For all her wisdom as a teacher, Cyndi Lee understood intuitively that she still had a lot to learn. In spite of her success in physically demanding professions - dancer, choreographer, and yoga teacher - Lee was caught in a lifelong cycle of repetitive self-judgment about her body. Instead of the radical contentment expected in international yoga teachers, she realised that hating her body was a form of suffering, which was infecting her closest relationships - including her relationship to herself. Inspired by the honesty and vulnerability of her students, Lee embarked on a journey of self-discovery that led her outward - from the sacred sites of the parched Indian countryside to the center of the 2011 earthquake in Japan - and inward, to seek the counsel of wise women, friends and strangers both. Applying the ancient Buddhist practice of loving-kindness meditation to herself, Lee learned that compassion is the only antidote to hatred, thereby healing her heart and changing her mind. With prose as agile as the yoga sequences she creates, May I Be Happy gives voice to Lee's belief that every life arises, abides, and ultimately dissolves. By becoming her own best student, Lee internalizes the strength, stability, and clarity she imparts in her Buddhist-inspired yoga classes.

Throughout our lives we long to love ourselves more deeply and find a greater sense of connection with others. Our fear of intimacy—both with others and with ourselves—creates feelings of pain and longing. But these feelings can also awaken in us the desire for freedom and the willingness to take up the spiritual path. In this inspiring book, longtime meditation practitioner and teacher Sharon Salzberg shows how the Buddhist path can help us discover the radiant, joyful heart within each one of us, drawing on Buddhist teachings, wisdom from various traditions, her personal experiences, and guided meditation exercises. With these tools, she teaches how the practice of lovingkindness can illuminate a path to cultivating love, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity—the four “heavenly abodes” of traditional Buddhism.

Julie Potiker turns some enormous lemons in her life into the sweetest lemonade in this wonderful book. She brings together practical brain science, powerful methods from psychotherapy, and her own friendly, funny, encouraging, and heartfelt voice to offer a wonderful roadmap and toolbox for when life throws some lemons at you.-Rick Hanson, PhD, author of Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom; and Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence. At one point in her life, Julie Potiker was so stressed that she began manifesting symptoms of a stroke. It was at this point she realized she needed to change her life and find better ways of managing the challenges she would inevitably face. Now she's sharing the methods she developed with you. In this compassionate and courageous new guide, Potiker shows you how to find happiness apart from your children's lives, practice important self-care rituals, rewire your own brain to receive happiness, feel safe and comforted in the midst of the chaos, and listen to your inner critic without letting it tear you down. Potiker also introduces Jewish tradition into her mindfulness lessons and explains the importance of following your own spiritual and emotional values as you embark on this new journey.

A complete manual for physical and spiritual well-being from the founder of the OM yoga center. In Yoga Body, Buddha Mind, the first book to give readers the best of both inextricably linked practices, Cyndi Lee -- author of the bestselling series OM Yoga in a Box -- shares her twenty years of experience as a practicing Tibetan Buddhist and one of the country's most famous yoga instructors. This easy-to-use guide shows readers of all yoga levels how to combine the basic tenets of Buddhism and meditation with yoga practice. Her book offers simple meditation programs and exercise sequences that can be done just about anywhere, in addition to more advanced and rigorous regimens. Written in the same personal, comfortable, and charismatic style that Cyndi Lee has brought to her classes, Yoga Body, Buddha Mind is a comprehensive how-to guide for spiritual well-being and the ultimate enlightening experience.

The dumpster fire of life rages on, but you got this. Practice six rules to keep you grounded, weather the storm, and actually be a decent person. It may seem like the world is going to hell in a hand basket right now. Whether it's big stuff like politics and climate change, or just the daily spin of paying your bills, getting to work on time, and fending off social media trolls, we can all admit, modern life ain't easy. Here are six really good guiding principles, inspired from the ancient wisdom of Buddhism and mindfulness practice, to keep you anchored and steady amidst the chaos.

Most teachers enter the field of education to make a difference in children's lives. But many end up, as author Dr. Lisa Lucas puts it, "tired, wired, and running in circles." This leads to many new teachers abandoning the profession or to burnout among veteran teachers. In Practicing Presence: Simple Self-Care Strategies for Teachers, Dr. Lucas invites the reader to learn how to fully inhabit the present moment. Written in an informal and conversational tone, Practicing Presence is filled with ideas, exercises, checklists, personal anecdotes, and practices you can use to reframe and establish a mindset that will enhance your focus and engagement in the classroom. With approximately 50% of new teachers leaving the education field before the 5-year mark, it is more important than ever for educators to prioritize self-care. Each chapter of Practicing Presence includes self-care strategies that explore how to self-regulate, nurture self-acceptance, and promote compassion. Inside you'll find: Quotes and affirmations throughout the texts Scientific research and reflections on how these theories and practices can apply to your own life Paths to Mindful Teaching and how to integrate into your daily life Additional resources and online content to further support your practice When teachers care for themselves deeply and deliberately, they are better able to care for the people that matter most in their lives--their students, friends, and families. Practicing Presence focuses not on doing, but rather on being present in the life of the classroom.

A New York Times bestseller: The “magnificent” memoir by one of the bravest and most original writers of our time—“A tour de force of literature and love” (Vogue). One of the New York Times’ “50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years” Jeanette Winterson’s bold and revelatory novels have established her as a major figure in world literature. Her internationally best-selling debut, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, tells the story of a young girl adopted by Pentecostal parents, and has become a staple of required reading in contemporary fiction classes. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is a “singular and electric” memoir about a life’s work to find happiness (The New York Times). It is a book full of stories: about a girl locked out of her home, sitting on the doorstep all night; about a religious zealot disguised as a mother who has two sets of false teeth and a revolver in the dresser, waiting for Armageddon; about growing up in a north England industrial town now changed beyond recognition; about the universe as a cosmic dustbin. It is the story of how a painful past, rose to haunt the author later in life, sending her on a journey into madness and out again, in search of her biological mother. It is also a book about the power of literature, showing how fiction and poetry can form a string of guiding lights, or a life raft that supports us when we are sinking. Witty, acute, fierce, and celebratory, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is a tough-minded story of the search for belonging—for love, identity, home, and a mother.

Blending illustrative narratives from veterans with cutting-edge research, this book provides a model for a needed shift from treatment post-trauma to psychological training pre-trauma to prevent deep depression and resulting suicides. As suicides among members of the U.S. military and veterans continue at a rate higher than in the general population—nearly 20 each day—and their calls for help become louder, with three veterans waiting for treatment outside Veterans Administration hospitals in 2019 committing suicide, authors and former U.S. Marines Kate Hendricks Thomas and Sarah Plummer Taylor present a call for a new approach to help halt the needless deaths. Thomas, now a researcher and assistant professor of public health, and Plummer Taylor, now a social worker and adjunct professor, detail a plan to establish preventative training for mental fitness that will help psychologically "vaccinate" service members against depression and PTSD, the most common precursors to suicidal thoughts. Thomas and Plummer Taylor detail their mental fitness training program to shift from post-trauma treatment to pre-trauma prevention. Each topic addressed is illustrated with stories from veterans. Part of the solution, Thomas and Plummer Taylor explain, is to present prevention as something for all service members and as a positive, strength-building, challenging activity for champions, as opposed to a post-trauma treatment only for "weak and broken" warriors.

A practical introduction to the art of meditation explains how to utilize the fundamental principles of meditation to help reduce stress, increase focus, and promote physical and mental health. Original.

Fun and practical guide to finding joy in your work by applying Buddhist values from MBS mover-and-shaker Steve Nobel. With growing numbers of people feeling discontented at work in a post-pandemic era of the great resignation, Joy @ Work offers essential reading. Whether you are feeling aimless and bored, only hanging on for the monthly wage, stressed, overworked or burnt out, this book offers a simple philosophy: suffering happens – but we can transform it. Using Buddhist principles, Steve Nobel guides us to realising our innate gifts and reconnecting us with our authentic selves. By working through practical exercises and calming meditations you can: Learn to trust your instincts Reframe your limiting beliefs Rediscover your creativity Create copying strategies for when you're stressed Renew your love for work The world of work is evolving and Steve prompts you to change with it; transform your happy, unprofessional life into one of self-worth, passion and purpose. Let loose your trapped potential to find the work you were born to do, whether that is falling back in love with your job or moving on and finding different work that inspires you.