In fact, research shows that spending time outside can improve the immune system, combat stress hormones, lower blood pressure, and boost self-esteem. Around the globe, rising movements are driving us to reconnect with Mother Nature--from shinrin-yoku ("forest bathing") in Japan to friluftsliv ("open-air life") in Scandinavia--yet our everyday lifestyles have distanced us from the great outdoors. For stressed-out professionals, reclusive bookworms, worn-out parents, and their cooped-up kids, Forest Therapy shares why getting back to nature is critically important for our well-being, and offers fun, easy practices to break out of hibernation. Forest bathing is a rising trend, but what to do if you're not near the woods or if the weather is dreary? Forest Therapy offers practical steps and inspiration to tap into nature's restorative power, no matter the season or the weather. Chapters address ideas for all four seasons, as well as ways to use experiences in nature as ways to deepen your relationships with your children, partner, and friends. Ivens's creative ideas and strategies range from a simple walk in the woods and countryside couples' therapy to DIY natural beauty products and simple ways to bring the great outdoors into your home. Illustrated with charming black-and-white line art, Forest Therapy is a warm, witty, and personal guide to improving your health, finding happiness, and living a fabulous al fresco life.

    But what about playground bullies, colleagues, refugees, online adversaries? They're all our neighbors, and Jesus said to love them. Every one. But how?Lauren Casper believes the key is the lost art of empathy, stepping into other people’s shoes and asking what if? — What if it were my child? What if it were me? Casper helps us discover how to:-identify our blind spots and tune our hearts to the stories around us;-seek and extend forgiveness with grace and humility; and-engage in diverse and meaningful relationships.Following these steps will enable us to connect in simple but life-altering ways, to respond to conflict with grace, bring about needed change, and shine God’s unconditional love into a dark world.

    In an increasingly polarized world, Pema shows us how to strengthen our abilities to find common ground, even when we disagree, and influence our environment in positive ways. Sharing never-before told personal stories from her remarkable life, simple and powerful everyday practices, and directly relatable advice, Pema encourages us all to become triumphant bodhisattvas--compassionate beings--in times of hardship.Welcoming the Unwelcome includes teachings on the true meaning of karma, recognizing the basic goodness in ourselves and the people we share our lives with--even the most challenging ones, transforming adversity into opportunities for growth, and freeing ourselves from the empty and illusory labels that separate us. Pema also provides step-by-step guides to a basic sitting meditation and a compassion meditation that anyone can use to bring light to the darkness we face, wherever and whatever it may be.

    We have only known this life, so dying scares us—and we are all dying. But what if dying were perfectly safe? What would it look like if you could approach dying with curiosity and love, in service of other beings? What if dying were the ultimate spiritual practice?   Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush began their friendship more than four decades ago at the foot of their guru, Neem Karoli Baba, also known as Maharaj-ji. He transmitted to them a simple philosophy: love everyone, tell the truth, and give up attachment to material things. After impacting millions of people through the years with these teachings, they have reunited once more with Walking Each Other Home to enlighten and engage readers on the spiritual opportunities within the dying process. They generously share intimate personal experiences and timeless practices, told with courage, humor, and heart, gently exploring every aspect of this journey. And, at 86 years old, Ram Dass reminds us, “This time we have a real deadline.”   In Walking Each Other Home, readers will learn about: guidelines for being a “loving rock” for the dying, how to grieve fully and authentically, how to transform a fear of death, leaving a spiritual legacy, creating a sacred space for dying, and much more.   “Everybody you have ever loved is a part of the fabric of your being now,” says Ram Dass. The body may die, but the soul remains. Death is an invitation to a new kind of relationship, in the place where we are all One. Join these two lifelong friends and spiritual luminaries as they explore what it means to live and die consciously, remember who we really are, and illuminate the path we walk together.

    At the core of Impossible Cure is the amazing story of how the author's son was cured of autism with homeopathy. It also includes dozens of other testimonials of homeopathic cure, for a variety of physical, mental, and emotional conditions. Impossible Cure will serve as an invaluable guide to anyone interested in learning more about this intriguing form of health care. It has won endorsements from leading experts in alternative health care, including: Larry Dossey, MD (executive editor, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, and author of Healing Words); Bernard Rimland, PhD (director, Autism Research Institute); Wayne Jonas, MD (director, Samueli Institute, and former director, Office of Alternative Medicine, NIH); Michael Castleman (author of The New Healing Herbs and other consumer health books); Louis Klein, RSHom (president, Luminos Homeopathic Courses); and Richard Pitt, CCH, RSHom(NA) (director, Pacific Academy of Homeopathy). About the author: Amy Lansky received her doctorate in computer science from Stanford University in 1983. After many years working at various Silicon Valley research institutions, she made an unusual career move -- she became a student, writer, and promoter of homeopathic medicine. This was prompted by the miraculous cure of her son's autism with homeopathy. She serves on the board of the National Center for Homeopathy and has been active in the national health freedom movement. She is dedicated to helping others -- especially families with autistic children -- discover the curative powers of homeopathy.

    She sought out the best care that the medical community could offer, and she relied on the faith she had inherited from her cotton-farmer parents. But Edie also found healing through movement. Edie knew that if she was still walking, she was still alive."The Mission Walker" is both an adventure story and a reflection on the universal experience of confronting our own mortality. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.Edie’s story shows that the sum of a million steps is a life forever changed.

    It's the place where your soul feels like it belongs, where you are loved for who you are. Too many of us build our homes in other people in the hope that they will deem us worthy of being welcomed inside, and then we feel abandoned and empty when those people leave. Building your home inside yourself--and never experiencing inner homelessness again--begins here.In Welcome Home, Zebian shares her personal story for the first time, powerfully weaving memoir, poetry, and deeply resonant teachings into her storytelling, from leaving Lebanon at sixteen, to coming of age as a young Muslim woman in Canada, to building a new identity for herself as she learned to speak her truth. After the profound alienations she experienced, she learned to build a stable foundation inside herself, an identity independent of cultural expectations and the influence of others. The powerful metaphor of home provides a structure for personal transformation as she shows you how to construct the following rooms: Self-Love, Forgiveness, Compassion, Clarity, Surrender, and The Dream Garden. With practical tools and prompts for self-understanding, she shows you how to build each room in your house, which form a firm basis for your self-worth, sense of belonging, and happiness.

    The COVID-19 pandemic may have accelerated the process, but the trend is clear—making a living outside the confines of a public workplace is here to stay. For anyone who needs guidance on how to navigate working from a home office—or a home sofa—here is a charming, expert, and genuinely helpful guide to managing a productive career without impromptu hallway conversations or on-call IT support, but with more joy—and, for most of us, better coffee. Written by a dedicated work-from-home expert, Solo culls wisdom from the latest research in psychology, economics, and social science and explores what we gain, or lose, in the shift to solo work. In chapters like “Loneliness and Solitude,” “The Power of Planning,” and “The Curse of Comparison (and Why Social Media Sucks),” it picks up where the bibles for freelancers stop, offering practical, inspiring, and uniquely reassuring advice culled from a range of influences, from Aesop’s fables to medical journals, and explaining what helps us stay resilient, productive, and focused in a company of one.

    This book, by renowned Reiki teacher Richard Ellis, illustrates all the hand positions used for the first level of Reiki, but it goes much further and shows them in their relation to the seven chakras. Chakras are the main energy points of the body and provide the anatomy of energy healing. These are different for everyone, and so to practise Reiki effectively you need to understand a person's chakras, which will in turn explain the type of person they are and the health problems they are vulnerable to. For example, one person may have an excessive first chakra, making them prone to obesity or digestive problems, and to pessimism, while another may be deficient, making them vulnerable to anorexia and restlessness. You would therefore approach these two people differently. Reiki and the Seven Chakras captures the feeling of wonder that surrounds Reiki, but it is also an immensely practical guide. So many of the current books on Reiki are very dry, following a formula of detailing the history of Reiki healing and then showing you how to do it. This one breaks the mould and is written from a very personal point of view, which makes it incredibly interesting to read and also very accessible – essential if you are to understand the true nature and potential of Reiki.

    Diseases such as Alzheimer’s erase parts of one’s memory but are also often said to erase the self. People don’t simply die from such diseases; they are imagined, in the clichés of our era, as vanishing in plain sight, fading away, or enduring a long goodbye. In On Vanishing, Lynn Casteel Harper, a Baptist minister and nursing home chaplain, investigates the myths and metaphors surrounding dementia and aging, addressing not only the indignities caused by the condition but also by the rhetoric surrounding it. Harper asks essential questions about the nature of our outsize fear of dementia, the stigma this fear may create, and what it might mean for us all to try to “vanish well.”Weaving together personal stories with theology, history, philosophy, literature, and science, Harper confronts our elemental fears of disappearance and death, drawing on her own experiences with people with dementia both in the U.S. health-care system and within her own family. In the course of unpacking her own stories and encounters—of leading a prayer group on a dementia unit; of meeting individuals dismissed as “already gone” and finding them still possessed of complex, vital inner lives; of witnessing her grandfather’s final years with Alzheimer’s and discovering her own heightened genetic risk of succumbing to the disease—Harper engages in an exploration of dementia that is unlike anything written before on the subject.Expanding our understanding of dementia beyond progressive vacancy and dread, On Vanishing makes room for beauty and hope, and opens a space in which we might start to consider better ways of caring for, and thinking about, our fellow human beings. It is a rich and startling work of nonfiction that reveals cognitive change as an essential aspect of what it means to be mortal.

    A practical, science-based guide that shows how in just 10 to 15 minutes a day you can make mediation part of your routine and improve your happiness, wellbeing and productivity, for people of all ages and all walks of life.Can't sleep because your thoughts won't switch off? Does a constant stream of unnecessary chatter run thought your head? Mediation is a simple practice that can help you address these common experiences.Through scientifically based research SILENCE YOUR MIND shows how meditation can fit into your busy schedule to improve your sense of wellbeing, help you reach your potential in sport, work and creative pursuits, and increase the quality of your life.For just 10 minutes a day you can feel the benefits that meditation brings to your mental and physical health.Australia's world-leading expert on meditation, Dr Ramesh Manocha, writes in a clear, straight forward way that will appeal to people who wouldn't normally consider meditation, as well as those who want to make it part of their daily lives.

    Lifelong vegans, part-timers, and aspiring vegans are a diverse and eclectic group of people from all walks of life and backgrounds, and yet, there’s very little out there in mainstream media that reflects this new reality.The Evolving Vegan cookbook celebrates both flavours and stories from a wide array of plant-based eateries all across North America, proving that a plant-friendly diet is truly accessible to all! In this book, you will meet Cyrus Ichiza from Ichiza Kitchen in Portland, whose Taiwanese mother inspired him to share his Southeast Asian roots through authentically flavorful vegan dishes. You’ll learn legendary behind-the-scenes secrets of San Francisco’s Peña Pachamama, a Bolivian plant-based restaurant that serves national dishes like pique macho and aji de fideo. And you can finally conquer veganism once and for all, without sacrificing the delicious flavours you love.Containing recipes from many different countries and cultures, and including helpful tips for lifelong and transitioning vegans alike, Evolving Vegan takes you on a food-based road trip to explore the vibrancy of veganism across North America.

    As a teenager in the 1980s, Riyad witnesses the devastating aftermath of the Hama massacre—an atrocity by the Assad regime upon its people. Wanting to expand his notion of government and justice, Riyad moves to the United States to study the law, but his plans are derailed and he eventually falls in love with a Southern belle. They move to a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee, where they raise two sons and where Riyad opens a restaurant—Café Rakka—cooking the food his grandmother used to make. But he finds himself confronted with the darker side of American freedoms: the hardscrabble life of a newly-arrived immigrant, enduring bigotry, poverty, and loneliness. Years pass, and at the height of Syria's civil war, fearing for his family's safety halfway across the world, he risks his own life by making a dangerous trip back to Raqqa.Bashar, meanwhile, stayed in Syria. After his older brother moved to America, Bashar embarked on a brilliant legal career under the same corrupt Assad government that Riyad despised. Reluctant to abandon his comfortable (albeit conflicted) life, he fails to perceive the threat of ISIS until it's nearly too late.The Road from Raqqa brings us into the lives of two brothers bound by their love for each other and for the war-ravaged city they call home. It's about a family caught in the middle of the most significant global events of the new millennium, America's fraught-but-hopeful relationship to its own immigrants, and the toll of dictatorship and war on everyday families. It's a book that captures all the desperation, tenacity, and hope that come with the revelation that we can find home in each other when the lands of our forefathers fail us.

    But a few years down the road, she's stuck in a pothole. No job (not good). No man (very not good). Nothing has turned out as she'd intended.There's only one way to get out of the hole: throw out the ideas that landed her there and start over. So, using the ancient Chinese tradition of the five elements of life - Metal, Fire, Wood, Water, Earth - Isabel breaks her own life down to its essentials to explore five areas of inner and outer change.She calls in a feng shui consultant to discover that her bedroom decor is draining the father (whatever that means)... takes a motivational workshop to experience the power of doing... turns a silent meditation retreat into an exercise in unrelenting being... sits at the feet of a Brixton guru to examine the nature of mind... and undertakes a shamanic ritual in the Amazon to part company with her own mind completely. As rich as the book is in the particulars of a life hilariously lived, it's also universal: readers can see themselves in Isabel's experience and look at their lives with new eyes.

    These candid fieldnotes will stir your heart and make you laugh out loud with Bunmi's self-aware humor and profound insight into the spiritual journey we're all trying to navigate. Join Bunmi as she journeys through emotions we all experience--doubt, anger, joy, desperation, love, loneliness, and gratefulness. Wittingly fresh and stunningly relatable, she exquisitely names our fears, voices our painful questions, and bravely says what we're all thinking anyway in our prayerful wrestling with God. For those who find themselves thirsting for something more, those who seek to reconnect with God, or those who really don't know what they believe but appreciate a good word, this poignant collection of prayers is a strengthening reminder that the same Love that rises and sets the sun cares for you with particular affection.