An accomplished and honored professor, psychotherapist, author, and chocolate connoisseur, Diane Gehart identifies surprisingly efficient and fun ways to increase your daily dose of joy. Drawing on positive psychology, Eastern wisdom, and three decades of psychotherapist know-how, she outlines a no-nonsense yet good-humored path to get you where you want to go. She will teach you step-by-step how to: Identify the essential elements necessary for life-long happiness and add them to your everyday habits. Develop an unshakable sense of inner joy that sustains you in good times and bad. Engage your most painful life circumstances to dramatically improve your life for the better. Navigate common pitfalls and challenges, including skillfully handling the most difficult personalities and relationships. Transform how you journey through life—making it a joy ride regardless of weather or other unforeseen circumstances. First, she debunks popular myths that have us looking for happiness in all the wrong places and then offers an accurate map for getting where we want to go. Next, readers will learn the hardest but ultimately most liberating lesson: making friends with life and all that is, including the good, the bad, and the ugly—which includes black widow spiders for some of us. From there, you will learn surprisingly playful and palatable options for maximizing your joy, including mindfulness, crazy wisdom, compassion, and ethical living. Finally, you will learn how to avoid—or at least survive—the common pitfalls and the dangerous snakes that line the path from where you are to where you want to go. If you have avoided meditation and similar practices for most of your life because they are dull and boring, you may find something that suits your refined and zesty taste for living here. Along the way, you will have numerous opportunities to laugh, to cry, and to reconnect with the best within yourself. You will suddenly discover your most desperate challenges dissolving before you, revealing an easier path and renewing your delight in living and loving. Worst-case scenario: You will have educational excuses to savor some chocolate delights, enjoy a few good laughs, and gain a handful of new insights about your life. Whether you are reeling from a devastating break-up; feeling adrift professionally; struggling with depression, anxiety, or more severe mental health issues; or simply wanting to feel happier given the numerous blessings in your life, this book will help you make changes that you could never accomplish before because you will now be motivated to do something different. Ultimately, this book invites you to play. To laugh. To love. To heal old heartbreaks. To overcome what was once impossible. To open your heart to life and all it has to offer: white, milk, and dark. The stresses of modern life often create the illusion that life is hard, painful, and lonely. You are only a few bites away from an entirely different approach to living a sweeter life.

Research provides compelling evidence that both meditation and chocolate offer physical and mental health benefits: decreased stress, lower blood pressure, reduced weight, enhanced memory and slower aging of the brain. Deep Tasting: A Chocolate Lover's Guide to Meditation introduces Dr. Peluso's delicious breakthrough technique- Chocolate Tasting Meditation - that doesn't require sitting still for long periods of time or uncomfortable yoga postures. You don't have to take on another religion or a new set of beliefs. If you like chocolate, all you need is five minutes or less-the time it takes for a piece of chocolate to melt in your mouth-to see how easy it can be to learn to meditate. Even if your goal isn't to meditate, the tasting techniques in this book will awaken your senses to the aromas and flavors of the world's finest chocolate. You can even lose weight! Enjoy the story of R. M. Peluso's merged spiritual and chocolate paths. Learn about the history of chocolate as a sacred food and the emergence of the artisan, or craft, chocolate movement. "This absorbing book is a unique and fascinating guide to the taste, aroma, and even the making of fine artisanal chocolate from 'bean to bar.' Whether one is or is not a follower of the meditation path described by the author, all chocolate lovers will learn much from this delightful and instructive read. Highly recommended!" -Michael D. Coe, author, The Maya; co-author, The True History of Chocolate "This book is delicious! Meditation does not have to be boring or difficult--start where you are and work with what you love. And if you love chocolate, this book will teach you how to have an earthy, nutty, buttery spiritual experience.---and one attuned to justice too. Savor your spirituality!" -Jay Michaelson, author of Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment "R.M. Peluso takes her readers to a level of tasting that is beyond any other I've seen before. I look forward to trying this meditation technique myself and expect full on theta waves. I learned a lot about tasting chocolate and am sure you will too!" -Shawn Askinosie, Founder & CEO, Askinosie Chocolate, One of Forbes' 25 "Best Small Companies In America" "A well-written memoir that provides a path to meditation using chocolate as a spiritual medium...a very enjoyable read that covers the key historical and cultural significances of cacao while also chronicling her own journey to making chocolate from the bean. This book serves as a detailed sensory tasting guide that's essential for any serious chocolate taster, and it should be required reading for anyone making chocolate from the bean." -Lauren Adler, Chocolopolis, Seattle"

"Where Baby Mama meets the Discovery Channel, a bright book of brain candy about the wild science behind pregnancy"--Provided by publisher.

Chocolate Is Always The Answer: Tasting Review Journal and Log for Chocolate LoversThis awesome chocolate tasting journal is perfect for all chocolate lovers.Get ahead on the tasting game and show your love for chocolate with this cute and simple 6x9" undated chocolate tasting review book with room to review and taste over 100 chocolates.Perfect gift journals for those who love chocolate and who love to taste sugary and sweet white, dark or milk chocolate.

The Dalai Lama always recommends a classic text by the Buddhist sage Shantideva as essential reading for those seeking a practical approach to Buddhism. With its life-changing psychological tools and transcendent wisdom, it is one of the world's great spiritual treasures. In Enlightenment to Go, David Michie provides a lively, accessible introduction to the 'best of' Shantideva. He shows how modern psychology confirms the insights of Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, and he unpacks its powerful antidotes to contemporary problems, including stress, anxiety and depression. He also offers a structured meditation program to help readers integrate transformational insights at deeper levels of consciousness where genuine change becomes possible. Recounting stories from his own journey, Michie illustrates the relevance of Shantideva's breakthrough teachings to a typically busy Westerner with warmth and humor. Whether you are a newcomer to Buddhism or a seasoned practitioner, Enlightenment to Go offers a glimpse of a radiantly different reality.

Mindfulness practice can help you reduce stress, improve performance, manage pain and increase wellbeing. These are the reasons why elite athletes, performing artists and business leaders are taking up the practice, and why it is being introduced into the world's most successful companies, banks, business schools - even the US Army...David Michie introduces mindfulness practice and offers innovative solutions to common obstacles. Drawing on ancient Buddhist teachings and contemporary science, he also takes us beyond 'mindfulness lite,' offering lucid instructions on how to experience the pristine nature of one's own consciousness directly.an encounter that is truly life-changing...Written with warmth and good humour, 'Why Mindfulness is Better than Chocolate' is the ultimate guide to self-discovery. It will make chocolate taste better too!

Relax and find your calm. Move your hands to still your mind. In this meditative take on the traditional game of cat's cradle, players use a looped string to inspire mental calm. The boxed set includes an instruction booklet with dreamy illustrations for 15 string games to play alone or with a friend. - Fans of adult coloring books, desktop Japanese Zen sand gardens, knitting, and other handwork/craft activities that have mindfulness or calming benefits will love this product. It's also a great way to start a meditation practice if traditional meditation hasn't worked for you. - The elegant packaging also makes this a lovely gift for anyone who has nostalgic childhood memories of playing cat's cradle. Includes: - Sturdy looped nylon cord - 88-page instruction booklet with 75+ illustrations, relaxation techniques, and step-by-step instructional text for 15 games, like the Celtic Knot, the Butterfly, the Lizard, the Well, and Three Diamonds

"If you ever doubted that your feline companion has her own inner life, just watch what happens when she falls asleep, and loses conscious control of her physical being . . . a twitching of limbs, a quivering of the jaw, sometimes perhaps a snuffling noise or a meow. . . . Cats may indeed be capable of great mindfulness. But we are thinking beings, too. In my own case, unfortunately, a being who thinks rather too much." In the latest installment of the Dalai Lama’s Cat series, His Holiness’s Cat ("HHC") is on a mission: to think less, to experience more, to live in the moment. She soon learns the proper phrase for this, being mindful, or, a concept better known to her as the power of meow. What ensues is a journey to discover her own true nature, to gain a deeper understanding of her mind, and to experience life’s greatest joy, the here and now. Throughout, she shares encounters with familiar inhabitants of Dharamsala, as well as a whole new cast of characters: a senior exec from one of Silicon Valley’s most famous social media companies (hint: the name rhymes with "litter"), the Pope’s beloved dog (who shares a shockingly similar title: HHD, His Holiness’s Dog), and a public health inspector who threatens to have our poor narrator banned from the Himalaya Book Café. In this follow-up to the Dalai Lama’s Cat and the Art of Purring, readers escape to the enchanting and exotic world of the Dalai Lama’s monastery in the Himalayas, and take a peek inside the mind of a delightfully imperfect creature on the path to enlightenment. By accompanying HHC on her journey, you will learn new ways to relate to your own mind: slowing down, finding peace, and abiding in the boundless radiance and benevolence that is your own true nature.

More information to be announced soon on this forthcoming title from Penguin USA

At long last, Sarah Britton, called the “queen bee of the health blogs” by Bon Appétit, reveals 100 gorgeous, all-new plant-based recipes in her debut cookbook, inspired by her wildly popular blog. Every month, half a million readers—vegetarians, vegans, paleo followers, and gluten-free gourmets alike—flock to Sarah’s adaptable and accessible recipes that make powerfully healthy ingredients simply irresistible. My New Roots is the ultimate guide to revitalizing one’s health and palate, one delicious recipe at a time: no fad diets or gimmicks here. Whether readers are newcomers to natural foods or are already devotees, they will discover how easy it is to eat healthfully and happily when whole foods and plants are at the center of every plate.