for the Western reader shares step-by-step guidance to elevating your meditation practice and discovering greater peace and insight. The Mind Illuminated is a comprehensive, accessible and - above all - effective book on meditation, providing a nuts-and-bolts stage-based system that helps all levels of meditators establish and deepen their practice. Providing step-by-step guidance for every stage of the meditation path, this uniquely comprehensive guide for a Western audience combines the wisdom from the teachings of the Buddha with the latest research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Clear and friendly, this in-depth practice manual builds on the nine-stage model of meditation originally articulated by the ancient Indian sage Asanga, crystallizing the entire meditative journey into 10 clearly-defined stages. The book also introduces a new and fascinating model of how the mind works, and uses illustrations and charts to help the reader work through each stage. This manual is an essential read for the beginner to the seasoned veteran of meditation.

Christianity Today Award of Merit In the midst of our hectic, overscheduled lives, caring for the soul is imperative. Now, more than ever, we need to pause-intentionally-and encounter the Divine. Soul care director Barbara Peacock illustrates a journey of prayer, spiritual direction, and soul care from an African American perspective. She reflects on how these disciplines are woven into the African American culture and lived out in the rich heritage of its faith community. Using examples of ten significant men and women-Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Darrell Griffin, Renita Weems, Harold Carter, Jessica Ingram, Coretta Scott King, James Washington, and Howard Thurman-Barbara offers us the opportunity to engage in practices of soul care as we learn from these spiritual leaders. If you've yearned for a more culturally authentic experience of spiritual transformation in your life and community, this book will help you grow in new yet timeless ways. Come to the river to draw deeply for your soul's refreshment.

Weaving together ancient wisdom and scientific research, Dr Shauna Shapiro formulates the most potent practices for living a happy, meaningful life. Individually, these practices will help you sculpt neuropathways of clarity and calm. Collectively, they will help us live in a more connected, compassionate world. The practice of mindfulness works. It's good for you. It strengthens immune function, reduces stress, improves sleep, and offers countless other benefits. It primes the mind for joy, it creates a roadmap for strengthening the brain's circuitry of deep calm, contentment and clarity. Dr Shapiro offers the science and the practice of mindfulness, showing the reader how to rewire and re-balance their own individual negativity bias, create new pathways for curiosity, joy and focused attention. This is ultimate training for the monkey mind. 'Shauna Shapiro is known internationally for her outstanding contribution to research and clinical work on the very frontier of the mindfulness field. She is one those rare scientist-practitioners who contribute not only new methods but new and deeper understandings of mind - its challenges and its potential' - Mark Williams, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Oxford, and author of international bestseller Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world

Are you stressed out, overbooked, and underwhelmed by life? Fed up with pleasing everyone else before you please yourself? It's time to stop giving a f*ck with this write-in journal. This brilliant, hilarious, and practical journal explains how to rid yourself of unwanted obligations, shame, and guilt, and give your f*cks instead to people and things that make you happy. The easy-to-use, two-step NotSorry method for mental decluttering will help you unleash the power of not giving a f*ck about family drama, having a "bikini body," coworkers' annoying opinions, pets, and children, and tons of other bullsh*t. This write-in journal has plenty of space to record the things you want to give a f*ck about, guided exercises for freeing yourself of unwanted obligations, and lots of charts, graphs, and straight-talking advice to help you save your time, money, and energy for the things that really matter. The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck Journal is your invitation to stop giving a f*ck and start living your best life today!

IT TAKES JUST TEN MINUTES a day train your mind - you will feel more awake, more alive and more creative. Using these carefully researched exercises you can increase your attention span, realise your potential and use your mind to its full capacity. Yes, just ten...short ... minutes. Nearly half of our waking hours are spent thinking about something other than what we are doing. We are only aware of a tiny fraction of what we are thinking, feeling and sensing - so we're barely conscious of how and why we behave the way we do. This book sets out to help you get your mind out of automatic more often. The human mind is an extraordinary thing. It determines the way we experience and respond to whatever life throws at us. Yet most of us live as though we have no control over our minds. This is simply not true. If we want to change our lives in any way, the most effective way to do that is to change the way our mind is shaped - the way in which we interpret and respond to everyday events as well as to our own thoughts and feelings. Mind Time contains simple, clear exercises that take only ten minutes per day and our research tells us that if you do these exercises, your life will change. The exercises build three core capacities - curiosity, self-awareness and acceptance. If you do them, and build these capacities, you will become less reactive and more responsive. This will lead to positive benefits in several key areas: your relationships, your ability to deal with unexpected events and your capacity to stay purposeful and to see your life as a matter of choices rather than seemingly impossible challenges. Just set aside ten minutes each day to engage in a few simple practices, then after a short while you will start to see a transformation for the better. That's our promise to you. Isn't it time we learned to shape our minds - not be shaped by them?

"The Art Of Feeling Good" unveils ase Yoga, a self-healing practice that transcends our obstacles and transforms our lives. African American women in the United States and the Diaspora share a unique history, which has affected how we feel about ourselves. Something happen, yet we don't talk about it. But, even if we choose not to deal with the chaos of the past, the suffering of our foremothers will not fade away. Knowing the history is not enough. Healing from the "enslavement process" is crucial to connecting with our beauty and feeling good. In "The Art of Feeling Good," Dr. Robbin Alston takes us on a journey to the balancing power of ase Yoga. As a guide, this book encourages African American women to begin embracing and re-claiming yoga as practice for healing. Using our ancient mystical systems, knowing who we are, reconnecting with a universal holistic spirit-mind-body energy practice, with ase Yoga, we begin to re-member, to re-discover our real identity. Dr. Alston introduces the balancing power of ase Yoga, a blend of personal energy, healing asanas, healthy lifestyles, breath connection, rhythmic movements and guided meditations designed to activate our vital energy centers, rebalance our life force and engender authentic relationships with self and others It's time to feel good. "The Art of Feeling Good" offers a path to wellness, right relationships and mindful choices. This book shares with you an empowering healing process that supports your journey toward self-realization and feeling good.

Take a deep breath and feel the love overflowing within you. Take a deep breath and feel the energy of the Universe holding you. And take one more deep breath and tell yourself - everything is going to be alright. Successful writer Phoebe Garnsworthy has crafted the perfect combination of affirmations, daily rituals, spiritual practices, journaling, and meditation to help others find the sacred space to connect with their own souls. Through the power of self-love and self-care, Phoebe guides others to reveal the divine light within themselves. Create a sacred space to honor your soul, in I Affirm My Power: Everyday Affirmations and Rituals to Create the Life that You Desire.

Many people are discovering in meditation a way to find peace of mind and a more centred focus on their true inner nature. This book is the first of the series of volumes where spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy answers a very wide range of questions about meditation, including the meaning of different meditation experiences, how to make meditation practical and the intrinsic value of meditation. Topics include: What is the best way to meditate; How to begin meditation; How to empty the mind; How to develop better concentration; The significance of mantras; How to keep inner peace in the outside world; Understanding of higher experiences in meditation.

Healing meditations to process loss and grief by beloved Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh.

A comforting book that will offer relief to anyone moving through intense grief and loss, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh shares accessible, healing words of wisdom to transform our suffering.

In the immediate aftermath of a loss, sometimes it is all we can do to keep breathing. With his signature clarity and compassion, Thich Nhat Hanh will guide you through the storm of emotions surrounding the death of a loved one.

How To Live When A Loved One Dies offers powerful practices such as mindful breathing that will help you reconcile with death and loss, feel connected to your loved one long after they have gone and transform your grief into healing and joy.

Research shows that the stress points in children's daily lives are on the increase and can have a negative impact on their ability to learn, relate to others and to themselves. This practical resource: explains and demystifies relaxation, meditation and visualisation; provides an educational rationale backed up by case study material that shows the benefits of helping children to develop 'stillpoints' in order to neutralise stress, develop a stronger sense of 'self' and create 'optimum' learning states; includes a very practical and unique resource for use in the classroom or home. Based on sound educational, yogic and psychological philosophies, each of the 7 tracks has a specific theme and is only 5 minutes long: Track 1: Relaxation - 5/6 minutes (sitting in a chair); Track 2: Heart Meditation - 5/6 minutes (sitting in a chair); Track 3: Finding Peacefulness - 5/6 minutes (sitting in a chair); Track 4: Pack Up Your Troubles - 5/6 minutes (sitting in a chair); Track 5: Finding Silence - 5/6 minutes (sitting in a chair); Track 6: The Learning Tree - 5/6 minutes (sitting cross-legged); Track 7: The Learning Tree 2 - 5/6 minutes (lying down). The handbook provides the rationale for the 'why' and the downloadable resources provide the guidance and practical application on the 'how'.

A practical sophrology guide to reducing stress and living up to your full potential. 'I like Antiglio. She is calming.' - The Times Sophrology is a unique stress management and personal development technique to help you relax, feel confident and cope with life's ups and downs. It is a straightforward method combining relaxation, breathing, body awareness and visualisation into a step by step practice and it has the power to radically transform your life. Sophrology is already extremely popular on the continent. Elite athletes, CEOs and pop stars, among others, have used the techniques to dramatically improve their professional performance and reach a state of balance. It is also used in schools, as well as in the workplace, to enhance wellbeing. Dominique Antiglio, a globally sought-after and highly praised sophrologist, guides you through the key exercises to manage stress, improve your sleep, prepare for events, boost your confidence and positively transform your daily life. By learning the basics of sophrology, you will feel happier and discover inner strength and resilience you never knew you had. Featuring practical tips, case studies and 13 audio downloads, this leading book on sophrology is a must-have self-help resource. 'The simplest, most natural way of calming and focusing our lives lies in front of our noses, breathing. This book will transform all our lives if we follow its helpful suggestions.' - Sir Anthony Seldon 'Sophrology looks set to be the ... answer to all our problems' - The Guardian 'Sophrology is big news in the wellness world.' - ELLE 'You've heard of mindfulness, now meet its dynamic young cousin sophrology' - The Observer

Find balance and healing with The Zenned Out Guide to Understanding Chakras. The Zenned Out Guide to Understanding Chakrascovers the seven energy points in your body-the Root, Sacral, Solar Plexus, Heart, Throat, Third Eye, and the Crown. Discover how each chakra connects to some part of your body, emotion, and energy. In this gorgeous guide, learn how to tap into your energy centers and unblock specific chakras for a more balanced, relaxed, and healthier you. Ignite the power of your energy by using crystals, essential oils, herbs, and different techniques to help transform your mind, body, and spirit. You'll: Learn the benefits and history behind the chakra system and how it connects to the subtle energy body and auras. Explore the various correspondences, essences, and mantras that are related to each specific chakra point, so you can better understand how to balance each one. Uncover which chakras are underactive or overactive and work with specific crystals and herbs to help balance them. Find out how to know if your chakra is closed. Practice the power of meditation and breathing techniques to keep your chakras open and healthy. Use your intuition to feel and sense chakra energy. Perform chakra readings on yourself and others using a pendulum! With the power of the chakra system, you'll soon be enhancing your magickal toolbelt and leading an abundant life. The Zenned Outseries is an open invitation to seasoned and curious spiritualists who want to explore their craft. With Cassie Uhl's approachable steps and explanations to mystical tools and symbolism, readers can start using the information right away.

John Aiken and his wife Louise, both M.D.'s by profession, have a significant place in the psychedelic chronicles, but their story has been poorly documented. After both sons died by drowning in separate accidents, they retired to New Mexico for spiritual research, with and without psychedelics. Art Kleps, author of The Boo Hoo Bible, has credited their Church Of Awakening as being the very first non-Native American psychedelic church to be registered in the U.S. in 1963, predating both Klep's and Tim Leary's Millbrookers by a couple of years. Aiken's 1966 Explorations in Awareness, draws on a vast array of ancient and modern sources, presenting an esoteric doctrine of self-realization and ultimate transcendence, told in a pure, stripped-down style that displays self-confidence. It is a delight to read because it was a new psychedelic path with vedic-yogic along with Christian and Native American influences, and not a rehashed insight of Hippy "trips." The book includes trip reports, including one from an Indian guru, who does a respect-worthy attempt to interpret the cosmologic-metaphysic experiences of an acid trip into plain English. Aiken's early discussion of LSD vibe is very different from what followed during the Hippy years, and deserves much greater recognition than received. Aiken's approach to enlightenment is rooted in meditating while using psychedelics--peyote, magic mushrooms. This derivative of Aiken's classic Work picks up where Aiken and his wife left off back in the late Sixties--fifty years ago. While Aiken discusses meditation, he doesn't provide specific techniques for doing so and how to get over resistance and other side-tracks. Meditation had just been introduced to Americans by The Beatles in "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine" and other pop songs that captured psychic explorers' imagination. In this derivative, author Beverly Potter (Docpotter) will add specific how-to instructions, with illustrations, on how to meditate effectively, including how to "sit," how to defeat "the Money Mind," and how to handle other challenges psychonauts meet along the path to enlightenment. The volume will include a foreword by Michale Marinacci, author of California Jesus and Weird California, about the significance of The Church of the Awakening among the early non-Native American psychedelic churches. A second foreword by Dr. Carl Ruck, Professor of Classics at Boston University and author of Mushrooms of the Goddess and Entheogens, Myth, and Human Consciousness will address mystic self-transcendence ecstatic visions achieved with psychedelic meditation and answer the question: can psychedelics lead to God--a question Aiken posed in a 1966 article in Fate Magazine.