Best of
Psychology

2022

Fierce Love: Creating a Love that Lasts—One Conversation at a Time


Susan Scott - 2022
    This can lead to fighting, resentment, or, worse, complacency--where you are just going through the motions, more like roommates than two people in love. As Susan writes, "It's as if we've pulled off our own wings." As couples, we don't stop to think how important our conversations are. And we certainly don't understand that what we talk about and how we talk about it determine whether our relationships will thrive, flatline, or fail.In Fierce Love, New York Times bestselling author Susan Scott guides couples through eight must-have conversations that lead to deep connection and lasting commitment. Through the use of true stories and hands-on exercises, Susan helps usunderstand that the conversation is the relationship;identify and dispel five relationship myths that mislead and derail us;learn eight conversations that are critical to enriching relationships; andstop fighting or ignoring issues and start connecting in a deep and meaningful way.After a season where many relationships were tested and tried, where some relationships thrived and others have exposed cracks couples didn't even realize were there, or realized but didn't acknowledge, now is the best time to learn to communicate well. By having honest, compelling conversations with our partners, we can foster true connection and a fierce love that will withstand the test of time and grow stronger over the years.

Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--And How to Think Deeply Again


Johann Hari - 2022
    From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening--and how to get our attention back. "The book the world needs in order to win the war on distraction."--Adam Grant, author of Think Again"Read this book to save your mind."--Susan Cain, author of QuietIn the United States, teenagers can focus on one task for only sixty-five seconds at a time, and office workers average only three minutes. Like so many of us, Johann Hari was finding that constantly switching from device to device and tab to tab was a diminishing and depressing way to live. He tried all sorts of self-help solutions--even abandoning his phone for three months--but nothing seemed to work. So Hari went on an epic journey across the world to interview the leading experts on human attention--and he discovered that everything we think we know about this crisis is wrong.We think our inability to focus is a personal failure to exert enough willpower over our devices. The truth is even more disturbing: our focus has been stolen by powerful external forces that have left us uniquely vulnerable to corporations determined to raid our attention for profit. Hari found that there are twelve deep causes of this crisis, from the decline of mind-wandering to rising pollution, all of which have robbed some of our attention. In Stolen Focus, he introduces readers to Silicon Valley dissidents who learned to hack human attention, and veterinarians who diagnose dogs with ADHD. He explores a favela in Rio de Janeiro where everyone lost their attention in a particularly surreal way, and an office in New Zealand that discovered a remarkable technique to restore workers' productivity.Crucially, Hari learned how we can reclaim our focus--as individuals, and as a society--if we are determined to fight for it. Stolen Focus will transform the debate about attention and finally show us how to get it back.

What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma


Stephanie Foo - 2022
    . . . I want to have words for what my bones know."By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD--a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years.Both of Foo's parents abandoned her when she was a teenager, after years of physical and verbal abuse and neglect. She thought she'd moved on, but her new diagnosis illuminated the way her past continued to threaten her health, relationships, and career. She found limited resources to help her, so Foo set out to heal herself, and to map her experiences onto the scarce literature about C-PTSD.In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don't move on from trauma--but you can learn to move with it.Powerful, enlightening, and hopeful, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body--and examines one woman's ability to reclaim agency from her trauma.

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?


Julie Smith - 2022
    Dr Julie Smith's expert advice and powerful coping techniques will help you stay resilient, whether you want to manage anxiety, deal with criticism, cope with depression, build self-confidence, find motivation, or learn to forgive yourself. The book tackles everyday issues and offers practical solutions in bite-sized, easy-to-digest entries which make it easy to quickly find specific information and guidance.Your mental well-being is just as important as your physical well-being. Packed with proven strategies, Dr Smith's empathetic guide offers a deeper understanding of how your mind works and gives you the insights and help you need to nurture your mental health every day. Wise and practical, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? might just change your life.

Emotional Inheritance: A Therapist, Her Patients, and the Legacy of Trauma


Galit Atlas - 2022
    Galit Atlas draws on her patients' stories—and her own life experiences—to shed light on how generational trauma affects our lives; "intimate, textured, compassionate" (Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of The Healing Power of Mindfulness).The people we love and those who raised us live inside us; we experience their emotional pain, we dream their memories, and these things shape our lives in ways we don’t always recognize. Emotional Inheritance is about family secrets that keep us from living to our full potential, create gaps between what we want for ourselves and what we are able to have, and haunt us like ghosts.  In this transformative book, Galit Atlas entwines the stories of her patients, her own stories, and decades of research to help us identify the links between our life struggles and the “emotional inheritance” we all carry. For it is only by following the traces those ghosts leave that we can truly change our destiny.

Already Enough: A Path to Self-Acceptance


Lisa Olivera - 2022
    She was found and later adopted. Growing up, Lisa knew she was adopted. She later learned she was abandoned. Like with many adopted children, this led Lisa to wonder: why did her mother leave her behind? Without answers, Lisa came up with her own: something must be wrong with her. Lisa came to believe she was not enough. This story wasn’t true, but it made sense of a confusing experience. It allowed her to move forward. It felt like the only way. Until, with the help of a therapist, Lisa began to tell herself a better story. If you have ever felt like you didn’t belong, or like you weren’t worthy, or like you weren’t enough, just as you are...it might be time for you to rewrite your story, too. Now a therapist herself, Lisa shows you how. In Already Enough, Lisa explores how our stories affect us—often much more than we realize. She guides us through reframing our stories so we can remember that we are already enough, just as we are. And she invites us to join her on a transformative journey to healing. Tender, hopeful, and inspiring, Already Enough is a powerful reminder that we are the authors of our own stories. The sooner we decide to write a better story, the sooner we can live a more whole, more meaningful, more nourishing life.

What I Wish People Knew About Dementia


Wendy Mitchell - 2022
    Instead, it was the start of a very different one.Wise, practical and life affirming, What I Wish People Knew About Dementia combines anecdotes, research and Wendy Mitchell's own brilliant wit and wisdom to tell readers exactly what she wishes they knew about dementia.

The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story For Work and Life


Paul Millerd - 2022
    

The Urge: Our History of Addiction


Carl Erik Fisher - 2022
    With uncommon empathy and erudition, Carl Erik Fisher draws on his own experience as a clinician, researcher, and alcoholic in recovery as he traces the history of a phenomenon that, centuries on, we hardly appear closer to understanding--let alone addressing effectively.As a psychiatrist-in-training fresh from medical school, Fisher was soon face-to-face with his own addiction crisis, one that nearly cost him everything. Desperate to make sense of the condition that had plagued his family for generations, he turned to the history of addiction, learning that the current quagmire is only the latest iteration of a centuries-old story: humans have struggled to define, treat, and control addictive behavior for most of recorded history, including well before the advent of modern science and medicine.A rich, sweeping history that probes not only medicine and science but also literature, religion, philosophy, and sociology, The Urge illuminates the extent to which the story of addiction has persistently reflected broader questions of what it means to be human and care for one another. Fisher introduces us to the people who have endeavored to address this complex condition through the ages: physicians and politicians, activists and artists, researchers and writers, and of course the legions of people who have struggled with their own addictions. He also examines the treatments and strategies that have produced hope and relief for many people with addiction, himself included. Only by reckoning with our history of addiction, he argues--our successes and our failures--can we light the way forward for those whose lives remain threatened by its hold.The Urge is at once an eye-opening history of ideas, a riveting personal story of addiction and recovery, and a clinician's urgent call for a more expansive, nuanced, and compassionate view of one of society's most intractable challenges.

Losing Our Minds: The Challenge of Defining Mental Illness


Lucy Foulkes - 2022
    Too often, psychiatric disorders are confused with the inherent stresses and challenges of human experience. A narrative has taken hold that a mental health crisis has been building among young people. In this profoundly sensitive and constructive book, psychologist Lucy Foulkes argues that the crisis is one of ignorance as much as illness. Have we raised a 'snowflake' generation? Or are today's young people subjected to greater stress, exacerbated by social media, than ever before? Foulkes shows that both perspectives are useful but limited. The real question in need of answering is: how should we distinguish between 'normal' suffering and actual illness?Drawing on her extensive knowledge of the scientific and clinical literature, Foulkes explains what is known about mental health problems—how they arise, why they so often appear during adolescence, the various tools we have to cope with them—but also what remains unclear: distinguishing between normality and disorder is essential if we are to provide the appropriate help, but no clear line between the two exists in nature. Providing necessary clarity and nuance, Losing Our Minds argues that the widespread misunderstanding of this aspect of mental illness might be contributing to its apparent prevalence.PRAISE“This is a book that calls for nuance in answering difficult questions…To Foulkes, the way forward is in acceptance of a hard truth: we need to support everyone who is struggling in a way geared to their needs; we need a different conversation about managing life’s sadness.” —The Times (London)“Dr. Foulkes writes exquisitely well about this complex subject...Engaging and lucid, her book illuminates a subject relevant to all of us.” —Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, author of Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain"Blending thoughtful analysis, clinical vignettes and her own young adult experience of depression, Foulkes skillfully examines key themes in the youthful onset of common mental disorders. Eloquently written and thoroughly researched, it is a welcome addition to the field." —B. Janet Hibbs and Anthony Rostain, authors of The Stressed Years of Their LivesDr Lucy Foulkes is an academic psychologist at UCL and the Anna Freud Centre in the UK. Her research focuses on mental health and social development, particularly in adolescence. She lives in London

Living While Black: Using Joy, Beauty, and Connection to Heal Racial Trauma


Guilaine Kinouani - 2022
    Living While Black gives voice to the diverse, global experiences of Black people, using personal stories, powerful case studies, and eye-opening research to offer expert guidance on how to set boundaries and process micro-aggressions; protect children from racism; handle difficult race-based conversations; navigate the complexities of Black love; and identify and celebrate the wins.Based on her findings, Kinouani has devised tried-and-tested strategies to help protect Black people from the harmful effects of verbal, physical, and structural racism. She empowers Black readers to adopt self-care mechanisms to improve their day-to-day wellness to help them thrive, not just survive, and to find hope and beauty--or even joy--in the face of racial adversity. She also provides a vital resource for allies seeking to better understand the impacts of racism and how they can help.With the rise of far-right ideologies and the increase of racist hate crimes, Living While Black is both timely and instrumental in moving conversations from defining racism for non-Black majorities to focusing on healing and nurturing the mental health of those facing prejudice, discrimination, and the lasting effects of the violence of white supremacy.

The Enneagram Made Simple: A No-Nonsense Guide to Using the Enneagram for Growth and Awareness


Ashton Whitmoyer-Ober - 2022
    

Toxic Positivity: Keeping It Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy


Whitney Goodman - 2022
    From "good vibes only" and "life is good" memes, to endless advice, to "look on the bright side," we're constantly told that the key to happiness is silencing negativity wherever it crops up, in ourselves and in others. Even when faced with illness, loss, breakups, and other challenges, there's little space for talking about our real feelings--and processing them so that we can feel better and move forward.But if all this positivity is the answer, why are so many of us anxious, depressed, and burned out?In this refreshingly honest guide, sought-after therapist Whitney Goodman shares the latest research along with everyday examples and client stories that reveal how damaging toxic positivity is to ourselves and our relationships, and presents simple ways to experience and work through difficult emotions. The result is more authenticity, connection, and growth--and ultimately, a path to showing up as you truly are.

The Eye Test: A Case for Human Creativity in the Age of Analytics


Chris Jones - 2022
    Award-winning journalist Chris Jones makes the case for the human element—for what smart, practiced, devoted people can bring to situations that have proved resistant to analytics. Jones shares what he’s learned from an army of extraordinary talents, including some of the best doctors, executives, athletes, meteorologists, magicians, designers, astrophysicists, and detectives in the world. There are lessons in their mastery.Of course, there is a place for numbers in decision-making. No baseball player should be judged by his jawline. But the analytics revolution sparked by Michael Lewis’s Moneyball now threatens to replace one kind of absurdity with another. We have developed a blind faith in the machine, the way a driver overly reliant on his GPS might be led off the edge of a cliff. Not all statistical analysis is sound. Algorithms aren’t infallible, and spreadsheets aren’t testaments. Trust in them too much, and they risk becoming instruments of destruction rather than understanding.Worse, data’s supremacy in our daily lives has led to a dangerous strain of anti-expertise: the belief that every problem is a math problem, and anyone given access to the right information will find the right answer. That taste doesn’t matter, experience doesn’t matter, creativity doesn’t matter. That we can’t believe our eyes, no matter how much they’ve seen.THE EYE TEST serves as a reminder that if beauty is less of a virtue in the age of analytics, a good eye still is. This book is a celebration of our greatest beholders—and an absorbing, inspiring guide for how you might become one, too.

Life Is Tough (But So Are You): How to rise to the challenge when things go pear-shaped


Briony Benjamin - 2022
    "This is the book everyone needs to read when life takes an unexpected turn." - Mia Freedman, MamaMia Not all storms come to disrupt your life. Some come to clear your path. Viral video producer Briony Benjamin was a few months into a new job when she started feeling crappy... All. The. Time. Doctors told her she was just stressed and should rest more and learn to meditate. But it turns out she had cancer all through her body. Turning the camera on herself, Briony started documenting her journey in the short video You Only Get One Life. Its raw portrayal of her experience went viral, touching millions. Here Briony shares some of the important lessons learnt through her illness and recovery - everything from how to assemble your A Team in times of crisis and learning to make friends with the pain, to happy hacks for cutting yourself some slack and some great tips on being a kick-arse support human when a friend is going through the rough stuff. If you want to live the richest version of your life, bring some more joy into your day-to-day existence and have some tools up your sleeve for when things get tricksy, this book is for you. Because - spoiler alert - we all have to deal with our fair share of tough times sooner or later. It's how we handle them and bounce back afterwards that really matters.

The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss


Mary-Frances O'Connor - 2022
    Poets and playwrights have written about the dark cloak of grief, the deep yearning, how devastating heartache feels. But until now, we have had little scientific perspective on this universal experience.In The Grieving Brain, neuroscientist and psychologist Mary-Frances O'Connor, PhD, gives us a fascinating new window into one of the hallmark experiences of being human. O'Connor has devoted decades to researching the effects of grief on the brain, and in this book, she makes cutting-edge neuroscience accessible through her contagious enthusiasm, and guides us through how we encode love and grief. With love, our neurons help us form attachments to others; but, with loss, our brain must come to terms with where our loved ones went, or how to imagine a future that encompasses their absence.Based on O'Connor's own trailblazing neuroimaging work, research in the field, and her real-life stories, The Grieving Brain does what the best popular science books do, combining storytelling, accessible science, and practical knowledge that will help us better understand what happens when we grieve and how to navigate loss with more ease and grace.

A Hypnotist’s Journey to The Secrets of The Sphinx (A Hypnotist's Journey)


SARAH Breskman Cosme - 2022
    

The Man Who Tasted Words: A Neurologist Explores the Strange and Startling World of Our Senses


Guy Leschziner - 2022
    Our five senses are the conduits that bring us the scent of a freshly brewed cup of coffee or the notes of a favorite song suddenly playing on the radio. But are they really that reliable? The Man Who Tasted Words shows that what we perceive to be absolute truths of the world around us is actually a complex internal reconstruction by our minds and nervous systems. The translation into experiences with conscious meaning―the pattern of light and dark on the retina that is transformed into the face of a loved one, for instance―is a process that is invisible, undetected by ourselves, and, in most cases, completely out of our control.Leschziner explores how our nervous systems define our worlds and how we can, in fact, be victims of falsehoods perpetrated by our own brains. In his moving and lyrical chronicles of lives turned upside down by a disruption in one or more of their five senses, he introduces readers to extraordinary individuals, like one man who actually “tasted” words, and shows us how sensory disruptions like that have wreaked havoc, not only on their view of the world, but also on their relationships. The cases Leschziner shares are extreme, but they are also human, and they teach us that both our lives and what we perceive as reality are ultimately defined by the complexities of the nervous system.

The Zen of Therapy: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life


Mark Epstein - 2022
    Mark Epstein reflects on one year's worth of therapy sessions with his patients to observe how his training in Western psychotherapy and his equally long investigation into Buddhism, in tandem, led to greater awareness--for his patients, and for himself For years, Dr. Mark Epstein kept his beliefs as a Buddhist separate from his work as a psychiatrist. Content to use his training in mindfulness as a private resource, he trusted that the Buddhist influence could, and should, remain invisible. But as he became more forthcoming with his patients about his personal spiritual leanings, he was surprised to learn how many were eager to learn more. The divisions between the psychological, emotional, and the spiritual, he soon realized, were not as distinct as one might think.In The Zen of Therapy, Dr. Epstein reflects on a year's worth of selected sessions with his patients and observes how, in the incidental details of a given hour, his Buddhist background influences the way he works. Meditation and psychotherapy each encourage a willingness to face life's difficulties with courage that can be hard to otherwise muster, and in this cross-section of life in his office, he emphasizes how therapy, an element of Western medicine, can in fact be considered a two-person meditation. Mindfulness, too, much like a good therapist, can "hold" our awareness for us--and allow us to come to our senses and find inner peace.Throughout this deeply personal inquiry, one which weaves together the wisdom of two worlds, Dr. Epstein illuminates the therapy relationship as spiritual friendship, and reveals how a therapist can help patients cultivate the sense that there is something magical, something wonderful, and something to trust running through our lives, no matter how fraught they have been or might become. For when we realize how readily we have misinterpreted our selves, when we stop clinging to our falsely conceived constructs, when we touch the ground of being, we come home.

The Confident Mind: A Battle-Tested Guide to Unshakable Performance


Nate Zinsser - 2022
    Zinsser helped me win two Super Bowls. I recommend The Confident Mind to competitors everywhere.” —Eli ManningDr. Nate Zinsser has spent his career training the minds of the U.S. Military Academy’s cadets as they prepare to lead and perform when the stakes are the very highest—on the battlefield. Alongside this work, he has coached world-class athletes including a Super Bowl MVP, numerous Olympic medalists, professional ballerinas, NHL All-Stars, and college All-Americans, teaching them to overcome pressure and succeed on the biggest stages.Dr. Zinsser has come to understand that one single trait above all others makes peak performance possible: confidence, or the belief in oneself. Whether your mission involves leading a platoon into combat, returning an opponent’s serve, or delivering a sales pitch to a roomful of skeptical prospects, you perform best when you are so certain about your abilities that your flow of fear, doubts, and confusion slows to the barest minimum. What’s more, Dr. Zinsser has come to understand that confidence is a skill that can be taught, improved, and applied by anyone to enhance nearly every aspect of our lives and careers.Now, for the first time, Dr. Zinsser distills his research and years of experience, offering a fascinating guide to the science of confidence and providing readers with a practical, step-by-step program to best harness their belief in themselves to achieve success in any field. The Confident Mind is a complete guide to confidence: how to understand it, how to build it, how to protect it, and how to rely upon it when your performance matters most.

Relationship OCD: A CBT-Based Guide to Move Beyond Obsessive Doubt, Anxiety, and Fear of Commitment in Romantic Relationships


Sheva Rajaee - 2022
    But if your fears so extreme that they threaten to destroy an otherwise healthy relationship, you may have relationship OCD—a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that causes chronic obsessive doubt and anxiety in relationships. So, how can you free yourself to discover deeper intimacy and security?Relationship OCD offers an evidence-based, cognitive behavioral approach to finding relief from relationship anxiety, obsessive doubt, and fear of commitment. You’ll learn to challenge the often-distorted thought patterns that trigger harmful emotions, increase your ability to think rationally, and ultimately accept the presence of intrusive thinking while maintaining the values of a healthy relationship.Relationships are the ultimate unknown. If you’re ready to let go of needing to know for sure, this book will help you find satisfaction and thrive in your romantic relationships—in all their wonderful uncertainty.

The Broken Mirror: Refracted Visions of Ourselves


James Hollis - 2022
    The various chapters illustrate internal obstacles such as intimidation by the magnitude of the project, the readiness to avoid the hard work, and gnawing self-doubt, but also provide tools to strengthen consciousness to take these obstacles on.Additional essays address living in haunted houses, the necessity of failure, and the gift and limits of therapy.Most of all, Hollis addresses the resources we all have within, or can obtain for ourselves, to lead a more abundant life and to step into larger possibilities for our unfolding journeys.

Collective Illusions: Conformity, Complicity, and the Science of Why We Make Bad Decisions


Todd Rose - 2022
    The desire to fit in is one of the most powerful, least understood forces in a society. Todd Rose believes that as human beings we continually act against our own best interests out of our brains’ misunderstanding of what we think others believe.  A complicated set of illusions driven by conformity bias distorts how we see the world around us. From toilet paper shortages to kidneys that get thrown away rather than used for desperately needed organ transplants, from racial segregation to the perceived “electability” of women for political office, from bottled water to “cancel culture,” we routinely copy others, lie about what we believe, cling to tribes, and silence others. We are so profoundly social that when we are incongruent with the group that we do lasting damage to our self-worth, diminish our well-being and never realize our full potential. It’s why we all too often chase the familiar trappings of money, fame, and success that leave us feeling empty even when we do achieve them. It’s why we’ll blindly espouse a viewpoint we don’t necessarily believe in so that we blend in with the group. We trap ourselves in prisons of our own making that prevent us from living the happy, fulfilled lives we envision. The question is, Why do we keep believing the lies and hurting ourselves? Todd Rose reveals the answer is deeply hard-wired in our DNA, with brains that are more socially dependent than we realize or dare to accept. Most of us would rather be fully in sync with the social norms of our respective groups than true to who we are.  Using originally researched data, Collective Illusions shows us where we get things wrong and just as important, how we can be authentic in forming our opinions while valuing truth. Rose offers a counterintuitive, empowering, and hopeful explanation for how we can bridge the inference gap, make decisions with a newfound clarity, and achieve fulfillment. Only then can we transform ourselves, and ultimately, society.

Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health


Thomas Insel - 2022
    --Pete Earley, author of CrazyAs director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Thomas Insel was giving a presentation when the father of a boy with schizophrenia yelled from the back of the room, "Our house is on fire and you're telling me about the chemistry of the paint! What are you doing to put out the fire?" Dr. Insel knew in his heart that the answer was not nearly enough. The gargantuan American mental health industry was not healing millions who were desperately in need. He left his position atop the mental health research world to investigate all that was broken--and what a better path to mental health might look like.In the United States, we have treatments that work, but our system fails at every stage to deliver care well. Even before COVID, mental illness was claiming a life every eleven minutes by suicide. Quality of care varies widely, and much of the field lacks accountability. We focus on drug therapies for symptom reduction rather than on plans for long-term recovery. Care is often unaffordable and unavailable, particularly for those who need it most and are homeless or incarcerated. Where was the justice for the millions of Americans suffering from mental illness? Who was helping their families?But Dr. Insel also found that we do have approaches that work, both in the U.S. and globally. Mental illnesses are medical problems, but he discovers that the cures for the crisis are not just medical, but social. This path to healing, built upon what he calls the three Ps (people, place, and purpose), is more straightforward than we might imagine. Dr. Insel offers a comprehensive plan for our failing system and for families trying to discern the way forward.The fruit of a lifetime of expertise and a global quest for answers, Healing is a hopeful, actionable account and achievable vision for us all in this time of mental health crisis.

Translating Your Past: Finding Meaning in Family Ancestry, Genetic Clues, and Generational Trauma


Michelle Van Loon - 2022
    We all have a desire to learn more about where we’ve come from, and technology has made this more possible than ever. But our family stories are more than a list of DNA results on a piece of paper or a bunch of fading Kodachrome images filling old photo albums.  In an era often marked by both fragmentation in family and culture and a hunger to discover our genetic roots, our family stories—including the difficult, complex ones—can carry great spiritual strength. The desire to trace, interpret, and pass on our family’s history is embedded in Scripture from beginning to end—there are nine genealogies found in the book of Genesis alone. When we bring together the various threads of our family stories with Scripture’s insights, they can provide the key to decoding our identity and helping us discover our place in family, church, and world. ​ In Translating Your Past, author Michelle Van Loon helps readers uncover how patterns and gaps in family histories, generational trauma, adoption, genetic clues and surprises, spiritual history, and the church help us translate our own pasts and understand why these stories matter. Each chapter includes questions designed for individual reflection or small group discussion, as well as an appendix of helpful tools readers can use to translate their own pasts and create meaning in order to transform their unique family history into living, faith-filled heritage.

The 5 Apology Languages: The Secret to Healthy Relationships


Gary Chapman - 2022
    We say and do things we deeply regret later on. So we need to make things right. But just saying you’re sorry isn’t enough. That’s only the first step on the road to restoration.In The 5 Apology Languages, Gary Chapman, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the 5 Love Languages®, partners with Jennifer Thomas to help you on the journey toward restored relationships. True healing comes when you learn to:Express regret: “I’m sorry.”Accept responsibility: “I was wrong.”Make restitution: “How can I make it right?”Plan for change: “I’ll take steps to prevent a reoccurrence.”Request forgiveness: “Can you find it in your heart to . . . ?”Don’t let hurts linger or wounds fester. Start on the path to healing today and discover how meaningful apologies can make your friendships, family, and marriage stronger than ever before.

Imago, Dei


Elizabeth Johnston Ambrose - 2022
    How does a daughter emerge whole from an upbringing saturated with religious fundamentalism? And if not whole, how does she piece together some kind of coherent self out of fragmented half-truths? The eighteen narrative poems in Imago, Dei bear witness to the emotional and psychological weight amassed from a girlhood fraught with vexed messages about what it means to be “good.” Narrated in third-person, lyric vignettes, these are poems about a daughter’s desire to be the son her well-meaning, but deeply damaged father thinks he needs; about an adolescent world filled with cute boys, predatory church leaders, Lakes of Fire, and broken girls who beg to be reborn; about the bad-girl specters of Eve, Jezebel, and Delilah that haunt her into adulthood and wreak havoc on her intimate relationships; about dirty dancing, Bible study, Lacanian theory, and crying after sex; and about what happens when a recovering evangelical becomes a mother to her own daughters.Winner of the 2022 Rattle Chapbook Prize, Imago, Dei is a poetry collection from the author of Wild Things.

Love Tough: The Truth about You, Your Relationship, What Doesn't Work, and How You Can Change It


Gary John Bishop - 2022
    Relationships are NOT 50/50; they're NOT a compromise or a sacrifice, and they're NOT about getting along. In this edgy guide, Bishop dispels all the myths and superstitious crap and lays out an authentic blueprint for real, unabashed relationship success, including:Stop blaming your relationship problems on other peopleYour relationship lives or dies based on you and you aloneYour job is to become the best partner you can beBishop argues that a lasting relationship is about responsibility. It's about going all in with no holding back. Becoming the best possible partner means you commit to work on yourself so you can be someone who truly brings love into the relationship without fear or hesitation. Whether you're in a relationship, or want to be in a relationship, this is the no-nonsense guide you've been waiting for--teaching you how to deal with the uncertainty, drama, and chaos of what it is to love another human being, and how to have a truly fulfilling relationship.

From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life


Arthur C. Brooks - 2022
    

Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything―Even Things that Seem Impossible Today


Jane McGonigal - 2022
    

Determined: The Science of Life Without Free Will


Robert M. Sapolsky - 2022
    work in progress.

Cultures of Belonging: Building Inclusive Organizations that Last


Alida Miranda-Wolff - 2022
    Clear, actionable steps for you to build new values, experiences, and perspectives into your organizational culture, infusing it with the diversity, inclusion, and belonging employees need to feel accepted, be their best selves, and do their best work.Bypass the faulty processes and communication styles that make change impossible in so many other organizations; access these practical tools and ideas for increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in your company.Filled with actionable advice Alida Miranda-Wolff learned through her own struggles being an outsider in a work culture that did not value inclusion, and having since worked with over 60 organizations to prioritize DEI initiatives and all the value and richness it adds to the workplace, this roadmap helps leaders:Learn why creating an environment where everyone feels belonging is the new barometer for employee engagement.Develop an understanding of the key terms around DEI and why they matter. Assess where your organization is today.Define and take the small steps that build new muscle memory into an organizational culture.Increase employee engagement, collaboration, innovation, communication, and sense of belonging.Build confidence in how to solve future DEI-related challenges.Get buy-in from colleagues (and even resisters) who can clearly see how to move forward and why.Overcome any limiting work environment and build all new processes and communication priorities that allow your employees to be a part of something greater than themselves while your organization learns to value and embrace the unique experiences and perspective that each employee brings to the company.

Getting to Neutral: How to Conquer Negativity and Thrive in a Chaotic World


Trevor Moawad - 2022
    It's easy to be positive when everything is coming up roses. But what happens when life goes sideways? Many of us lapse into a self-defeating negative spiral that makes it hard to accomplish anything. Getting to Neutral is a step-by-step guide that shows readers how to use mental conditioning coach Trevor Moawad's innovative motivational system to defeat negativity and thrive.Neutral thinking is a judgment-free, process-oriented approach that helps us coolly assess situations in high-pressure moments. Moawad walks readers through how to downshift to neutral no matter how dire the situation. He shows us how to behave our way to success, how to determine and practice our values in a neutral framework, and how to surround ourselves with a team that helps us to stay neutral.Filled with raw, inspiring stories of how Trevor navigated health challenges with neutral thinking as well as insights drawn from some of the world's best athletes, coaches, and leaders, Getting to Neutral will help readers learn to handle even the most complex and turbulent situations with calm, clarity, and resolve.

Every Family Has A Story: How we inherit love and loss


Julia Samuel - 2022
    Through eight beautifully told and insightful case studies, she analyses a range of common issues, from loss to leaving home, and from separation to step-relationships, and shows how much is, in fact, inherited -- and how much can be healed when it is faced together.Exploring the relationships that both touch us most and hurt us most, including the often under-appreciated impact of grandparents and siblings, and incorporating the latest academic research, she offers wisdom that is applicable to us all. Her twelve touchstones for family well-being -- from fighting productively to making time for rituals -- provide us with the tools to improve our relationships, and to create the families we wish for.This is a moving and reassuring meditation that, amid trauma and hardship, tells unforgettable stories of forgiveness, hope and love.

The Success Factor: Developing the Mindset and Skillset for Peak Business Performance


Ruth Gotian - 2022
    The key to their success is that they do all four of these things in tandem. Based on research and in-person interviews with astronauts, Nobel laureates, and Olympic champions The Success Factor outlines the methodological approach that individuals aspiring to improve their performance can adopt to achieve success.Using these four shared attributes as a guide, The Success Factor helps you reach peak performance by applying the lessons of high achievers in your own life: identify your passion using a Passion Audit; learn how and where to find a mentor and how to build a mentoring team; develop your own community of practice; pursue your interests through informal learning; and manage your time and energy. The Success Factor comes with online resources that feature a downloadable Passion Audit worksheet, mentoring team worksheet, scripts for approaching potential mentors and a list of uncommon places to find a mentor, such as webinars, book clubs and social media.

Herbal Medicine for Mental Health: Natural Treatments for Anxiety, Depression, ADHD and More


Lillian Somner - 2022
    For many of those patients, medication is a necessary part of treatment. But pharmaceuticals are not a cure-all. Sometimes they are ineffective, leaving patients feeling hopeless, as though nothing can be done. Some medications also have terrible side effects, leading patients to discontinue the drug. More and more, patients are turning to more natural products, supplements, essential oils, and herbs to solve their problems...But what are herbs really? Are they a replacement for the medications? Do they work? Are they safe? Have they been studied? How are do you even figure out where to start? Start here. This book takes those question head-on with simple, practical answers from a trusted and experienced psychiatrist, so patients and practitioners alike can discover how herbal medicine can be an effective part of treatment.

The Healing Power of Storytelling: Using Personal Narrative to Navigate Illness, Trauma, and Loss


Annie Brewster - 2022
    Doctors can give you a life-changing diagnosis, but they're not equipped to help you deal with the inner fallout: the confusion, anxiety, trauma, and dread that comes after "I have some bad news." But storytelling your way through a medical crisis--narrative therapy--can help you come to terms with a difficult diagnosis, find and create new ways to thrive, and reclaim your agency amid fear, change, and uncertainty.When Harvard-trained physician Dr. Annie Brewster was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2001, she realized firsthand that the medical system to which she'd devoted her entire career was failing patients. The experience was dehumanizing. Her doctors weren't listening. And the confusion, fear, and shame she felt around her diagnosis was preventing her from finding healing, claiming her story, and living her fullest, richest life.Here, Dr. Brewster and journalist Rachel Zimmerman share their own healing stories--and act as expert guides to help you move forward, reframe your story, and take back your life. With exercises, reflections, writing prompts, and stories from other real patients, Brewster and Zimmerman provide concrete ways to: - Process the difficult emotions inherent to a life-changing diagnosis - Move beyond being the hero of your own story to become the author of your own story - Craft your narrative in whatever medium you choose: music, audio, art, or other ways of storytelling - Integrate a traumatic health event into a new, evolving identity - Harness narrative therapy to strengthen connections between you and your loved ones (and even your care providers) - Cultivate resilience and move forward amid uncertainty and fear

Secret Pandemic: The Search for Connection in a Lonely World


Simone HengSimone Heng - 2022
    The feelings of disconnectedness people are facing today—isolation within our families, digital addiction, emotional trauma— hold worrying consequences for our mental well-being.We've lost touch with the human tribe we were born into.In this compelling guide to navigating connection in our modern world, human connection phenom Simone Heng walks you through the meaning of human connection as it relates to every aspect of life. Learn how to distinguish authentic connection from fake substitutes, understand how family trauma affects the way you connect with others, and discover the precise orbits of friendship you need to feel socially fulfilled.Human connection is one of our most essential needs. With Secret Pandemic: The Search for Connection in a Lonely World, you can stop searching for it and start living it, forging the genuine connections we all crave.

Unbreakable


Jay Glazer - 2022
    Jay Glazer—a top NFL insider on Fox NFL Sunday, an MMA trainer, actor, and a veteran advocate and founder of MVP (Merging Vets and Players)—offers hard-as-nails advice and insights gleaned from his successful journalism career in the NFL as well as his work with military vets struggling with PTSD; the result is a relentless, unapologetic, and no-nonsense approach to overcoming your self-doubts, fears, and excuses…with the goal of becoming Unbreakable.

The Loop: How Technology is Creating a World Without Choices and How to Fight Back


Jacob Ward - 2022
    

Great Minds Don't Think Alike: Debates on Consciousness, Reality, Intelligence, Faith, Time, AI, Immortality, and the Human


Marcelo Gleiser - 2022
    They challenge us to bridge the divide between the sciences and the humanities and bring together perspectives that are too often kept apart.Great Minds Don't Think Alike presents conversations among leading scientists, philosophers, historians, and public intellectuals that exemplify openness to diverse viewpoints and the productive exchange of ideas. Pulitzer and Templeton Prize winners, MacArthur "genius" grant awardees, and other acclaimed writers and thinkers debate the big questions: who we are, the nature of reality, science and religion, consciousness and materialism, and the mysteries of time. In so doing, they also inquire into how uniting experts from different areas of study to consider these topics might help us address the existential risks we face today. Convened and moderated by the physicist and author Marcelo Gleiser, these public dialogues model constructive engagement between the sciences and the humanities--and show why intellectual cooperation is necessary to shape our collective future.Contributors include David Chalmers and Antonio Damasio; Sean Carroll and B. Alan Wallace; Patricia Churchland and Jill Tarter; Rebecca Goldstein and Alan Lightman; Jimena Canales and Paul Davies; Ed Boyden and Mark O'Connell; Elizabeth Kolbert and Siddhartha Mukherjee; Jeremy DeSilva, David Grinspoon, and Tasneem Zehra Husain.

The Anxious Perfectionist: How to Manage Perfectionism-Driven Anxiety Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy


Clarissa W. Ong - 2022
    But striving for unrealistic standards, basing your self-worth on meeting those standards, and engaging in persistent self-criticism will ultimately lead to anxiety, stress, worry, burnout, and unhappiness. So, how can you distinguish between “helpful” and “hurtful” perfectionism and stop holding yourself and others to unrealistically high standards?Written by two clinical psychologists, Perfectly Anxious shines a much-needed light on the hidden costs of “being the best,” and offers essential skills based in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help you cope with the anxiety that is driven by your perfectionism. You’ll learn how your “need to be perfect” can actually hinder your productivity, and keep you from reaching your goals. You’ll also learn skills to help you gain distance from negative self-talk and criticism, let go of unhelpful and self-limiting labels such as “success” or “failure,” and give yourself and others permission to make mistakes while still honoring your high aspirations.If you’re struggling with feelings of anxiety and stress, and suspect your perfectionism may be to blame, this guide will show you how to stop getting in the way of your own success, and live a life guided by your deepest values.

Surviving Deep Waters: A Legendary Reporter's Story of Overcoming Poverty, Race, Violence, and His Mother's Deepest Secret


Bruce Johnson - 2022
    Poor, Black, and raised by a single mother who had a secret. He was the child she hid in plain view from the rest of her family. Bruce would spend his youth at Chickasaw Park in Louisville—Kentucky’s segregated west end. He would grab the low hanging tree branches, then swing out over the Ohio River before dropping into the dangerous water below. He didn’t know how to swim, but was fearless and knew to paddle quickly back to shore before the current could drag him under. This tenacity served him well, and he learned to be a risk taker early on. As an adult, he set out to just make a living—to do better than Black folks who tried their best before, while making his Momma and Grandmomma proud. His journey to becoming a successful TV journalist nearly killed him, but he refused to treat himself as a victim. His role was to use his voice and example to pull others out of deep waters. The rollout for his retirement was unprecedented. Week-long on-air tributes, hour-long online tributes from corporate CEOs, former colleagues, Congressmembers, the Mayor, and the governor. After a near forty-five year career, all was deserved and expected, except for a final tribute—seeing his image secretly painted on the Wall of Fame outside the iconic Ben’s Chili Bowl restaurant alongside Barack and Michelle Obama, Oprah, and Dave Chappelle. No one could have imagined such an ending. Or could they? Bruce Johnson’s journey is the culmination of his mother and grandmother’s stories—the ultimate American story of race, opportunity, and perseverance.