But how much is too much? Research is uncovering the delicate balance that can turn a brief stressful episode into systemic overload, eventually leading to inflammation, anxiety, depression, and other chronic health issues.This practical and groundbreaking guide reveals seven paths to fighting the effects of stress--to strengthen our natural defenses so that our minds remain sharp, and our bodies resilient, no matter what life throws at us.Each chapter examines a common stress agent--including inflammation, an out-of-sync body clock, cortisol levels, and emotional triggers--and presents simple ways to minimize its harmful effects with changes in diet, exercise, and other daily habits--including surprising hacks involving music, eye movements, body temperature, daily routine, and more.Translating cutting-edge scientific findings into clear and simple advice, Stress-Proof is the ultimate user's guide for body, mind and well-being.**Winner, Best Stress Management Books of All Time, BookAuthority**

    Seeing Voices is, as Studs Terkel has written, "an exquisite, as well as revelatory, work."

    Margo Kerber has endured difficult years battling infertility while trying to sustain her good marriage and satisfying career. When a joyful pregnancy ends in a late miscarriage, she is devastated. For a time, the false belief that she is once again pregnant rescues her from grief. When this comforting fantasy inevitably clashes with ultrasound reality, Margo falls into a deep depression. She is admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where the environment is often chaotic. Worried it is making her worse, she seizes an opportunity to flee. Alone on the city streets, a new fantasy propels her to kidnap a baby from its carriage."

    How could looking at Monet’s water lily paintings help save your company millions? How can checking out people’s footwear foil a terrorist attack? How can your choice of adjective win an argument, calm your kid, or catch a thief?   In her celebrated seminar, the Art of Perception, art historian Amy Herman has trained experts from many fields how to perceive and communicate better. By showing people how to look closely at images, she helps them hone their “visual intelligence,” a set of skills we all possess but few of us know how to use properly. She has spent more than a decade teaching doctors to observe patients instead of their charts, helping police officers separate facts from opinions when investigating a crime, and training professionals from the FBI, the State Department, Fortune 500 companies, and the military to recognize the most pertinent and useful information. Her lessons highlight far more than the physical objects you may be missing; they teach you how to recognize the talents, opportunities, and dangers that surround you every day.   Whether you want to be more effective on the job, more empathetic toward your loved ones, or more alert to the trove of possibilities and threats all around us, this book will show you how to see what matters most to you more clearly than ever before.

    By shedding light on individual characteristics and tendencies, psychologists Roger R. Pearman and Sarah C. Albritton teach us how to overcome our natural inclination to judge difference in order to recognize and celebrate it. This new second edition includes current research into psychological type, information about the benefits of using type to enhance health and manage stress, discussion of the link between type and emotional intelligence and analysis of how personality preferences translate across generational and cultural divides.

    We struggle to understand people who aren't like us, but find it easy to hate them. Studies show that we are less caring than we were even thirty years ago. In 2006, Barack Obama said that the United States was suffering from an "empathy deficit." Since then, things seem to have only gotten worse.It doesn't have to be this way. In this groundbreaking book, Jamil Zaki shares cutting-edge research, including experiments from his own lab, showing that empathy is not a fixed trait--something we're born with or not--but rather a skill that can be strengthened through effort. He also tells the stories of people who embody this new perspective, fighting for kindness in the most difficult of circumstances. We meet a former neo-Nazi who is now helping to extract people from hate groups, ex-prisoners discussing novels with the judge who sentenced them, Washington police officers changing their culture to decrease violence among their ranks, and NICU nurses fine-tuning their empathy so that they don't succumb to burnout.Written with clarity and passion, The War for Kindness is an inspiring call to action. The future may depend on whether we accept the challenge.Praise for The War for Kindness"A wide-ranging practical guide to making the world better."--NPR"Relating anecdotes and test cases from his fellow researchers, news events and the imaginary world of literature and entertainment, Zaki makes a vital case for 'fighting for kindness.' . . . If he's right--and after reading The War for Kindness, you'll probably think so--Zaki's work is right on time." --San Francisco Chronicle"In this landmark book, Jamil Zaki gives us a revolutionary perspective on empathy: Empathy can be developed, and, when it is, people, relationships, organizations, and cultures are changed."--Carol Dweck, author of Mindset

    Yet few people experience this type of relationship. Statistics show that approximately 20 million divorced people live in our country, and the median duration of any given marriage is just 7.2 years. Few people consider the role that their birth order has played in developing their own personality, how it has affected their prospective spouse\u2019s personality, or how the two personalities might make it living under one roof. As a result, after the initial intoxicating infatuation ends, most married couples are left to work their way through the agonizing hangover of conflicting birth orders. In The Birth Order Connection, Dr. Kevin Leman helps readers avoid such conflicts before they arise. He shows how to find and recognize the best and wisest choice fora life partner, provides tools to succeed in marriage, and teaches how an understanding of birth order can do wonders not only for future marriages but for those that have already begun.