Each week we assemble a collection – a bouquet, if you will – of books you can read for yourself, or use to build into a display in your library. As always, the books we link to have info from Amazon.com. If you click a link and then buy anything at all from Amazon, we get a small percent of their profits from your sale. Thanks!! We really appreciate the assistance!
It’s been an exciting time the last few months, to say the least! And there is no end to our global pandemic coming any time soon. So it is probably a good idea to keep honing our skills that will help us to get through this time as well as we can.
Meditation can be a wonderful thing – helping people to calm their racing minds, to lower stress levels, to keep blood pressure lower, and other good things. It may not be for you, but if it’s something you want to try we are giving you some books to check out:
The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day
Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk, the Voice of Headspace, and the UK’s foremost mindfulness expert, is on a mission: to get people to take 10 minutes out of their day to sit in the here and now.
Like his readers and students, Andy began his own meditation practice as a normal, busy person with everyday concerns, and he has since designed a program of mindfulness and guided meditation that fits neatly into a jam-packed daily routine―proving that just 10 minutes a day can make a world of difference.
Accessible and portable, The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness offers simple but powerful meditation techniques that positively impact every area of physical and mental health: from productivity and focus, to stress and anxiety relief, sleep, weight-loss, personal relationships…the benefits are limitless. The result? More headspace, less stress. Andy brings this ancient practice into the modern world, tailor made for the most time starved among us.
The Unexpected Power of Mindfulness and Meditation
“Behind the dramas and conflicts of life, there exists a quiet inner place where mindfulness and meditation can help us reside. The sanity and brilliance of this combination can awaken inner strength, foster kindness and fearlessness, and invite radical change. Discover how to transform your life from the inside out with the profound benefits of a calm and stress-free mind.”
Practicing Mindfulness: 75 Essential Meditations to Reduce Stress, Improve Mental Health, and Find Peace in the Everyday
Mindfulness meditations are a great way to cultivate awareness and acceptance of the here and now―Practicing Mindfulness makes it easy and accessible with 75 evidence-based exercises designed to bring calmness and compassion into your day-to-day.
From finding focus with a 5-minute The Power of the Mind exercise to embracing the experience with a 25-minute Open-Awareness Meditation, Practicing Mindfulness provides the tools you need to relieve stress, improve wellness, and practice peace of mind moment to moment and throughout the daily grind.
Practicing Mindfulness includes:
- The daily mind―Discover exactly what mindfulness is, how it helps, and how these proven exercises can bring relief, relaxation, and resilience to your day-to-day.
- Practical advice―You’ll find plenty of help in dealing with distorted or wandering thoughts, how to handle mental blocks, and steps for staying cool and collected in all situations.
- Mind over matter―Ranging from short traditional meditations to longer creative exercises, you’ll find 75 easy-to-follow practices to ground yourself, like breathwork and body scans.
Begin a journey of peace and patience today on the path to a better, more balanced life with Practicing Mindfulness.
Total Meditation: Practices in Living the Awakened Life
For the past thirty years, Deepak Chopra has been at the forefront of the meditation revolution in the West. Total Meditation offers a complete exploration and reinterpretation of the physical, mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual benefits that this practice can bring. Deepak guides readers on how to wake up to new levels of awareness that will ultimately cultivate a clear vision, heal suffering in your mind and body, and help recover who you really are. Readers will undergo a transformative process, which will result in an awakening of the body, mind, and spirit that will allow you to live in a state of open, free, creative, and blissful awareness twenty-four hours a day.
With this book, Deepak elevates the practice of meditation to a life-changing quest for higher consciousness and a more fulfilling existence. He also incorporates new research on meditation and its benefits, provides practical awareness exercises, and concludes with a 52-week program of meditations to help revolutionize every aspect of your life.
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
Why have history’s greatest minds—from George Washington to Frederick the Great to Ralph Waldo Emerson, along with today’s top performers from Super Bowl-winning football coaches to CEOs and celebrities—embraced the wisdom of the ancient Stoics? Because they realize that the most valuable wisdom is timeless and that philosophy is for living a better life, not a classroom exercise.
The Daily Stoic offers 366 days of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring all-new translations from the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the playwright Seneca, or slave-turned-philosopher Epictetus, as well as lesser-known luminaries like Zeno, Cleanthes, and Musonius Rufus. Every day of the year you’ll find one of their pithy, powerful quotations, as well as historical anecdotes, provocative commentary, and a helpful glossary of Greek terms.
By following these teachings over the course of a year (and, indeed, for years to come) you’ll find the serenity, self-knowledge, and resilience you need to live well.