The Wild Region of Lived Experience introduces the emerging discipline of somatic-psychoeducation, a powerful body-mind modality developed over a period of 25 years by author Danis Bois. Somatic-psychoeducation uses aspects of manual therapy (touch), movement, and psychotherapeutic methods to help people heal from physical and emotional issues, as well as develop their maximum potential for balance, well-being, and creativity. Considering the person as a body-mind unit, this method aims to resolve physical pain and psychological suffering, thereby helping the subject regain the sure sense of his or her life. By teaching people to perceive, to feel, and to reflect, they learn from their bodies and from events in their lives. Parts I and II of the book provide a general description of somatic-psychoeducation, as seen through Bois’s career path and personal experience. Part III introduces the idea of “bodymind tuning,” which involves methods of touch, movement, introspection, and verbal dialogue to connect the patient more fully to his or her body, thoughts, and behavior. Part IV explores the origin and evolution of physical and psychological pain and explains how somatic-psychoeducation helps people heal. This is an ideal reference for movement educators and therapists, as well as those seeking a holistic approach to their own healing.

A critique of--and alternative to--pure narrative approaches to life-history, offered by a distinguished Hungarian philospher

Weaving together biology, living systems thinking, and somatic movement, these nine short essays will inspire somatic therapists, bodyworkers, and movement educators Liz Koch, author of Core Awareness and The Psoas Book, seeks to dissolve the objectification of "body" in order to reconceptualize human beings as biologically intelligent, self-organizing, and self-healing. Specifically addressing educators and therapists, she delves into the conceptual framework of core by decolonizing the popular mechanistic thinking of psoas as muscle, inviting the reader on a journey toward reengaging with life's creative processes. The book illuminates the limitations of the predominant paradigm of body and actively explores psoas as a vital, intelligent messenger that links us to an expansive network of profound possibilities. Employing biomorphic and embryonic paradigms, Koch redefines psoas as smart, expressive tissue that is both elemental and universal. Named after her popular exploratory workshops of the same name, Stalking Wild Psoas encourages all readers to nourish integrity and claim self-efficacy as creative and expressive individuals.

Alasdair MacIntyre explores some central philosophical, political and moral claims of modernity and argues that a proper understanding of human goods requires a rejection of these claims. In a wide-ranging discussion, he considers how normative and evaluative judgments are to be understood, how desire and practical reasoning are to be characterized, what it is to have adequate self-knowledge, and what part narrative plays in our understanding of human lives. He asks, further, what it would be to understand the modern condition from a neo-Aristotelian or Thomistic perspective, and argues that Thomistic Aristotelianism, informed by Marx's insights, provides us with resources for constructing a contemporary politics and ethics which both enable and require us to act against modernity from within modernity. This rich and important book builds on and advances MacIntyre's thinking in ethics and moral philosophy, and will be of great interest to readers in both fields.

An indispensible resource for those interested in all forms of movement education, including yoga, pilates, dance, and more Somatic educator and writer Liz Koch has spent decades studying the principles of Core Awareness—a body-based approach to movement that utilizes attention to inner sensation as the key to increasing strength, gaining flexibility, preventing injury, and improving resilience. In this book, she shares her vast knowledge of Core Awareness with readers, providing movements, stretches, and mindfulness explorations that she developed herself. Her exercises are designed to enhance sensory development and shift readers from the standard paradigm of the body as an "isolated object" to a holistic paradigm of the human being as part of a living process of dynamic expression. This shift in perspective offers practitioners and teachers of movement, yoga, pilates, bodywork, exercise, and dance an empowering model for self-healing and the key to becoming stronger, more flexible, and more resilient. As Koch describes the practice of moving from one's core, she highlights the importance of engaging the psoas muscle—located on either side of the spine—to integrate the body, mind, emotion, and spirit. Koch also discusses how the pelvis is the foundation of our physical core, the vital connection with our bones, and crucial in gaining a sense of support, nourishment, joint integrity, skeletal balance, and healthy muscle tone. Rewritten with updated information, this revised edition includes 247 new photos and 25 new Core Awareness explorations—with 64 in total. A suggested reading list at the end of the book provides resources for continuing the development of the ideas presented within the book.

This book presents hundreds of safe, practical, and effective tools and techniques to alleviate anxiety, an epidemic that affects nearly 20 percent of Americans. Author and seasoned physician Marcey Shapiro, MD, shares how her personal struggle with this widespread syndrome led her to discover that there is not one treatment program that works for everyone and provides a wide range of integrative methods that will help readers find real and transformative relief. Dr. Shapiro grappled with anxiety on her own path to greater health and wholeness and observed, through her personal experience and that of treating numerous patients who suffer from the heartache and despair that anxiety causes, that finding peace involves a spiritual journey of self-awareness and self-acceptance. She has successfully helped herself and her patients bring ease and peace of mind back into their lives using a diverse assortment of complementary techniques, including dietary changes, visualizations, shifting thoughts, breathing techniques, nutritional supplements, herbs, homeopathy, bodywork, aromatherapy, flower essences, and acupuncture, as well as more commonplace Western techniques such as medication and therapy, when appropriate. Offering a variety of nondogmatic, empowering tools for enhancing personal growth, Freedom from Anxiety will help anxiety sufferers find ways, many of them free or very low cost, to achieve immediate relief as well as long term care and treatment. It can be read from cover to cover or perused for specific problems or solutions. Readers are able to take advantage of Dr. Shapiro's vast knowledge and research as well as her engaging personal anecdotes and those from her decades of clinical practice.

Whereas for the wider public Jan Patocka is known mainly as a defender of human rights and one of the first spokespersons of Charter 77, who died in Prague several days after long interrogations by secret police of the Communist regime, the international philosophical community sees in him an important and inspiring thinker, who in an original way elaborated the great impulses of European thought – mainly Husserl’s phenomenology and Heidegger’s philosophy of existence. Patocka also reflected on history and the future of humanity in a globalized world and laid the foundations of an original philosophy of history. His work is a subject of lively philosophical discussion especially in French and German-speaking countries, and recently also in Spanish-speaking, in U.S.A., and in the Far East. Scholars from around the world who are interested in the philosophy of Jan Patocka gathered in Prague to commemorate his centenary and the thirtieth anniversary of his death. The conference explored the significance of his work and its continuing influence on contemporary philosophy. The volume presents selected papers from the conference in English language.

2024 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Winner in "Religion / Spirituality of Western Thought" CategoryWinner of the Living Now Book Award, Church of the Wild reminds us that once upon a time, humans lived in an intimate relationship with nature. Whether disillusioned by the dominant church or unfulfilled by traditional expressions of faith, many of us long for a deeper spirituality. Victoria Loorz certainly did. Coping with an unraveling vocation, identity, and planet, Loorz turned to the wanderings of spiritual leaders and the sanctuary of the natural world, eventually cofounding the Wild Church Network and Seminary of the Wild. With an ecospiritual lens on biblical narratives and a fresh look at a community larger than our own species, Church of the Wild uncovers the wild roots of faith and helps us deepen our commitment to a suffering earth by falling in love with it--and calling it church. Through mystical encounters with wild deer, whispers from a scrubby oak tree, wordless conversation with a cougar, and more, Loorz helps us connect to a love that literally holds the world together--a love that calls us into communion with all creatures.