Mindfulness

New York Times Bestseller

Foreword by Dr. Phil McGraw

Ask yourself...are you truly who you want to be? Is this the life you really want? Are you living each day as your best self? What can you change, today?

How would you answer those questions? Think about your daily life. Are you thriving, or going through the motions? Are your days full of work, relationships and activities that are true to your authentic self, or do you feel trapped on a treadmill of responsibility? If you dream of a better life, now is the time to turn your dream into reality. And the tools you need are within your grasp, to design a life that is fulfilling on the deepest levels. Best Self will show you how.

Mike Bayer, known to the thousands of clients whose lives he has changed as Coach Mike, has helped everyone from pop stars to business executives to people just like you discover the freedom to be their best selves. By asking them and leading them to ask themselves a series of important but tough questions--such as "What are your core values?" "Do you go to bed each day more knowledgeable than when you woke up?" and "Am I neglecting some aspect of my physical health out of fear or denial?"--he helps them see what their Best Selves and Anti-Selves really look like. As a mental health specialist, a personal development coach, and an all-around change agent, Mike has seen the amazing ways in which lives can improve with honesty and clarity. He understands our struggles intimately, because he's faced--and overcome--his own. And he knows that change is possible.

By working through each of the Seven SPHERES of life--Social, Personal, Health, Education, Relationships, Employment and Spiritual Development--Best Self is an accessible and interactive book that distills all of Coach Mike's wisdom into a compact, focused guide that will ignite anyone's desire for change. Chock full of revealing quizzes, and full of provocative questionnaires, Best Self will empower you to embrace your authenticity, acknowledge what is holding you back, and break through to live a passionate life to the fullest, forever.

The inimitable Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an associate justice of the US Supreme Court, embodies the power of persistence and integrity. Throughout her legal career, spanning nearly five decades, she has been an unwavering force for progress and a leading voice for equality and justice. Here, she reflects on her many years of service to the law, as well as her family life and struggle with cancer. With disarming honesty, Ginsburg discusses everything from gender equality and fitness to literature and the importance of hard work. Strong, hopeful and wise, her words stand as a guide for budding feminists and those who fight for justice around the world.

Inspired by Nelson Mandela's legacy and created in collaboration with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, I Know This to Be True is a global series of books created to spark a new generation of leaders.

This series offers encouragement and guidance to graduates, future leaders, and anyone hoping to make a positive impact on the world.
- Royalties from sales of the series support the free distribution of material from the series to the world's developing economy countries.
- A highly giftable and lovely hardcover with vivid photographic portraits throughout.

How would your life change if you genuinely accepted yourself, just the way you are? According to Dr. Tara Brach, feelings of shame and unworthiness are the source of many problems we experience with our relationships, careers, creative endeavors, and most fundamentally, our spiritual unfolding.

Course objectives:

Explain how feelings of shame and unworthiness are the source of many problems we experience with our relationships, careers, creative endeavors, and most fundamentally, our spiritual unfolding.
- Discuss Radical Self-Acceptance and how to free yourself from the grip of your insecurities about being good enough.
- Practice Radical Self-Acceptance as a way to discover the freedom that comes with kindness and true appreciation of yourself and others.
- Utilize insights from both Eastern contemplative traditions and Western psychotherapies to guide you through a full program of meditations and skills you need to become more compassionate toward the unforgivable parts of your Self.
On Radical Self-Acceptance, this respected clinical psychologist and Buddhist meditation teacher shows you how to free yourself from the grip of your insecurities about being good enough.

With insights from both Eastern contemplative traditions and Western psychotherapies, Dr. Brach guides you through a full program of meditations and skills you need to become more compassionate toward the unforgivable parts of your Self.

As Dr. Brach says, the most difficult--and pervasive--challenge to Westerners today is the suffering caused by our feelings of unworthiness and self-aversion. Radical Self-Acceptance offers a way to break out of this emotional prison, so you can discover the freedom that comes with kindness and true appreciation of yourself and others.

"Without The Artist's Way, there would have been no Eat, Pray, Love." --Elizabeth Gilbert

The Artist's Way is the seminal book on the subject of creativity. An international bestseller, millions of readers have found it to be an invaluable guide to living the artist's life. Still as vital today--or perhaps even more so--than it was when it was first published one decade ago, it is a powerfully provocative and inspiring work. In a new introduction to the book, Julia Cameron reflects upon the impact of The Artist's Way and describes the work she has done during the last decade and the new insights into the creative process that she has gained. Updated and expanded, this anniversary edition reframes The Artist's Way for a new century.

"A fresh, profound, and fun way to look at all things astro while also making spot-on observations about your pop culture faves." --Cosmopolitan

A soulful exploration of the twelve astrological signs embodied by our living "stars"--from divas to philosophers, poets to punks--and the ways they can help us better understand ourselves and each other, from the wildly popular astrology columnist for New York magazine's The Cut.

Whether you believe in it or not, astrology's job has never been to give us a preordained vision of the future, nor to sort us into twelve neat personality types, but to provide the tools and language for delving into our weirdest, best, most thorny contradictions, and for understanding ourselves and each other in our full complexity. The stars and the planets then are more like mirrors that show us who we are, that give us an understanding of how to be and how to move through the world; how certain people do it differently, and what we can learn by studying them.

In Madame Clairevoyant's Guide to the Stars, Claire Comstock-Gay brings the sky down to Earth and points to our popular "stars"--from Aretha Franklin to Mr. Rogers, from poets in Cancer to punk singers in Scorpio--to reveal what the sky has to teach us about being human. In this wise, lyrically written guide, she examines the twelve astrological signs, illuminating the ways each one is more complicated, beautiful, and surprising than you might have been told. Claire suggests that actually it's okay, and even important, to be a seeker, to hunger for self-knowledge, and if astrology is the vehicle for that inquiry, so be it.

Madame Clairevoyant's Guide to the Stars offers a clear introduction to the basics and an innovative new framework for creatively using astrology to illuminate our lives on earth. It's a road map to our internal world, yes, but Claire also reminds us that it's still our job to navigate it. Combining both heavenly insights and the earthly wisdom of writers like Cheryl Strayed and Heather Havrilesky and the poetry of Patricia Lockwood and Mary Oliver, Madame Clairevoyant's Guide to the Stars offers a fresh, profound, and fun way to look at ourselves and others, and perhaps see each more clearly. And in that way, this book is not just beautiful, but transformative.

Nearly every time you see him, he's laughing, or at least smiling. And he makes everyone else around him feel like smiling. He's the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, a Nobel Prize winner, and a hugely sought-after speaker and statesman. Why is he so popular? Even after spending only a few minutes in his presence you can't help feeling happier.

If you ask him if he's happy, even though he's suffered the loss of his country, the Dalai Lama will give you an unconditional yes. What's more, he'll tell you that happiness is the purpose of life, and that the very motion of our life is toward happiness. How to get there has always been the question. He's tried to answer it before, but he's never had the help of a psychiatrist to get the message across in a context we can easily understand.

The Art of Happiness is the book that started the genre of happiness books, and it remains the cornerstone of the field of positive psychology.

Through conversations, stories, and meditations, the Dalai Lama shows us how to defeat day-to-day anxiety, insecurity, anger, and discouragement. Together with Dr. Howard Cutler, he explores many facets of everyday life, including relationships, loss, and the pursuit of wealth, to illustrate how to ride through life's obstacles on a deep and abiding source of inner peace. Based on 2,500 years of Buddhist meditations mixed with a healthy dose of common sense, The Art of Happiness is a book that crosses the boundaries of traditions to help readers with difficulties common to all human beings. After being in print for ten years, this book has touched countless lives and uplifted spirits around the world.

"This marvelous book opens the treasure house of Zen and yet, happily, does not dispel its mystery. James Ford, an excellent storyteller and longtime Zen practitioner, presents a detailed and beautiful description of the craft of zazen, including "just sitting" and various forms of breath meditation--but focuses primarily on koan introspection.

The power of koans, these 'public cases' from China, has never ceased to enrich my own experience of Zen. They are a medium of exploration of the history, culture, and view of Zen, but most importantly are a medium of awakening.

James Ford is fundamentally a koan person, and for this, the book is particularly rich, opening the practice of koans in a splendid way. I am grateful for his long experience as a teacher and practitioner of this rare and powerful practice. Since the word koan has found its way into popular English usage, I am grateful too for the more nuanced and fertile view of koans that Ford presents. His definition of the word is telling: "a koan points to something of deep importance, and invites us to stand in that place."

He has also has created a wonderful translation of the Heart Sutra, Zen's central scripture--and carefully opens up the heart of the Heart Sutra through scholarship and practice. Rich in textual sources and woven throughout with the perspectives of contemporary teachers, Introduction to Zen Koans sheds new light on ancient teachings. Through it, the reader will discover the importance of lineage, the traceless traces of the Zen ancestors, and the places of "just sitting" and koan practice as paths to awakening, as the great doorways into Zen."
--from the foreword by Joan Halifax

Many have suspected that your birthday affects your personality and how you relate to others. Nineteen years and over one million copies later, The Secret Language of Birthdays continues to fascinate readers by describing the characteristics associated with being born on a particular day. The 366 personality profiles are based on astrology, numerology, the tarot, and Gary Goldschneider's observations of more than 14,000 people. Your strengths, weaknesses, and major concerns will be illuminated while you are given practical advice and spiritual guidance. After you study your profile, it will be hard to resist examining those of family, friends, colleagues, and even celebrities.

Like nearly one in five people, Matt Haig suffers from depression. Reasons to Stay Alive is Matt's inspiring account of how, minute by minute and day by day, he overcame the disease with the help of reading, writing, and the love of his parents and his girlfriend (and now-wife), Andrea. And eventually, he learned to appreciate life all the more for it.

Everyone's lives are touched by mental illness: if we do not suffer from it ourselves, then we have a friend or loved one who does. Matt's frankness about his experiences is both inspiring to those who feel daunted by depression and illuminating to those who are mystified by it. Above all, his humor and encouragement never let us lose sight of hope. Speaking as his present self to his former self in the depths of depression, He is adamant that the oldest cliché is the truest--there is light at the end of the tunnel. He teaches us to celebrate the small joys and moments of peace that life brings, and reminds us that there are always reasons to stay alive.

The story of Jonah is one of the most well-known parables in the Bible. It is also the most misunderstood. Many people, even those who are nonreligious, are familiar with Jonah: A rebellious prophet who defies God and is swallowed by a whale. But there's much more to Jonah's story than most of us realize.

In Rediscovering Jonah, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller reveals the hidden depths within the book of Jonah. Keller makes the case that Jonah was one of the worst prophets in the entire Bible. And yet there are unmistakably clear connections between Jonah, the prodigal son, and Jesus. Jesus in fact saw himself in Jonah. How could one of the most defiant and disobedient prophets in the Bible be compared to Jesus?

Jonah's journey also doesn't end when he is freed from the belly of the fish. There is an entire second half to his story--but it is left unresolved within the text of the Bible. Why does the book of Jonah end on what is essentially a cliffhanger? In these pages, Timothy Keller provides an answer to the extraordinary conclusion of this biblical parable--and shares the powerful Christian message at the heart of Jonah's story.

Christopher Kerr is a hospice doctor. All of his patients die. Yet he has cared for thousands of patients who, in the face of death, speak of love and grace. Beyond the physical realities of dying are unseen processes that are remarkably life-affirming. These include dreams that are unlike any regular dream. Described as "more real than real," these end-of-life experiences resurrect past relationships, meaningful events and themes of love and forgiveness; they restore life's meaning and mark the transition from distress to comfort and acceptance.

Drawing on interviews with over 1,400 patients and more than a decade of quantified data, Dr. Kerr reveals that pre-death dreams and visions are extraordinary occurrences that humanize the dying process. He shares how his patients' stories point to death as not solely about the end of life, but as the final chapter of humanity's transcendence. Kerr's book also illuminates the benefits of these phenomena for the bereaved, who find solace in seeing their loved ones pass with a sense of calm closure.

Beautifully written, with astonishing real-life characters and stories, this book is at its heart a celebration of our power to reclaim the dying process as a deeply meaningful one. Death Is But a Dream is an important contribution to our understanding of medicine's and humanity's greatest mystery.

In the tradition of the spiritual classics The Shack and The Screwtape Letters comes a captivating and poignant debut novel from the revered Jesuit priest and New York Times bestselling author of Jesus and The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything.

A divorced single mom, Anne can barely cope with life and struggles to make sense of the death of her young son.

A former architect with a promising career, Mark works as a handyman and wonders how his life got off track.

The abbot of the Abbey of Saints Philip and James, Father Paul sometimes questions whether he made the right decision in secluding himself so thoroughly from the world.

At this Pennsylvania abbey, this unlikely trio will discover the answers they seek--a miracle of hope and understanding that bears witness to the power of God to bring healing and wholeness to our lives.

Written with the compassion, insight, and warmth of his previous bestsellers--Jesus, Between Heaven and Mirth, and The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything--Father James Martin's debut novel is infused with deep spiritual wisdom, wry humor, and loving grace. Through his characters' struggles, questions, and crises, we see firsthand how God uses our worries, anger, doubts, prayers, failures, and longings to help us complete ourselves and feel wholly loved.

How did our forebears begin to think about religion as a distinct domain, separate from other activities that were once inseparable from it? Starting at the birth of Christianity--a religion inextricably bound to Western thought--Jack Miles reveals how the West's "common sense" understanding of religion emerged and then changed as insular Europe discovered the rest of the world. In a moving postscript, he shows how this very story continues today in the hearts of individual religious or irreligious men and women.

This collection of autobiographical and teaching stories from peace activist and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is thought provoking, inspiring, and enjoyable to read. Collected here for the first time, these stories span the author's life. There are stories from Thich Nhat Hanh's childhood and the traditions of rural Vietnam. There are stories from his years as a teenaged novice, as a young teacher and writer in war torn Vietnam, and of his travels around the world to teach mindfulness, make pilgrimages to sacred sites, and influence world leaders.

The tradition of teaching the Dharma through stories goes back at least to the time of the Buddha. Like the Buddha, Thich Nhat Hanh uses story-telling to engage people's interest so he can share important teachings, insights, and life lessons.

John O'Donohue, poet, philosopher, and scholar, guides you through the spiritual landscape of the Irish imagination. In Anam Cara, Gaelic for soul friend, the ancient teachings, stories, and blessings of Celtic wisdom provide such profound insights on the universal themes of friendship, solitude, love, and death as:

Your complete one-volume guide to the year 2020. This fantastic and in-depth book includes month-by-month forecasts for every sign and all you need to know to find out what is in store for you in the year ahead.

The only one-volume horoscope you'll ever need.

Your essential guide to love, life and career success in 2020.

This popular, complete one-volume guide contains all you need to know about your personal horoscope for the year 2020. Be prepared for the forthcoming year with monthly predictions for your own sign and discover how to maximise your opportunities and potential to make the most of 2020.

This bestselling astrological guide contains:

- A personality profile for each sign

- A forecast for the year ahead - what you can expect in terms of wealth, home, health, social and love life

- A month-by-month forecast of your best days and worst days - the ideal days to attract love, money or success, and when it's better to just stay in bed!

Joseph Polansky is a leading US astrologer who has been practising astrology for over 20 years.

The future is in your hands: Readers will open this inviting book in their hands and see what it offers. Die-cut in the shape of a hand, each page falls open to reveal one of 75 prompts and charming illustrated objects that inspire positive guidance, reflection, and contemplation.

Filled with 75 wise mementos to accompany you on the journey of everyday life.

Heart of Gold is brimming with creative ideas for volunteering and community service. With prompts for simple acts of kindness and service, like smiling at a stranger, planting a tree or flowers in your community, or taking a shelter dog for a walk, and gold sticker hearts for marking your finished good deeds, this charming and hard-working little book will help you make the world a better place day by day.

"Superb survey of the paranormal ... I cannot recommend it highly enough." - New York Times bestselling author Herbie Brennan

This is the most entertaining and broad survey of the paranormal ever made, combining forgotten lore, evidence from parapsychological experiments and the testament of scientists, archaeologists, anthropologists, psychologists, physicists and philosophers, and also quite a few celebrities. Exploring the possibility that paranormal phenomena may be - and that some most likely are - objectively real, this travelogue through the twilight zone of human consciousness is both scientifically rigorous and extremely entertaining.

Readers may be surprised to learn that reputable scientists, among them several Nobel laureates, have claimed that telepathy is a reality, that Cleopatra's lost palace and Richard III's burial place were recovered by means of clairvoyance, and that an espionage program using psychics was set up by the US military! The author proposes that all humans (perhaps all living beings) are linked together in a sort of "mental internet" that allows us to exchange "telepathic emails" and make clairvoyant downloads of information. Could it be that what we usually call "supernatural" is a natural but little understood communication via this mental internet? An engaging, entertaining and informative analysis of a controversial subject, in which these phenomena are approached as potential expressions of unexplained powers of the human mind.