Long considered a classic text by teachers and students, The Root of Chinese Qigong offers the principles and theories of qigong practice. This third edition includes Updated pinyin that includes diacritical tonal marks (for proper pronunciation of Chinese words). Updated Chinese text character font (providing better readability). Dr. Yang is acclaimed for helping readers understand qigong concepts deeper and more clearly by expressing them in familiar methods for the Western mind. He takes these ancient concepts and presents them in a logical way that helps practitioners stay on the right path to deepen knowledge and skill. In this book Dr. Yang teaches sitting and standing meditation, demonstrates qi massage techniques, and examines the Qi pathways in your body. He explains correct breathing methods, shares secrets for quieting the mind, and discusses how to increase your body's qi supply. He further explains important concepts such as the Three Treasures and regulating the body, breath, and mind. Contents include Qigong's history Basic concepts of qigong Qi and the human body The five categories of qigong Regulating body, breath and mind Regulating your essence, qi and spirit Key points for improving practice A detailed look at qi channels and vessels in the body Whatever style of qigong you may practice, making sense of qigong theory and principles is the best way of achieving your goals sooner, more accurately, and deeper.

Aware provides practical instruction for mastering the Wheel of Awareness, a life-changing tool for cultivating more focus, presence, and peace in one's day-to-day life.

An in-depth look at the science that underlies meditation's effectiveness, this book teaches readers how to harness the power of the principle "Where attention goes, neural firing flows, and neural connection grows." Siegel reveals how developing a Wheel of Awareness practice to focus attention, open awareness, and cultivate kind intention can literally help you grow a healthier brain and reduce fear, anxiety, and stress in your life.

Whether you have no experience with a reflective practice or are an experienced practitioner, Aware is a hands-on guide that will enable you to become more focused and present, as well as more energized and emotionally resilient in the face of stress and the everyday challenges life throws your way.

From the winner of The President Joseph R. Biden Lifetime Achievement Award, a spiritual guide to restoring yourself from racial trauma and committing to the long work of dismantling racism. In her work as Executive Director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing, Meeks has fought tirelessly to shed light on racism and provide tools and experiences to enable faith communities to work to combat it. In this new book, she shares highlights and insights from her journey and offers a much-needed meditative guide for the weary and frustrated. By looking inward and at each other clearly, she argues, good people of all backgrounds can forge a long term and individual path to making a difference. With personal stories and thoughtful direction, she takes the reader on the trajectory from self-awareness to recognition of the past to a new and individual way forward. Meditation topics include how to work through fear and rage, how stories can help heal, honoring your ancestors while looking toward the future, what it really means to love one another and the meaning of social justice.

The instant New York Times bestseller | A Washington Post Notable Book | One of NPR's Best Books of the Year "Expert storytelling . . . [Pollan] masterfully elevates a series of big questions about drugs, plants and humans that are likely to leave readers thinking in new ways." -New York Times Book Review From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan, a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants-and the equally powerful taboos. Of all the things humans rely on plants for-sustenance, beauty, medicine, fragrance, flavor, fiber-surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Take coffee and tea: People around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. But we do not usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable. So, then, what is a "drug"? And why, for example, is making tea from the leaves of a tea plant acceptable, but making tea from a seed head of an opium poppy a federal crime? In This Is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs-opium, caffeine, and mescaline-and throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs while consuming (or, in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants. Why do we go to such great lengths to seek these shifts in consciousness, and then why do we fence that universal desire with laws and customs and fraught feelings? In this unique blend of history, science, and memoir, as well as participatory journalism, Pollan examines and experiences these plants from several very different angles and contexts, and shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively-as a drug, whether licit or illicit. But that is one of the least interesting things you can say about these plants, Pollan shows, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. Based in part on an essay published almost twenty-five years ago, this groundbreaking and singular consideration of psychoactive plants, and our attraction to them through time, holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds, and our entanglement with the natural world.

Inner peace is within your reach A busy mind is one of the hazards of modern-day life, and it can be a huge drain on your energy and well-being. But be assured: whether you find it difficult to keep unwanted thoughts at bay or you've just got a hundred and one things to think about, there are ways to relax and unwind that can be learned, practised and perfected. Filled with helpful tips, soothing statements and calming activities, How to Quieten Your Mind will put you back in the driving seat and help you to feel relaxed, more in control and at peace with yourself.

As the health benefits of mindfulness have been increasingly recognized, and the practice has moved from spiritual and new age to secular realms, misconceptions have multiplied. So what is the reality? How can one thing help so many people in such different ways, even those who would have previously thought it near impossible to tame their racing minds and live with more awareness?In this incisive guide, neuroscientist, clinical psychologist, martial artist and mindfulness teacher Dr Tamara Russell demystifies the confusions that often get in the way of mindfulness training by addressing the most frequently asked questions, including: # What does mindfulness really mean and what are its benefits? # How does it actually work? # Where does it come from? # How can we get the most from it? # What are the future possibilities with it? The Q&A approach, coupled with a range of practical exercises that allow you to explore the art of mindfulness for yourself, takes you on a real behind-the-scenes tour of this potentially life-changing practice, in turn helping us to live calmer, more contented lives.