How may we find happiness and peace? In this book, Rupert Spira distills the message of all the great religious and spiritual traditions into two essential truths: happiness is the very nature of our self or being, and we share our being with everyone and everything. Drawing on numerous examples from his own experience, Spira demonstrates that to seek lasting happiness through objects, situations and relationships is destined for failure and disappointment, and skillfully guides the reader to recognize that we are already the happiness we seek. This book is for anyone who yearns for lasting happiness and is open to the possibility that it is continuously available within ourselves, irrespective of our circumstances. Could there be any greater discovery in life than to know that we are already that for which we long?

Being Myself is a contemplative exploration of the essential nature of our self. Everyone has the sense of ‘being myself,' but not everyone knows their self clearly. In most cases, our sense of self is mixed up with the content of experience and, as a result, its natural condition of peace and happiness is veiled. Through investigation and analogy, the meditations in this collection take us back to our true nature again and again, until we begin to find our self naturally and effortlessly established there, as that. In time, experience loses its capacity to veil our being, and its innate peace and joy emerge from the background of experience. * * * The Essence of Meditation Series presents meditations on the essential, non-dual understanding that lies at the heart of all the great religious and spiritual traditions, compiled from contemplations led by Rupert Spira at his meetings and retreats. This simple, contemplative approach, which encourages a clear seeing of one’s experience rather than any kind of effort or discipline, leads the reader to an experiential understanding of their own essential being and the peace and fulfilment that are inherent within it.

Contentment is a super power. If you can learn the skills of contentment, your life will be better in so many ways: You’ll enjoy your life more. Your relationship will be stronger. You’ll be better at meeting people. You’ll be healthier, and good at forming healthy habits. You’ll like and trust yourself more. You’ll be jealous less. You’ll be less angry and more at peace. You’ll be happier with your body. You’ll be happier no matter what you’re doing or who you’re with. Those are a lot of benefits, from one small bundle of skills. Putting some time in learning the skills of contentment is worth the effect and will pay off for the rest of your life.

Everybody is aware, all seven billion of us. We are aware of thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions. All people share the experience of being aware, but relatively few people are aware that they are aware. Most people’s lives consist of a flow of thoughts, images, ideas, feelings, sensations, sights, sounds, and so on. Very few people ask, 'What is it that knows this flow of thoughts, feelings, and perceptions? With what am I aware of my experience?' The knowing of our being—or rather, awareness’s knowing of its own being in us—is our primary, fundamental and most intimate experience. It is in this experience that the peace, happiness and love for which all people long reside. The happiness we have sought so long outside of ourselves, in situations, objects and relationships, turns out to be always present and available in the simple knowing of our own being as it truly is. The knowing of our own being shines in each of us as the experience ‘I am’ or ‘I am aware’, or simply the knowledge ‘I’. This obvious, familiar and intimate experience has no objective qualities and is, therefore, overlooked or ignored by the majority of people. This overlooking of our own being is the ultimate cause of unhappiness. What is the nature of the experience of being aware or awareness itself? The exploration of this question is the subject matter of this book and the essence of the Direct Path to peace and happiness. * * * The Essence of Meditation Series presents meditations on the essential, non-dual understanding that lies at the heart of all the great religious and spiritual traditions, compiled from contemplations led by Rupert Spira at his meetings and retreats. This simple, contemplative approach, which encourages a clear seeing of one’s experience rather than any kind of effort or discipline, leads the reader to an experiential understanding of their own essential being and the peace and fulfillment that are inherent within it. Being Aware of Being Aware is the first and introductory volume in The Essence of Meditation Series.

"Explores how industry has manipulated our most deep-seated survival instincts."—David Perlmutter, MD, Author, #1 New York Times bestseller, Grain Brain and Brain Maker The New York Times–bestselling author of Fat Chance reveals the corporate scheme to sell pleasure, driving the international epidemic of addiction, depression, and chronic disease. While researching the toxic and addictive properties of sugar for his New York Times bestseller Fat Chance, Robert Lustig made an alarming discovery—our pursuit of happiness is being subverted by a culture of addiction and depression from which we may never recover. Dopamine is the “reward” neurotransmitter that tells our brains we want more; yet every substance or behavior that releases dopamine in the extreme leads to addiction. Serotonin is the “contentment” neurotransmitter that tells our brains we don’t need any more; yet its deficiency leads to depression. Ideally, both are in optimal supply. Yet dopamine evolved to overwhelm serotonin—because our ancestors were more likely to survive if they were constantly motivated—with the result that constant desire can chemically destroy our ability to feel happiness, while sending us down the slippery slope to addiction. In the last forty years, government legislation and subsidies have promoted ever-available temptation (sugar, drugs, social media, porn) combined with constant stress (work, home, money, Internet), with the end result of an unprecedented epidemic of addiction, anxiety, depression, and chronic disease. And with the advent of neuromarketing, corporate America has successfully imprisoned us in an endless loop of desire and consumption from which there is no obvious escape. With his customary wit and incisiveness, Lustig not only reveals the science that drives these states of mind, he points his finger directly at the corporations that helped create this mess, and the government actors who facilitated it, and he offers solutions we can all use in the pursuit of happiness, even in the face of overwhelming opposition. Always fearless and provocative, Lustig marshals a call to action, with seminal implications for our health, our well-being, and our culture.

Take a daily step toward joy and contentment and ditch stress, overwhelming thoughts, and boredom with encouraging and biblical messages from Alli Worthington. You do your best to live life well—you work hard to be present in the moment, take care of the people in your life, knock it out of the park at work and home. And yet, somehow, you still have days (perhaps more than you'd like to admit) where you're simultaneously stressed and bored, and you wonder if you even know how to be happy. Is happiness a worthy goal? Does happiness matter to God, or does He only care about holier things? Alli Worthington gets it. As a wife, mother of five boys, author, speaker, and entrepreneur, she knows a thing or two about being busy, stressed, and happy in the midst of a crazy world! Over the years, she's seen how happiness gets a bad rap in Christian circles, and now she is standing up to shout the good news from the roof (or the internet, as the case may be): You are allowed to be happy! Yes, you! You can be happy right now! Join Alli for The Year of Living Happy: Finding Contentment and Connection in a Crazy World, and find the roots of your happiest life yet. Each of the 100 short and inspirational entries includes a thoughtful message from Alli, based on God’s Word practical ways to make your life happier day by day a journaling section This gorgeous book is an empowering gift for yourself or any woman you love. It can be used as a daily devotional or as a guided journal. Be part of this exciting message: Happiness and holiness can coexist for a beautiful life. Don’t miss the great big adventure God has for you. Let this be The Year of Living Happy!

When people find out she is a therapist, Niro Feliciano knows she isn't going anywhere anytime soon. At soccer games, at cocktail parties, in waiting rooms, people corner her and ask: Why am I so stressed? Is the way I feel normal? Why can't I just be happy? The truth is happiness is fleeting, and we are stressing ourselves out trying to achieve it. In This Book Won't Make You Happy, national media commentator and Psychology Today columnist Feliciano offers a path to something much more achievable and abundantly more satisfying: contentment. By incorporating eight simple postures rooted in cognitive behavioral science and mindfulness practices into our daily routines, we can move away from anxiety and toward balance and calm. Acceptance, gratitude, connection, a present-focused perspective, intentionality and priority, self-compassion, resilience, and faith: through these practices we will overcome obstacles that hold us back from living full, meaningful, contented lives. Anxiety, stress, and grief aren't going away anytime soon, and this book won't make you happy. But with wit and empathy, Feliciano leads you right past happy to calm. No matter how "happy" your life is--or isn't--you can reach a deeper, truer, and longer-lasting place of contentment.

Utilizing sophisticated methodology and three decades of research by the world's leading expert on happiness, Happiness challenges the present thinking of the causes and consequences of happiness and redefines our modern notions of happiness. shares the results of three decades of research on our notions of happiness covers the most important advances in our understanding of happiness offers readers unparalleled access to the world's leading experts on happiness provides "real world" examples that will resonate with general readers as well as scholars Winner of the 2008 PSP Prose Award for Excellence in Psychology, Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers

An instant New York Times bestseller. Over 1 million copies sold! Two spiritual giants. Five days. One timeless question. Nobel Peace Prize Laureates His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have survived more than fifty years of exile and the soul-crushing violence of oppression. Despite their hardships—or, as they would say, because of them—they are two of the most joyful people on the planet. In April 2015, Archbishop Tutu traveled to the Dalai Lama's home in Dharamsala, India, to celebrate His Holiness's eightieth birthday and to create what they hoped would be a gift for others. They looked back on their long lives to answer a single burning question: How do we find joy in the face of life's inevitable suffering? They traded intimate stories, teased each other continually, and shared their spiritual practices. By the end of a week filled with laughter and punctuated with tears, these two global heroes had stared into the abyss and despair of our time and revealed how to live a life brimming with joy. This book offers us a rare opportunity to experience their astonishing and unprecedented week together, from the first embrace to the final good-bye. We get to listen as they explore the Nature of True Joy and confront each of the Obstacles of Joy—from fear, stress, and anger to grief, illness, and death. They then offer us the Eight Pillars of Joy, which provide the foundation for lasting happiness. Throughout, they include stories, wisdom, and science. Finally, they share their daily Joy Practices that anchor their own emotional and spiritual lives. The Archbishop has never claimed sainthood, and the Dalai Lama considers himself a simple monk. In this unique collaboration, they offer us the reflection of real lives filled with pain and turmoil in the midst of which they have been able to discover a level of peace, of courage, and of joy to which we can all aspire in our own lives.

“If freedom and joy are what you seek, I couldn’t recommend this book more.” —Rhonda Byrne, New York Times best-selling author of The Secret and The Greatest Secret Happiness Is Free is filled with profound insights and practical tools that will guide you to let go of painful feelings, unwanted thoughts, and negative stories and naturally open up to the happiness and unlimited potential that is within you right now. And it’s easier than you think. Simple but powerful questions for self-inquiry and effective techniques will empower you to gently let go of what, just a moment ago, seemed like an unsolvable issue or overwhelming emotion—anything from anger and frustration to fear, anxiety, and stress. You’ll learn how to apply easy-to-use practices for letting go—including Holistic Releasing, Triple Welcoming, and others—to find more joy and peace of mind in every area of your life. In each chapter, renowned teachers Lester Levenson and Hale Dwoskin (New York Times best-selling author of The Sedona Method) offer life-changing opportunities to break free from self-imposed blocks and rediscover the real, unlimited you—and the ultimate happiness that is your birthright. Their combination of liberating insights, inspiration, and deep releasing explorations make this book a treasured companion for anyone who is seeking to navigate everyday life with greater ease, clarity, and sense of true purpose. "One of my most treasured books that changed my life is Lester's Keys to the Ultimate Freedom. It features Lester's words and insights drawn from decades of his teachings, and it is the only book that sits on my bedside table. Unfortunately the book has been out of print for a long time, but Hale Dwoskin has taken all of Lester's teachings from Keys to the Ultimate Freedom and put them in this new book, along with many of the releasing methods from the Sedona Method. You have the best of Lester's teachings and his methods in this one book, and if freedom and joy are what you seek, I couldn't recommend this book more. I used the Sedona Method occasionally over a ten-year period and found enormous benefit from it. Then, when I met my teacher -- who was a student of Lester Levenson's -- four years ago, Lester's releasing methods became a crucial part of my everyday life and my awakening." -- From the forward by Rhonda Byrne, New York Times best-selling author of The Secret and The Greatest Secret “Happiness is about remembering who you really are, and if you have forgotten, this book is an excellent reminder.” —Deepak Chopra, author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success “If the roots of all suffering are attachments to the external, the roots of true joy are found only within. This book maps the ways to a profound state of peace.” —James Redfield, author of The Celestine Prophecy “Be set free with the brilliance and insights in this book.” —Mark Victor Hansen, co-creator of the #1 New York Times best-selling series Chicken Soup for the Soul® “Once in a human while, an individual comes along who has unlocked the secrets of happiness and opens the door for others to follow. Lester Levenson was such a one.... Happiness Is Free offers rare and penetrating insight into the freedom we all long for. This book can take you home.” —Alan Cohen, author of The Dragon Doesn’t Live Here Anymore