Book picks similar to
How to Be Mindful by Anna Barnes


self-help
non-fiction
nonfiction
bookshelf

Pause: How to press pause before life does it for you


Danielle Marchant - 2017
    I know you spend most days moving from one task to the next, getting stuff done but never really accomplishing your heart’s desire. I know it’s relentless. It feels impossible to stop, doesn’t it? That somehow if you slow down everything will fall apart.I know you remember another way, a different time when there was more space to breathe. It might have been a long long time ago but the memory is still reachable within you. A time when there was laughter and dancing, ease and flow. Somehow somewhere the flow was dammed. Blocked by to-do lists, endless email, and meetings that went on for to long.And now it’s hard to breathe. To simply catch your breath and feel. Chest tight, body aching, restless nights, that constant dull ache in our head that never seems to go away.Always switched on, yet somehow sleeping through life.If this sounds like you, it’s OK, I get it. It was my story too. I’ll share it with you sometime. For now, this your time to Pause.

The Wishing Year: An Experiment in Desire


Noelle Oxenhandler - 2008
    With little left to lose, she launched a year’s experiment in desire, forcing herself to take the plunge and try the path of Putting It Out There. It wasn’t easy. A skeptic at heart, and a practicing Buddhist as well, Oxenhandler had grown up with a strong aversion to mixing spiritual and earthly matters. Still, she suspended her doubts and went for it all: a new love, a healed soul, and the 2RBD/1.5 BA of her dreams. Thus began her initiation into the art of wishing brazenly.In this charming, compelling, and ultimately joyful book, Oxenhandler records a journey that is at once comic and poignant, light and dark, earthy and spiritual. Along the way she wonders: Does wishing have power? Is there danger in wishing? Are some wishes more worthy than others? And what about the ancient link between suffering and desire? To answer her questions, she delves into the history of wishing, from the rain dance and deer song of primeval magic to modern beliefs about mind over matter, prosperity consciousness, and the law of attraction.As the months go by, Oxenhandler is humbled to discover the courage it takes to make a wish and thus open oneself to the unknown. She is surprised when her experiment expands to include other people and other places in ways she never imagined. But most of all, she is amazed to find that there is, indeed, both power and danger in the act of wishing. For soon her wishes begin to come true–in ways that meet, subvert, and overflow her expectations. And what started as a year’s dare turns into a way of life.A delightfully candid memoir, unfettered, poetic, and ripe with discovery, Oxenhandler’s journey into the art and soul of wishing will inspire even the most skeptical reader to search the skies for the next shooting star.Praise for THE WISHING YEAR"This is a wonderful book, full of wisdom gleaned from a year of Noelle Oxenhandler's daring to embrace what she had previously denied herself--her own personal wishes. I highly recommend The Wishing Year for anyone wanting to learn more about what life has to offer when we pay attention to our heart's desires." –Sarah Susanka, author of The Not So Big Life "Do you want to know how wishes come true? Then read The Wishing Year. It's a book that beautifully illuminates the art and mystery of wishing--and it does so in a way that is inspiring, funny, serious, honest, heartfelt, and irresistibly readable."–Jack Kornfield, author of After the Ecstasy, the Laundry "The Wishing Year is an elegant exploration of the way thought shapes reality. Writing with great personal honesty and candor, Noelle Oxenhandler's exhilarating prose takes us deep into the pain and glory of being human." –Mark Epstein, M.D., author of Open to Desire“Oxenhandler's new book makes it okay to be a smart, sophisticated grow-up who also believes in magic. She dives beneath the new age veneer and deconstructs how wishes really come true.” –Susan Piver, author of How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life

Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness


Susan L. Smalley - 2010
    In Fully Present, leading mindfulness researchers and educators Dr. Sue Smalley and Diana Winston provide an all-in-one guide for anyone interested in bringing mindfulness to daily life as a means of enhancing well-being. Fully Present provides both a scientific explanation for how mindfulness positively and powerfully affects the brain and the body as well as practical guidance to develop both a practice and mindfulness in daily living, not only through meditation but also during daily experiences, such as waiting in line at the supermarket, exercising, or facing difficult news.

Letting Go of Leo: How I Broke up with Perfection


Simi Botic - 2018
    What these people don’t understand is how exhausting it feels to make it look that way. The pressure to keep it all going is intense. You feel unfulfilled and don’t believe you measure up to others. You’re constantly searching for the secret to experience confidence in your own skin. Despite your have-it-all-together life, you can’t figure out how to accept or perfect yourself. You’ve tried diets, intense exercise, shopping, and stuffing brownies in your face. Yet nothing fills the hole deep inside, and you worry, Will I ever be enough? You’ve come to the right place. In Letting Go of Leo, Simi Botic gets personal about what she’s experienced and learned. She shares stories about eating a jar of peanut butter without choking to death. Stories about her thighs rubbing together. Stories of living a fantasy where she would marry Leo DiCaprio and win an Oscar. Stories of realizing that real life can be better than any fantasy, that she could show up for the good stuff and the hard stuff and, most importantly, for herself. Simi used to freak out about food, her body, and not being perfect enough. She freaks out a lot less now. In Letting Go of Leo, she shares how she broke up with perfection—and how you can too.

Outrageous Openness: Letting the Divine Take the Lead


Tosha Silver - 2011
    After twenty-five years spent consulting and advising tens of thousands of people from all over the world, Tosha Silver realized that almost all of us have similar concerns: “How do I stop worrying? How can I feel safe? Why do I feel so alone?” And often, “Who am I really?” For the passionately spiritual and the bemusedly skeptical alike, she created Outrageous Openness. This delightful book, filled with wisdom and fresh perspectives, helps create a relaxed, trusting openness in the reader to discover answers to life’s big questions as they spontaneously arise.At its heart, Outrageous Openness opens the door to a profound truth: By allowing the Divine to lead the way, we can finally put down the heavy load of hopes, fears, and opinions about how things should be. We learn how to be guided to take the right actions at the right time, and to enjoy the spectacular show that is our life.

The Little Book of Otter Philosophy (The Little Animal Philosophy Books)


Jennifer McCartney - 2019
    Pretty inspiring, right?In a world that can often seem divided, lonely, and just plain cruel, the otter reminds us of what’s important in life.What other animal:• Holds hands with their friends whilst napping so they don’t float away?• Communicates in a flurry of whistles, chirps, chuckles, clicks and coos?• Builds a waterslide on a daily basis?• Befriends other species, just because?• Eats food off their tummy while floating peacefully with their pals?These intelligent, adorable, water-dwelling mammals have a lot to teach us about the way we live. So, kick back, grab a pal, dive in and reconnect with your playful side, just like you otter!

Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment


Robert Wright - 2017
    The mind is designed to often delude us, he argued, about ourselves and about the world. And it is designed to make happiness hard to sustain. But if we know our minds are rigged for anxiety, depression, anger, and greed, what do we do? Wright locates the answer in Buddhism, which figured out thousands of years ago what scientists are only discovering now. Buddhism holds that human suffering is a result of not seeing the world clearly—and proposes that seeing the world more clearly, through meditation, will make us better, happier people. In Why Buddhism is True, Wright leads readers on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and a great many silent retreats to show how and why meditation can serve as the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age. At once excitingly ambitious and wittily accessible, this is the first book to combine evolutionary psychology with cutting-edge neuroscience to defend the radical claims at the heart of Buddhist philosophy. With bracing honesty and fierce wisdom, it will persuade you not just that Buddhism is true—which is to say, a way out of our delusion—but that it can ultimately save us from ourselves, as individuals and as a species.

Radical Self Love: A Guide to Loving Yourself and Living Your Dream


Gala Darling - 2015
    But felt totally clueless about how to make it happen? You're not alone. I spent years in soul-sucking jobs, battling depression, an eating disorder, and a preference for chaos and disaster, simply because I didn't know how to create the life I dreamed about.In RADICAL SELF LOVE, you'll begin to discover exactly what makes you so magnificent, and you'll uncover a litany of tools and techniques to help you manifest a life that bursts with magic, bliss and adventure.When you love yourself, life is limitless. You can do anything you want. It's time to throw off the shackles of expectation, and start living from your heart. It's time to astound yourself with how beautiful your life can be. It's time to treat every single day like a celebration... Cake, candles and confetti very much included!"Radical Self Love should be on every woman's bookshelf. Gala Darling is the fresh voice of a new generation, encouraging us to love ourselves and rediscover the most magical facets of who we are. This book will crack you open to the presence of your authentic power." -- Gabrielle Bernstein, New York Times best-selling author of Miracles Now

The Way of Zen


Alan W. Watts - 1957
    With a rare combination of freshness and lucidity, he delves into the origins and history of Zen to explain what it means for the world today with incredible clarity. Watts saw Zen as “one of the most precious gifts of Asia to the world,” and in The Way of Zen he gives this gift to readers everywhere.

14,000 Things to Be Happy About: The Happy Book


Barbara Ann Kipfer - 1990
    Strawberry ice cream. Making faces at monkeys in the zoo. Dog dishes that say "Good Dog." Carolers singing around a Norwegian spruce. Sun burning off the morning fog. Cabanas. It's the little things that make life worth living, and they can be found by the dozens in this obsessive, quirky, and utterly captivating compendium with over 950,000 copies in print. A pure, unadulterated listing, it offers not a single explanation, aside, or footnote, but reading it is as irresistible as eating popcorn. Randomly selected and catalogued over the course of twenty years-and illustrated with joyous and jewel-like precision by the gifted artist Pierre Le-Tan-14,000 THINGS is Barbara Ann Kipfer's perfect antidote to the all-too-frequently-mentioned things we should be unhappy about.It's a celebration of almost everything that's ever made us smile. And that itself is reason number 14,001.

Friendship Is...: 500 Reasons to Appreciate Friends


Lisa Swerling - 2015
    . . a big welcome at the airport, wearing the same outfit by accident, letting you show off, coming to the rescue, and so much more! From Lisa Swerling and Ralph Lazar, New York Times bestselling authors, famed illustrators, and the creators of Happiness Is . . ., this adorable gift book illustrates the very best things about friendship. The charming, make-you-smile illustrations hit just the right note and give us hundreds of reasons to appreciate our friends. A universally appealing gift for birthdays, holidays, or a little pick-me-up, this cheerful collection is the perfect way to say "thank you for being a friend!"

If Life Is a Game, These Are the Rules: Ten Rules for Being Human as Introduced in Chicken Soup for the Soul


Cherie Carter-Scott - 1998
    We all know the feeling: In the game of life, why am I the only one who doesn't know how to play? But now, help is at hand, because this wonderful little book will teach you the rules so that you can conquer life's challenges and manage its unpredictable ups and downs.For one of her workshops several years ago, Ch�rie Carter-Scott, a corporate trainer and consultant, composed a list of basic truths about life, which she named The Ten Rules for Being Human. Right away, the Rules resonated with her clients, who photocopied and passed the list to friends and relatives. Within months, Ch�rie's Rules were in thousands of homes all over the country, and eventually, they were published in Chicken Soup for the Soul and have also appeared in Ann Landers' column. Although there's no formula to help you win the game of life, Ch�rie's Rules convey a universal wisdom that, once understood and embraced, can contribute to meaningful relationships with ourselves and others, at work and in the home.In If Life Is a Game, These Are the Rules, Ch�rie shares that there are no mistakes in life, only lessons that are repeated. In thoughtful, inspirational essays illustrated with encouraging personal anecdotes, she includes the lessons that can be learned from each of the Rules and offers insights on self-esteem, respect, acceptance, forgiveness, ethics, compassion, humility, gratitude, and courage. Best of all, Ch�rie shows that wisdom lies inside each one of us and that by putting the Ten Rules for Being Human into action we can create a more fulfilling life.

He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys


Greg Behrendt - 2004
    For ages women have come together over coffee, cocktails, or late-night phone chats to analyze the puzzling behavior of men. Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo are here to say that —despite good intentions— you're wasting your time. Men are not complicated, although they'd like you to think they are. And there are no mixed messages. He's Just Not That Into You —based on a popular episode of Sex and the City— educates otherwise smart women on how to tell when a guy just doesn't like them enough, so they can stop wasting time making excuses for a dead-end relationship. This book knows you're a beautiful, smart, funny woman who deserves better.

Sane New World: Taming The Mind


Ruby Wax - 2013
    Ruby Wax - comedian, writer and mental health campaigner - shows us how our minds can jeopardize our sanity. With her own periods of depression and now a Masters from Oxford in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy to draw from, she explains how our busy, chattering, self-critical thoughts drive us to anxiety and stress. If we are to break the cycle, we need to understand how our brains work, rewire our thinking and find calm in a frenetic world. Helping you become the master, not the slave, of your mind, here is the manual to saner living

Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood


Jim Fay - 2000
    The tools in Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood will give you the building blocks you need to create children who grow up to be responsible, successful teens and adults. And as a bonus you will enjoy every stage of your child's life and look forward to sharing a lifetime of joy with them. Get help with: * potty training * daycare * back-talk * whining * and many more everyday stresses faced by parents of toddlers