Book picks similar to
Choices and Illusions: How Did I Get Where I Am, and How Do I Get Where I Want to Be? by Eldon Taylor
self-help
psychology
non-fiction
nonfiction
Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book
Walker Percy - 1983
This favorite of Percy fans continues to charm and beguile readers of all tastes and backgrounds. Lost in the Cosmos invites us to think about how we communicate with our world.
The Primal Meditation Method: How To Meditate When Sitting Still Is Infuriating
Matt Pepliński - 2014
This quick and easy read will teach you the Primal Meditation Method, a technique specifically designed for people who have problems with concentration. If you have been bored or frustrated by past efforts to observe your breath and quiet your mind, but you realize that meditation can help you become healthier, happier, and more successful, you need this book. For more than ten years, author Matt Pepliński tried traditional methods of meditation to reach that healing state of awareness called mindfulness, but those methods didn’t work for him. Learn How First Human Tribes Meditated After realizing what meditation really is and what was getting in the way of mindfulness for him, he was on his way to a scientifically based solution. It took another three years to perfect a technique that would help Westerners like him meditate deeply in a more natural way. Relying on anthropological research by Bradford Keeney and Jonathan Burns, he based the Primal Meditation Method on the way the first human tribes meditated and dealt with traumatic events. He created the Primal Meditation Method because he found traditional methods disappointing. As you can see from his biography, Pepliński had struggled with many problems. Thanks to the Primal Meditation Method, he: increased his emotional sensitivity developed greater self-control Increased his emotional sensitivity Developed greater self-control Started feeling alive again Became more mindful in his day-to-day life If you have found traditional meditation frustrating, The Primal Meditation Method can help you strengthen your mindfulness muscles in the same way pushups can strengthen your triceps.
Mind Platter
Najwa Zebian - 2016
To the sun in you, don’t be afraid to shine. To the love in you, don’t be afraid to heal. To the ocean in you, don’t be afraid to rage. To the silence in you, don’t be afraid to break. Mind Platter is a compilation of reflections on life through the eyes of an educator, student and human who experienced most of life in silence. It is written in the words of a person who came from Lebanon to Canada at the age of sixteen and experienced what it was like to have fate push you to a place where you don't belong. It is written in the voice of every person who ever felt unheard, mistreated, misjudged or unseen. Mind Platter contains around 200 one-page entries as reflections on different topics that we encounter in our everyday lives; love, friendship, hurt, inspiration, respect, wholeheartedness, motivation, integrity, honesty and more. Mind Platter is not about the words that are in it, but about what the reader makes of them. This book does not only belong to me. It belongs to everyone whose path crossed mine. Had my journey not have been what it was, with every story and every detail, I would not be the same person today. May this book give a voice to those who need one, be a crying shoulder for those who need someone to listen, and inspire those who need a reminder of the power that they have over their lives. For the full story, please visit: http://misszebian.edublogs.org/2015/1...
Learning to Dance in the Rain (The Power of Gratitude)
Mac Anderson - 2009
However, it's not the adversity, but how we react to it that will determine the joy and happiness in our lives. During tough times, do we spend too much time feeling sorry for ourselves, or can we, with gratitude...learn how to dance in the rain?It almost sounds too simple to feel important, but one word...gratitude, can change your attitude, and thus your life, forever. Sarah Breathnach said it best..."When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present... We experience heaven on earth."Mac Anderson and BJ Gallagher have written a classic on "the awesome power of gratitude." No matter what your circumstances are, you cannot read this book and not feel extremely blessed.Learning to Dance in the Rain is an inspiring and beautiful book full of wonderful stories, quotes, poems and insight to help you reflect on the positives in life. A wonderful book to give to someone in need of encouragement - it can take you from feeling down to feeling blessed.
The Seat of the Soul
Gary Zukav - 1989
Argues that humans are evolving from a species that seeks power based on the perception of the senses to one seeking power based on spiritual values.
The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: Guidance on the Path to Mindfulness from a Spiritual Leader
Haemin Sunim - 2012
In this best-selling mindfulness guide - it has sold more than three million copies in Korea, where it was a number-one best-seller for 41 weeks and received multiple best book of the year awards - Haemin Sunim (which means "spontaneous wisdom"), a renowned Buddhist meditation teacher born in Korea and educated in the United States, illuminates a path to inner peace and balance amid the overwhelming demands of everyday life.By offering guideposts to well-being and happiness in eight areas - including relationships, love, and spirituality - Haemin Sunim emphasizes the importance of forging a deeper connection with others and being compassionate and forgiving toward ourselves.
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
Katherine May - 2020
These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered.A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May’s story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas.Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.
The Law of Attraction: The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham
Esther Hicks - 2006
Within these pages, you’ll learn how all things, wanted and unwanted, are brought to you by this most powerful law of the universe, the Law of Attraction. (that which is like unto itself is drawn). You’ve most likely heard the saying Law of Attraction has been alluded to by some of the greatest teachers in history, it has never before been explained in as clear and practical terms as in this latest book by New York Times best-selling authors, Esther and Jerry Hicks. Learn here about the omnipresent Laws that govern this Universe and how to make them work to your advantage. The understanding that you’ll achieve by reading this book will take all the guesswork out of daily living. You’ll finally understand just about everything that’s happening in your own life as well as in the lives of those you’re interacting with. This book will help you to joyously be, do, or have anything that you desire!
Learning to Walk in the Dark
Barbara Brown Taylor - 2014
Doesn’t God work in the nighttime as well? In Learning to Walk in the Dark, Taylor asks us to put aside our fears and anxieties and to explore all that God has to teach us “in the dark.” She argues that we need to move away from our “solar spirituality” and ease our way into appreciating “lunar spirituality” (since, like the moon, our experience of the light waxes and wanes). Through darkness we find courage, we understand the world in new ways, and we feel God’s presence around us, guiding us through things seen and unseen. Often, it is while we are in the dark that we grow the most.With her characteristic charm and literary wisdom, Taylor is our guide through a spirituality of the nighttime, teaching us how to find our footing in times of uncertainty and giving us strength and hope to face all of life’s challenging moments.
Practical Law of Attraction: Align Yourself with the Manifesting Conditions and Successfully Attract Your Desires
Victoria Gallagher - 2019
If you're still stuck and trying to figure it out, Practical Law of Attraction will give you the answers you've been looking for!"Dr. Joe Vitale - Star of The Secret, #1 Best Selling Author of "The Attractor Factor""Practical" is right! I wish I'd had this book when I started my journey over 20 years ago. Victoria takes this very misunderstood subject and truly does make it accessible to even the most skeptical thinker. This book is an outstanding way to introduce new people to the Law of Attraction, and a great refresher for long-time students who could benefit from a refresher."Bob Doyle - Featured Expert in "The Secret"Victoria Gallagher's book eases the burden of one ever having to wonder whether the genie has gotten the message or not. All the power to manifest is within you.Manifesting, which goes beyond simple positive thinking, is a collaboration between all three levels of mind; Conscious, Subconscious, and Superconscious. It's impersonal and happens; whether positive or negative, when these eight conditions are in alignment.Desire or FearThoughtsImaginationBelief/ExpectancyFeelings/VibrationCreative AttractionInspired ActionManifestationEach condition plays an important role in manifesting. They do not always happen in a specific order.When the conditions are in alignment, manifestation occurs simultaneously.The book demystifies the concepts of manifesting and attracting. It helps you understand in no uncertain terms, the practical personal development work which is a requirement to attract success.Included are dozens of downloadable worksheets, meditative scripts, mental techniques and strategies to develop yourself into a person who has the kind of manifesting power that can help you create the life of your dreams.Victoria book eases the burden of having to wonder whether the genie has gotten the message or not. There is no genie, granting wishes. The power to manifest is within you and requires a level of belief, which can only come as a result of releasing deeply embedded negative subconscious programs and having the motivation to take action on your dreams and goals.This book is for anyone who has a dream or simply wishes to change their life for the better. Shift out of the old ways which haven't worked and implement new strategies to finally make it work for you.
The Alphabet of the Human Heart: The A to Zen of Life
Matthew Johnstone - 2009
A handbook for the happy, and a bible for the broken-hearted, The Alphabet of the Human Heart is an enchanting and enriching journey through the upside and the downside of what it means to be human – our hopes and our fears, our strengths and our weaknesses, our highs and our lows.
Don't Be a Jerk: And Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan's Greatest Zen Master
Brad Warner - 2016
Despite the timeless wisdom of his teachings, many consider the book difficult to understand and daunting to read. In Don’t Be a Jerk, Zen priest and bestselling author Brad Warner, through accessible paraphrasing and incisive commentary, applies Dogen’s teachings to modern times. While entertaining and sometimes irreverent, Warner is also an astute scholar who sees in Dogen very modern psychological concepts, as well as insights on such topics as feminism and reincarnation. Warner even shows that Dogen offered a “Middle Way” in the currently raging debate between science and religion. For curious readers worried that Dogen’s teachings are too philosophically opaque, Don’t Be a Jerk is hilarious, understandable, and wise.
In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching
P.D. Ouspensky - 1947
I. Gurdjieff's thoughts and universal view. This historic and influential work is considered by many to be a primer of mystical thought as expressed through the Work, a combination of Eastern philosophies that had for centuries been passed on orally from teacher to student. Gurdjieff's goal, to introduce the Work to the West, attracted many students, among them Ouspensky, an established mathematician, journalist, and, with the publication of In Search of the Miraculous, an eloquent and persuasive proselyte.Ouspensky describes Gurdjieff's teachings in fascinating and accessible detail, providing what has proven to be a stellar introduction to the universal view of both student and teacher. It goes without saying that In Search of the Miraculous has inspired great thinkers and writers of ensuing spiritual movements, including Marianne Williamson, the highly acclaimed author of A Return to Love and Illuminata. In a new and never-before-published foreword, Williamson shares the influence of Ouspensky's book and Gurdjieff's teachings on the New Thought movement and her own life, providing a contemporary look at an already timeless classic.
A New Earth
Eckhart
Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence.The Power of Now was a question-and-answer handbook. A New Earth has been written as a traditional narrative, offering anecdotes and philosophies in a way that is accessible to all. Illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting, A New Earth is a profoundly spiritual manifesto for a better way of life—and for building a better world.
The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life
Michael Puett - 2016
This is why Professor Michael Puett says to his students, “The encounter with these ideas will change your life.” As one of them told his collaborator, author Christine Gross-Loh, “You can open yourself up to possibilities you never imagined were even possible.”These astonishing teachings emerged two thousand years ago through the work of a succession of Chinese scholars exploring how humans can improve themselves and their society. And what are these counterintuitive ideas? Good relationships come not from being sincere and authentic, but from the rituals we perform within them. Influence comes not from wielding power but from holding back. Excellence comes from what we choose to do, not our natural abilities. A good life emerges not from planning it out, but through training ourselves to respond well to small moments. Transformation comes not from looking within for a true self, but from creating conditions that produce new possibilities.In other words, The Path upends everything we are told about how to lead a good life. Above all, unlike most books on the subject, its most radical idea is that there is no path to follow in the first place—just a journey we create anew at every moment by seeing and doing things differently.Sometimes voices from the past can offer possibilities for thinking afresh about the future.A note from the publisher: To read relevant passages from the original works of Chinese philosophy, see our free ebook Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi: Selected Passages, available on Kindle, Nook, and the iBook Store and at Books.SimonandSchuster.com.