Complete with personal stories and interactive exercises, "Sweat Your Prayers" reveals an ancient and contemporary method for unleashing a natural sense of movement, resulting in both personal power and presence of the soul.

In this revised edition of Maps to Ecstasy, Gabrielle Roth expands on the themes that have guided her — ways of transforming daily life into sacred art. Her work in teaching movement has been described as a marriage of art and healing. Each chapter initiates readers into one of the five sacred powers necessary for survival and reveals the five life cycles that lead to enlightenment. The creative process brings readers in touch with these five sacred powers by freeing the body to experience the power of being, expressing the heart to experience the power of loving, emptying the mind to experience the power of seeing, and embodying the spirit to experience the power of healing.

The late Gabrielle Roth was the source and force behind a worldwide community of many thousands of people who loved and practiced "The 5Rhythms ®," a path of spiritual healing rooted in the body and movement (see 5Rhythms.com). This book is a collection of personal stories from about 170 of those people from every corner of the globe, relating intimate and powerful, unforgettable and often life-changing moments they experienced engaging with Gabrielle. She was known far and wide for being outrageous, profound, hilarious, mysterious and impenetrable, as well as utterly transparent, vulnerable, and completely attentive, present and loving with each soul she encountered. Everyone she met, for a moment on the street, or for decades doing her work, felt, above all, seen, and connected as if to a very special, life-long friend.

What happens when a former Zen Buddhist monk and his feminist wife experience an apparition of the Virgin Mary? “This book could not have come at a more auspicious time, and the message is mystical perfection, not to mention a courageous one. I adore this book.”—Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit Before a vision of a mysterious “Lady” invited Clark Strand and Perdita Finn to pray the rosary, they were not only uninterested in becoming Catholic but finished with institutional religion altogether. Their main spiritual concerns were the fate of the planet and the future of their children and grandchildren in an age of ecological collapse. But this Lady barely even referred to the Church and its proscriptions. Instead, she spoke of the miraculous power of the rosary to transform lives and heal the planet, and revealed the secrets she had hidden within the rosary’s prayers and mysteries—secrets of a past age when forests were the only cathedrals and people wove rose garlands for a Mother whose loving presence was as close as the ground beneath their feet. She told Strand and Finn: The rosary is My body, and My body is the body of the world. Your body is one with that body. What cause could there be for fear? Weaving together their own remarkable story of how they came to the rosary, their discoveries about the eco-feminist wisdom at the heart of this ancient devotion, and the life-changing revelations of the Lady herself, the authors reveal an ancestral path—available to everyone, religious or not—that returns us to the powerful healing rhythms of the natural world.

Divine Nourishment A Woman's Sacred Journey with Food Did you realize that living and eating seasonally is actually a map for transformation that brings health and balance on the physical, emotional AND spiritual levels? Divine Nourishment offers superb support in reclaiming lost and rejected aspects of ourselves. Learn how to recognize your authentic self through the eyes of nature as you deepen your relationship with the natural rhythm and flow of life. Ground and nourish yourself according to the Earth's wisdom while healing the collective wounding of the feminine that perpetuates the imbalance in our culture. Apply practical daily use of healthy organic seasonal foods, recipes, potions, tonics, practices, and cleanses that are nourishing and appropriate for alignment with the seasonal journey. "Mary Lane infuses her cooking, her thinking, her dance on this earth with exquisite feminine grace and wisdom." Gabrielle Roth, author of Sweat Your Prayers & creator of 5RHythms(R) "Mary is a wonderful chef, plant spirit medicine practitioner, lover of nature, and world traveler. Her book is a mystical-made-physical journey into the depths of self, body, and spiritual connection. This long-awaited treasure holds such a simple key to satisfying a deep spiritual connection: nourishing ourselves, body, mind, and spirit, as well as connect with Mother Earth through the sacred act of nourishment. I love, love, love the book, though I have to admit reading of the 'wounding' absolutely tore me apart... truly from the heart." Dianne Seale "Mary's book offers us a brilliantly conceived and richly layered compilation of the wisdom of the ages. Mary's offering draws from her many years of study as well as from her own experience and direct communication with the Divine. Ranging from a profound explanation of the very forces of Creation to practical suggestions for embodying these forces in daily life, Mary's book is a true guide for healing and restoring the Divine Feminine within us and in our world." Katia Wolf "Finally.....I am sitting in my room in Rome and using the extraordinary early awakenings to read Mary's book in total...not just fragments allowed to me over the last few months. I am touched by the passion of her conviction and knowledge and opened to tears of recognition of dynamics long left without words. She has had some amazing journeys that I am thrilled to read about again in book form. It gives outline to a journey that often can be daunting as there is no map for this ride However, she tells it with the grace of hindsight with all of the trials and glory, highs and lows that come with this human form with a desire and commitment to live a spiritual life. Kudos to Mary and the healing for those who come to read her story." Stevie Gayle

Both Buddhism and dance invite the practitioner into present-moment embodiment. The rise of Western Buddhism, sacred dance and dance/movement therapy, along with the mindfulness meditation boom, has created opportunities for Buddhism to inform dance aesthetics and for Buddhist practice to be shaped by dance. This collection of new essays documents the innovative work being done at the intersection of Buddhism and dance. The contributors--scholars, choreographers and Buddhist masters--discuss movement, performance, ritual and theory, among other topics. The final section provides a variety of guided practices.

Grade level: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, i, s.

After the publication of her best-selling book To Begin Again, Naomi Levy received a flood of feedback from readers telling her how much the prayers in it had helped and moved them. Many urged her to publish a collection of her prayers—and now she has. In a time when we all need inspiration, comfort, and connection, Talking to God will help us reclaim prayer as an integral part of our lives, making it as natural and uninhibited as talking to our loved ones. Prayer is essential to the lives of millions, but many of us are searching for ways to supplement traditional prayers with ones that are less formal and more intimate. Written in a simple and direct style, the prayers in this book—and the wonderful stories that accompany them—are for people of all faiths, and for all occasions large and small. Naomi Levy’s personal prayers address the anxieties and roadblocks we all face in contemporary life. There are prayers for facing a new day, realizing one’s potential at work, celebrating an anniversary or birthday, and going to sleep at night. And there are prayers for the more profound occurrences in life—love and marriage, pregnancy and childbirth, illness, loss, and death. Rabbi Levy’s words, imbued with grace and empathy, touch on the entire range of human experience. Many of us will recognize ourselves in her prayers and stories and will be comforted by them, as well as challenged and uplifted. Perhaps most important, they are stepping-stones for us to go on and create our own prayers, to find meaning in our own lives, and to begin or renew our own relationships with God. From the Hardcover edition.

We all long for certainty in life, yet things often don't go as we expect. When facing illness, job loss, strained relationships, and other struggles, our impulse is to question God and strive to fix things ourselves. In this book, Shelly Miller, a trusted ministry leader, explores how difficult times can actually be purposeful times of spiritual growth. Weaving the exodus story from the Bible with her own story, she shares how to focus on God rather than trying to overcome challenges in our own limited strength. Each chapter features a simple spiritual practice to help us enjoy the peace and security that is only possible through Christ. Uncertain seasons will soon be translated as an aha instead of an oh no.