A diverse compilation of essays that explore the complex idea of simplicity in our lives, community, and environment, and how buying less and decluttering creates an enriching and sustainable life. In a rare collection of voices, the authors of Simpler Living, Compassionate Life explore voluntary simplicity as a path to wholeness and abundance. Henri Nouwen, Cecile Andrews, Richard Foster, and 19 other writers encourage you to listen to your own story, and to respond to dialogue about the fundamental issues of life: time, money, food, spirituality, heritage, and community. A diversity of voices and a helpful study guide make this an effective tool for individuals and groups ready to consider alternatives to high-price, high-stress “good life”: the riches of simplicity and compassion. “Simpler Living, Compassionate Life is an excellent resource for anyone wishing to have a comprehensive overview of the myriad ways living more simply has positively affected our culture. It is a delightful and practical guide for creating simplicity in our own lives, our communities, and for the benefit of our culture.”—Elaine James, author of Simplify Your Life and Inner Simplicity

A diverse compilation of essays that explore the complex idea of simplicity in our lives, community, and environment, and how buying less and decluttering creates an enriching and sustainable life. In a rare collection of voices, the authors of Simpler Living, Compassionate Life explore voluntary simplicity as a path to wholeness and abundance. Henri Nouwen, Cecile Andrews, Richard Foster, and 19 other writers encourage you to listen to your own story, and to respond to dialogue about the fundamental issues of life: time, money, food, spirituality, heritage, and community. A diversity of voices and a helpful study guide make this an effective tool for individuals and groups ready to consider alternatives to high-price, high-stress “good life”: the riches of simplicity and compassion. “Simpler Living, Compassionate Life is an excellent resource for anyone wishing to have a comprehensive overview of the myriad ways living more simply has positively affected our culture. It is a delightful and practical guide for creating simplicity in our own lives, our communities, and for the benefit of our culture.”—Elaine James, author of Simplify Your Life and Inner Simplicity

From the creator of the bestseller Simpler Living, Compassionate Life: A Christian Perspective comes Food & Faith. Food is itself a joyful gift – recall how the gift of food so often mediates the sanctity and preciousness of life. This collection of reflections by Wendell Berry, Bill McKibben, Elizabeth Johnson, Alan Durning and others helps you start thinking about the moral, spiritual and economic implications of eating. Readings focus on the enjoyment and spirituality of good food, ways in which eating connects us to the land and to each other, and on the economic, environmental and cultural impacts of daily food choices. Food & Faith includes an eight-week study guide for groups or individuals, which leads to action: setting a table that is healthy, joyful and just.

Courtney Carver shows us the power of simplicity to improve our health, build more meaningful relationships, and relieve stress in our professional and personal lives. We are often on a quest for more—we give in to pressure every day to work more, own more, and do more. For Carver, this constant striving had to come to a stop when she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Stress was like gasoline on the fire of symptoms, and it became clear that she needed to root out the physical and psychological clutter that were the source of her debt and discontent. In this book, she shows us how to pursue practical minimalism so we can create more with less—more space, more time, and even more love. Carver invites us to look at the big picture, discover what's most important to us, and reclaim lightness and ease by getting rid of all the excess things.

There’s a secret to spiritual practice, and it’s surprisingly simple: learn to be present with attention. Do that, and the whole world becomes your teacher, you wake up to the sacredness of every aspect of existence, and compassion for others arises without even thinking about it. In Zen Heart, Bayda provides a wealth of practical advice for making difficult experiences a valued part of the path and for making mindfulness a daily habit.

We’re hammered, we’re slammed, we’re out of control. Happiness is on the decline in the most affluent country in the world, and Americans are troubled by the destructiveness of a lifestyle devoted to money and status. Yet no one seems to have a clue how to exit from the fast lane. Slow is Beautiful analyzes the subtle consumer and political and corporate forces stamping the joy from our existence and provides a vision of a more fulfilling life through the rediscovery of caring community, unhurried leisure, and life-affirming joie de vivre. The book discusses: • The frantic time poverty plaguing everyone—a poverty that is being challenged by the growing slow life movement whose message is reverberating around the world • The need to build a culture of connection with both people and the planet by challenging the consumer society and re-creating vibrant life in our local communities • The creation of a different experience of time where we live life in slower, more reflective ways, savoring our lives and recapturing exuberance and laughter Offering inspiration and concrete ideas, Slow is Beautiful will appeal to a broad audience of baby boomers nearing retirement, harried professionals with a social conscience, the one-time “middle class,” and twenty- to thirty-somethings who are now facing the sobering realities of constricted choices.

In iWant, investigative journalist and author Jane Velez-Mitchell traces her unique quest for an addiction-free life over the course of many years, detailing her struggles to stop drinking, smoking, overeating, and overworking. During this journey, Velez-Mitchell comes closer to discovering her authentic self, embracing her ethnic identity, and accepting her true sexual orientation. With layers upon layers of addictions removed, she is able to distinguish between what she wants and what she truly needs, and ultimately confronts her addiction across the board--Overconsumption. Using the Twelve Steps in every aspect of her life, Velez-Mitchell shares how she shed many of the self-destructive habits that plague Americans, habits responsible for a host of social ills from the obesity crisis to environmental wreckage. She admits to having been one of the 300 million Americans who shops and acquires addictively and describes how the Twelve Steps have put her on the road toward shedding unnecessary material possessions and limiting waste--despite a society that glorifies excess. While her journey is ongoing and she is still seeking answers, the culmination of Velez-Mitchell's work to date is having held the first Overconsumers Anonymous meeting, in which she and others like her admit to being powerless over this very real addiction and are ready to adopt a more spiritually fulfilling, economical, and environmentally friendly lifestyle.

In our fast-paced, complex world, we all are looking for stillness, harmony, gentleness, and peace. The beauty of these eighty thoughtfully chosen lists is that they use simplicity to bring you simplicity -- condensing essential information into one-or-two-page lists. The gateway to the path of peaceful living is found in the collection you currently hold! As your life becomes balanced instead of hectic, you will escape the tyranny of the urgent and be able to focus on the things that really matter.

This book is a reality check of where energy will come from in the future. Today, our economy is utterly dependent on fossil fuels. They are essential to transportation, manufacturing, farming, electricity, and to make fertilizers, cement, steel, roads, cars, and half a million other products. One day, sooner or later, fossil fuels will no longer be abundant and affordable. Inevitably, one day, global oil production will decline. That time may be nearer than we realize. Some experts predict oil shortages as soon as 2022 to 2030. What then are our options for replacing the fossil fuels that turn the great wheel of civilization? Surveying the arsenal of alternatives – wind, solar, hydrogen, geothermal, nuclear, batteries, catenary systems, fusion, methane hydrates, power2gas, wave, tidal power and biomass – this book examines whether they can replace or supplement fossil fuels. The book also looks at substitute energy sources from the standpoint of the energy users. Manufacturing, which uses half of fossil fuels, often requires very high heat, which in many cases electricity can't provide. Industry uses fossil fuels as a feedstock for countless products, and must find substitutes. And, as detailed in the author's previous book, "When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation," ships, locomotives, and heavy-duty trucks are fueled by diesel. What can replace diesel? Taking off the rose-colored glasses, author Alice Friedemann analyzes our options. What alternatives should we deploy right now? Which technologies merit further research and development? Which are mere wishful thinking that, upon careful scrutiny, dematerialize before our eyes? Fossil fuels have allowed billions of us to live like kings. Fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, we changed the equation constraining the carrying capacity of our planet. As fossil fuels peak and then decline, will we fall back to Earth? Are there viable alternatives?

A Practical Guide to Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living: Living with Heart is a step-by-step guide for those who wish to deepen their mindfulness skills with compassion for a healthier, happier life and more fulfilling relationships. It offers a clear structure as well as ample freedom to adjust to individual needs, starting with learning to be kind to yourself and then expanding this to learn how to be kind to others. This guide consists of eight chapters that follow the eight sessions of the mindfulness-based compassionate living training programme. To enhance the learning experience, this book features accessible transcripts and downloadable audio exercises, as well as worksheets to explore experiences during exercises. It also includes suggestions for deepening practice at the end of each session. A Practical Guide to Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living explores the science of compassion in an easy-to-understand and comprehensive manner, one which will appeal to both trained professionals and clients, or anyone wishing to deepen their mindfulness practice with ‘heartfulness’.