Book picks similar to
Calm World: Introduction to Meditation by Alice Fraser
audible
non-fiction
self-help
audiobooks
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey
Jill Bolte Taylor - 2006
Through the eyes of a curious scientist, she watched her mind deteriorate whereby she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Because of her understanding of the brain, her respect for the cells in her body, and an amazing mother, Jill completely recovered. In My Stroke of Insight, she shares her recommendations for recovery and the insight she gained into the unique functions of the two halves of her brain. When she lost the skills of her left brain, her consciousness shifted away from normal reality where she felt "at one with the universe." Taylor helps others not only rebuild their brains from trauma, but helps those of us with normal brains better understand how we can consciously influence the neural circuitry underlying what we think, how we feel and how we react to life's circumstances.
The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life
Robin S. Sharma - 2018
Forever.
Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It
Kamal Ravikant - 2012
Afterwards, people came up individually and told me how much what I'd shared meant to them. This book is based on the truth I spoke about.It's something I learned from within myself, something I believed saved me. And more than that, the way I set about to do it. This is a collection of thoughts on what I learned, what worked, what didn't. Where I succeed and importantly, where I fail daily.The truth is to love yourself with the same intensity you would use to pull yourself up if you were hanging off a cliff with your fingers. As if your life depended upon it. Once you get going, it's not hard to do. Just takes commitment and I'll share how I did it. It's been transformative for me. I know it will be transformative for you as well.
If God Were Your Therapist: How to Love Yourself and Your Life and Never Feel Angry, Anxious or Insecure Again
David J. Lieberman - 2010
Given the high level of both opportunity and comfort, one would expect people to be happier than ever, and even more satisfied with their lives. The reality, though, is startlingly different. Instead of thriving and feeling empowered as a result of greater choices, we are deteriorating. According to the latest research, one in four Americans suffers from mental illness. The drug companies try to keep pace, with the sales of anti-depressant, anti-anxiety, and mood-stabilizing drugs at record levels, and tens of millions of new prescriptions being written each year.But that doesn't seem to be enough.Many people are finding life just too painful. Every day, 80 Americans take their own lives, and over 1,900 Americans visit Emergency Departments for self-inflicted injury. So why are we suffering from such emotional pain and anguish? Drawing on timeless wisdom and fundamental principles in psychology, If God Were Your Therapist offers insights into the human condition, and reveals how regardless of the opportunities available to us today, a lack of self-control results in poor choices, and ultimately leads to negative emotions and destructive habits.As a solution, this book offers neither exercises or affirmations, nor meditations or motivating mantras. There is no homework to do or journals to fill out. Rather, readers learn how to regain self-control and move their thoughts, choices, and lives in a purposeful, powerful, direction, free from the shackles of anxiety and stress.A Look Inside:What makes some people capable of handling life’s challenges with quiet calm and optimistic resolve, while others dissolve at the slightest insult or frustration? The answer has to do with our perspective: how we see, feel, behave, and, ultimately, respond to circumstances in our life. Imagine a small child playing with a toy that suddenly breaks. The child’s whole world is shattered, and she may respond by crying, or by becoming frustrated, sad, or even angry. The child fails to appreciate, let alone recognize, that she is still being clothed, fed, loved, and taken care of — not to mention that there is a whole world outside of her own smaller world. The child’s parents know that the broken toy has no significance, but the parents have perspective that the child lacks. Intellectually, we may know that what makes us anxious or upset is actually unimportant and insignificant. The qualities however, that most of us strive to exemplify — such as objectivity, calm, and patience — are lost to annoyance and impatience when, in a hurry, we encounter the checkout clerk with the trainee name-tag staring at the cash register as if it were the cockpit of a 757. We try to maintain our cool, but negative emotions surface, and once sparked, blaze. Now we face an uphill battle. Techniques such as taking deep breaths, reciting affirmations, or practicing visualization, might work when we face minor issues, but they’re insufficient for life’s really big challenges. Reminding ourselves not to get annoyed is not a solution. Yes, the objective is to remain calm, but this is better accomplished through not becoming agitated in the first place. When we fight the urge to blow up or melt down, we battle our own nature. Without perspective, we are forever like the child holding the broken toy. This book shows you how to experience a new kind of freedom and power when you learn how to permanently shift your perspective and move through life without anger, fear, or frustration . . .
Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions
Johann Hari - 2018
He was told—like his entire generation—that his problem was caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain. As an adult, trained in the social sciences, he began to investigate this question—and he learned that almost everything we have been told about depression and anxiety is wrong. Across the world, Hari discovered social scientists who were uncovering the real causes—and they are mostly not in our brains, but in the way we live today. Hari’s journey took him from the people living in the tunnels beneath Las Vegas, to an Amish community in Indiana, to an uprising in Berlin—all showing in vivid and dramatic detail these new insights. They lead to solutions radically different from the ones we have been offered up until now.Just as Chasing the Scream transformed the global debate about addiction, with over twenty million views for his TED talk and the animation based on it, Lost Connections will lead us to a very different debate about depression and anxiety—one that shows how, together, we can end this epidemic.
The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science
Culadasa (John Yates) - 2015
Clear and friendly, this in-depth practice manual builds on the nine-stage model of meditation originally articulated by the ancient Indian sage Asanga, crystallizing the entire meditative journey into 10 clearly-defined stages. The book also introduces a new and fascinating model of how the mind works, and uses illustrations and charts to help the reader work through each stage. This manual is an essential read for the beginner to the seasoned veteran of meditation and can be read from front to back, or used as a reference guide, choosing chapters as needed based on the current state of the reader’s practice.
The Body Book: The Law of Hunger, the Science of Strength, and Other Ways to Love Your Amazing Body
Cameron Díaz - 2013
By her own candid admission, though, this fit, glamorous, but down-to-earth star was not always health-conscious. Learning about the inseparable link between nutrition and the body was just one of the life-changing lessons that has fed Cameron’s hunger to educate herself about the best ways to feed, move, and care for her body. In The Body Book, she shares what she has learned and continues to discover about nutrition, exercise, and the mind/body connection.Grounded in science and informed by real life, The Body Book offers a comprehensive overview of the human body and mind, from the cellular level up. From demystifying and debunking the hype around food groups to explaining the value of vitamins and minerals, readers will discover why it’s so important to embrace the instinct of hunger and to satisfy it with whole, nutrient-dense foods. Cameron also explains the essential role of movement, the importance of muscle and bone strength and why we need to sweat a little every day.The Body Book
does not set goals to reach in seven days or thirty days or a year. It offers a holistic, long-term approach to making consistent choices and reaching the ultimate goal: a long, strong, happy, healthy life.
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know
Malcolm Gladwell - 2019
He was also producing for the ear. In the audiobook version of Talking to Strangers, you'll hear the voices of people he interviewed--scientists, criminologists, military psychologists. Court transcripts are brought to life with re-enactments. You actually hear the contentious arrest of Sandra Bland by the side of the road in Texas. As Gladwell revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, and the suicide of Sylvia Plath, you hear directly from many of the players in these real-life tragedies. There's even a theme song - Janelle Monae's "Hell You Talmbout."Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don't know. And because we don't know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world.
E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality
Pam Grout - 2013
Create reality!
E-Squared
could best be described as a lab manual with simple experiments to prove once and for all that reality is malleable, that consciousness trumps matter, and that you shape your life with your mind. Rather than take it on faith, you are invited to conduct nine 48-hour experiments to prove there really is a positive, loving, totally hip force in the universe. Yes, you read that right. It says prove. The experiments, each of which can be conducted with absolutely no money and very little time expenditure, demonstrate that spiritual principles are as dependable as gravity, as consistent as Newton’s laws of motion. For years, you’ve been hoping and praying that spiritual principles are true. Now, you can know. E-Squared proves the following: 1. There is an invisible energy force or field of infinite possibilities. 2. You impact the field and draw from it according to your beliefs and expectations. 3. You, too, are a field of energy. 4. Whatever you focus on expands. 5. Your connection to the field provides accurate and unlimited guidance.6. Your thoughts and consciousness impact matter. 7. Your thoughts and consciousness provide the scaffolding for your physical body.8. You are connected to everything and everyone else in the universe. 9. The universe is limitless, abundant, and strangely accommodating.