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Making Sense of Our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story

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A books for better life award winner
A Spirituality & Health best spiritual book
A Writers Digest book club selection

The courage to speak, the wisdom to write, the power to change.

Story is the heart of language. Story moves us to love and hate and can motivate us to change the whole course of our lives. Story can lift us beyond our individual borders to imagine the realities of other people, times, and places. Storytelling both oral tradition and written word is the foundation of being human.

In this powerful book, Christina Baldwin, one of the visionaries who started the personal writing movement, explores the vital necessity of re-creating a sacred common ground for each others stories. Each chapter in Storycatcher is carried by a fascinating narrative about people, family, or community intertwined with practical instruction about the nature of story, how it works, and how we can practice it in our lives. Whether exploring the personal stories revealed in our private journals, the stories of family legacy, the underlying stories that drive our organizations, or the stories that define our personal identity, Christinas book encourages us all to become storycatchers and shows us how new stories lay the framework for a new world.

Includes reading group guide

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Mark Watts compiled this book from his father's extensive journals and audiotapes of famous lectures he delivered in his later years across the country. In three parts, Alan Watts explains the basic philosophy of meditation, how individuals can practice a variety of meditations, and how inner wisdom grows naturally.

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New York Times bestselling author Eckhart Tolle Learn the transformative power of living in the now
Attaining Eckhart Tolles state of presence: In Stillness Speaks, Eckhart Tolle illuminates the fundamental elements of his teaching, addressing the needs of the modern seeker by drawing from all spiritual traditions. At the core of the book is what the author calls the state of presence, a living in the now that is both intensely inspirational and practical.

The power of now: When the pressures of future and past thinking disappear, fear and frustration also vanish, conquered by the moment. Stillness Speaks takes the form of 200 individual entries, organized into 10 topic clusters that range from Beyond the Thinking Mind to Suffering and the End of Suffering. Each entry is concise and complete in itself, but, read together, take on a transformative power.

If you have read The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer, Buddhas Brain by Rick Hanson, or other Eckhart Tolle books such as The Power of Now, you will want to own and read Stillness Speaks.

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Awakening a Womans Inner Knowing for Self-Healing

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Meredith L. Young-Sowers has created a definitive book for women on mind/body/spirit healing that puts womens connection to Spirit at the very center  exactly where it should be. Drawing on her twenty-seven years as an intuitive healer and spiritual teacher, and her belief that healing is something we do every day, Meredith gently guides women to create our own loving and workable healing plan.

Emphasizing heart disease and reproductive cancers  the diseases that are claiming our mothers, sisters, and friends  Meredith offers a mix of attitude shifts, exercises, and simple meditations to help us harness the power of Spirit. Meredith teaches us to understand and rely on our deep-hearted intuition as our most important healing partner.

In this wide-ranging exploration of healing, youll learn to: nourish yourself on all levels  emotional, intellectual, social, physical, and spiritual; respond effectively to stress in a way that heals your heart; understand why mind-body imbalances can sometimes manifest as disease; claim strength and renewal at each stage of your journey.

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Moving Past Fear, Blocks, and Pitfalls to Discover the Power of Creative Immersion

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For most people who seek to create  whether they are artists, writers, or businesspeople  the daily task of immersing themselves in their creative work is both a joy and a profound challenge. Instead of stepping easily into the creative state, they succumb to chronic procrastination and torturous distraction.

In Standing at Waters Edge, psychologist Anne Paris calls on her extensive experience in working with creative clients to explore the deep psychological fears that block us from creative immersion. Employing cutting-edge theory and research, Paris weaves a new understanding of the artist during the creative process. Rather than presenting the creation of art as a lonely, solitary endeavor, she shows how relationships with others are actually crucial to creativity. Shining a light on the innermost experience of the artist as he or she engages with others, the artwork, and the audience, Paris explores how our sense of connection with others can aid or inhibit creative immersion. She reveals a unique model of mirrors, heroes, and twins to explore the key relationships that support creativity. Pariss groundbreaking psychological approach gives artists valuable new insight into their own creative process, allowing them to unlock their potential and finish their greatest projects.

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Remarkable Stories of How You DO Make a Difference

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You dont have to discover penicillin, feed the poor in the streets of Calcutta, or be the first person to swim to Antarctica to make a remarkable difference in the world. The stories in Spot of Grace tell about moments when one person did something very simple  asked a question in wonder, smiled from the heart, risked a reach across the chasm of isolation so many of us experience. Extraordinary things start with these ordinary gestures. And as they grow and flourish, they can make a profound difference in someone elses life.

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As the host of one of National Public Radios most popular interview programs, Michael Krasny has spent decades leading conversations on every imaginable topic and discussing lifes most important questions with the foremost thinkers of our time. Now he brings his wide-ranging knowledge and perceptive intelligence to a thoughtful and thought-provoking exploration of belief; and lack of belief.

Many books and pundits advocate for a specific God, while others adamantly declare there is no God. Yet these strident viewpoints often speak right past each other, rarely convincing anyone but the already convinced. In  Spiritual Envy  Krasny helps believers and nonbelievers alike understand their own questions about faith and religion, about God and human responsibility. 

Krasny challenges each of us to look closely at faith and its power, and to examine the positive and negative aspects of religion as expressed in culture, literature, and human relationships. Personal and universal, timely and timeless, this is a deeply wise yet warmly welcoming conversation, an invitation to ask ones own questions; no matter how inconclusive the answers.

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Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche

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Since 1980, Jungian psychologist Bill Plotkin has been guiding men and women into the wilderness  the redrock canyons and snow-crested mountains of the American Southwest  but also into the wilds of the soul. He calls this work soulcraft.

Theres a great longing in all people  a longing to uncover the secrets and mysteries of our individual lives, to find the unique gift we were born to bring to our communities, and to experience our full membership in the more-than-human world. This journey to soul is a descent into layers of the self much deeper than personality, a journey meant for each one of us, not just for the heroes and heroines of mythology. 

A modern handbook for the journey, Soulcraft is not an imitation of indigenous ways, but a contemporary nature-based approach born from the landscape of the Southwest, the traditions of Western culture, and the cross-cultural heritage of all humanity. Filled with stories, poems, and guidelines, Soulcraft introduces over 40 practices that facilitate the descent to soul, including dreamwork, wilderness vision fasts, talking across the species boundaries, council, self-designed ceremony, nature-based shadow work, and the arts of romance, storytelling, and soul-infused poetry.

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An Interfaith Guide to Religion and Spirituality

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Now in its third edition, this is the most comprehensive work available on the rich variety of paths available to today's spiritual seekers. More than an academic reference, it explores how religions can collaborate to help the world. Essays exploring the realm of building an interfaith community add to the book's detailed portraits of the major religious traditions. The Sourcebook also contains essays on spiritual practices as diverse as theosophy, wicca, and indigenous religions. This revised edition of the Sourcebook offers an unparalleled look at where spirituality is headed in the coming millennium.

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For all those who have felt the tug of memory or a connection to some time and place that came before, this book explores the depths of ones connections to ancestors, to the land, to the mysteries of life. Continuing with themes from his first book, The Mist-Filled Path, the author brings readers along as he journeys to Ireland for a shamanic conference and shares his experiences and how they tie into the meanings of Celtic traditions. Readers recognize connections to other spiritual traditions and how the Celtic shamanic teachings overlap with those of other indigenous peoples. They also discover ways to reconnect with their own heritage  to cull the good teachings and incorporate them into their personal spiritual practices. Offering evocative writing, a fresh look at ancient ideas, practical exercises, and guided meditations, The Spiral of Memory and Belonging makes a perfect entry point for readers seeking shamanic wisdom and guidance.

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Following Inner Guidance to the Relationship of Your Dreams

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In her lively and conversational style, Carolyn Miller takes a high-spirited, unsentimental, in-depth look at what a soulmate is and how to connect with that special person. Sharing her own quest and that of dozens of other couples for a meant-to-be relationship, she uses true and extraordinary stories to illustrate what she means by inner guidance.

Contrary to popular belief, soulmate couples do not usually recognize each other at first glance:

When Roma was but eight years old, she risked her life daily by bringing food to Herman, who was interred in a Nazi concentration camp. They later met repeatedly while both lived in Israel, but it was not until nine years later that they met in New York and recognized that they were soulmates.

Karen, a beautiful and successful pop singer, met Pat by handing him her card as she passed him in the street and asking him to "call me." They became fast friends, but neither felt that they were "right for each other." It was only after they put aside their preconceived ideas of what their ideal partner would be like that they became soulmates.

Pedro and Elizabeth first met as they passed one another in a psychiatrist's office. Their therapist felt that they had a past-life connection but ethically could do nothing to bring them together. They met again while waiting for a plane, and discovered they were soulmates.

Each chapter ends with guidelines for actualizing a soulmate relationship, which provide a practical aid to the reader who wishes to find his or her own "relationship made in heaven."

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Transform Your Home, Transform Your Life -- Creating a Home That Is Free of Clutter, Full of Beauty, and Inspired by You

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Expertly designed and decorated homes dont necessarily feel like havens to their dwellers or reflect, inspire, and celebrate what is essential about their inhabitants. Lauded designer and architectural conservator Xorin Balbes created the eight-stage SoulSpace transformation process to help his clients do just that. Through the stages  assess, release, cleanse, dream, discover, create, elevate, and celebrate  readers explore not only the design of their living spaces but also their own interiors: the ways they think, feel, and sense. Through client stories, exercises, Q & As, and bountiful photos and illustrations, Balbes guides readers to decode clues to what they wish for, deny, and need to move forward. Empowered with this self-knowledge, they are free to declutter, refresh, and enhance their living spaces. Suitable for any budget and for one wall or one room, apartments or mansions, Balbess wonderfully unique technique nurtures and transforms both souls and their spaces.

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A Complete Soul Healing System for Optimum Health and Vitality

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Discover Dr. Sha's Powerful Techniques for Healing Your Soul, Mind, and Body

What is the real secret to healing? Internationally acclaimed healer and author Dr. Zhi Gang Sha gives us a simple yet powerful answer to this age-old question: Heal the soul first; then healing of the mind and body will follow.

In Soul Mind Body Medicine, Dr. Sha shows that love and forgiveness are the golden keys to soul healing. From that foundation, he presents practical tools to heal and transform soul, mind, and body. The techniques and the underlying theories are easy to learn and practice but profoundly effective. They include:
Healing methods for more than 100 ailments, from the common cold to back pain to heart disease to diabetes

Step-by-step approaches to weight loss, cancer recovery, emotional balance, and maintenance of good health

A revolutionary one-minute healing technique

Endorsements
Just as our thoughts can influence water, our souls can bring healing and balance to our selves, our loved ones, and our world today. Dr. Sha is an important teacher and a wonderful healer with a valuable message about the power of the soul to influence and transform all life. His book Soul Mind Body Medicine will deeply touch you. 
 Dr. Masaru Emoto, author of The Hidden Messages in Water

All cultures have produced authentic healers from time to time. Dr. Zhi Gang Sha is such a healer  a man of deep wisdom and compassion, and a gift to the human race.
 Larry Dossey, MD, author of The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things

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Investing Your Inner Wealth for Fulfillment & Abundance

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In tough times, we look outside ourselves for things to change instead of looking inward, where true abundance resides. Its tempting to downplay important values like generosity, integrity, and intuition. These niceties can take a backseat because we think the world needs to change before we can find wealth. But they are what make it possible to find prosperity, no matter what happens in the world around us. These inner traits help us reach our outer goals.

Ernest Chus transformational concept of soul currency refers to both something we use to exchange value (as with money) and the circulation of a divine force in our lives. Chus own example, as an entrepreneur who pulled himself out of crushing debt, shows his practical, ready-to-implement principles in action. Soul currency bridges the material world of finance and the invisible world of Spirit, allowing abundance to come to us and flow through us. 

When we tap into the creative force of soul currency, we can experience unprecedented abundance and fulfillment.

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In 1979, the classic bestseller Son Rise was made into an award-winning NBC television special, which has been viewed by 300 million people worldwide. Now, Son Rise: The Miracle Continues presents not only the expanded and updated journal of Barry and Samahria Kaufman's successful effort to reach their "unreachable" child but goes beyond to include a sensitive portrayal of how that singular event has become a worldwide phenomenon.

When their son Raun was a year old, he began to withdraw from human contact. Diagnosed as autistic, Raun tested with an I.Q. of under 30. Experts offered no hope and advised institutionalizing him. Barry and Samahria refused to accept this prognosis. For several years they worked with Raun in a program of their own design, based on unconditional love and acceptance. By age three and a half, Raun was functioning above his age level  a bright and curious little person. The story of the Kaufmans' experience to this point makes up Part I of Son Rise: The Miracle Continues.

Part II continues Raun's story and describes the intervening years as the Kaufmans offered hope and healing to thousands of families with special-needs children. At age twenty, Raun attended a top university, and displayed a near-genius I.Q. Today, he shows no trace of his former condition.

Part III of the book highlights the moving stories of five families who, guided by the Kaufmans and the Son-Rise Program, have created "rebirths" for their own special children.

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Seeking Wisdom in Extremes: A Year Alone in the Patagonia Wilderness

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Years after losing his lower right leg in a motorcycle crash, Robert Kull traveled to a remote island in Patagonia's coastal wilderness with equipment and supplies to live alone for a year. He sought to explore the effects of deep solitude on the body and mind and to find the spiritual answers he'd been seeking all his life. With only a cat and his thoughts as companions, he wrestled with inner storms while the wild forces of nature raged around him. The physical challenges were immense, but the struggles of mind and spirit pushed him even further.

Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes is the diary of Kull's tumultuous year. Chronicling a life distilled to its essence, Solitude is also a philosophical meditation on the tensions between nature and technology, isolation and society. With humor and brutal honesty, Kull explores the pain and longing we typically avoid in our frantically busy lives as well as the peace and wonder that arise once we strip away our distractions. He describes the enormous Patagonia wilderness with poetic attention, transporting the reader directly into both his inner and outer experiences.

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Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, and Dogen's Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye

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In 2003, Brad Warner blew the top off the Buddhist book world with his irreverent autobiography/manifesto, Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, and the Truth about Reality. Now in his second book, Sit Down and Shut Up, Brad tackles one of the great works of Zen literature, the Shobogenzo, by thirteenth-century Zen master Dogen. 

Illuminating Dogens enigmatic teachings in plain language, Brad intertwines musings on sex, meditation, death, God, sin, and happiness with an exploration of the punk rock ethos. In chapters such as Evil Is Stupid, Kill Your Anger, and Enlightenment Is for Sissies, Brad melds the antiauthoritarianism of punk with that of Zen, mixing in a travelogue of his triumphant return to Ohio to play in a reunion concert of Akron punk bands. For those drawn to Buddhist teachings but scared off by their stiff austerity, Brad writes with a sharp smack of truth, in teachings and stories that cut to the heart of reality.

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In twenty elegant pieces, writer, sculptor, and theologian Kent Nerburn celebrates the daily rituals that reveal our deeper truths.  A companion piece to Kent Nerburn?s book Simple Truths, Small Graces is a journey into the sacred moments that illuminate our everyday lives. Through the exploration of simple acts, he reminds us to chart a course each day that nourishes the soul, honors the body, and engages the mind. Small Graces asks us to observe life?s quiet rhythms, the subtle shifts in perception and changes in light, the warm comfort of family voices; to feel the blessing of birdsong, the solitude of a falling leaf, the echo of footfall in snow-covered woods. By inviting us to recognize the hidden power of the ordinary, Small Graces reveals the mystical alchemy of the mundane made profound by the artistry of a well-lived life.

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Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness

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In describing the effects of mescaline, Aldous Huxleys The Doors of Perception opened a proverbial door for a generation of seekers. Watts walked through it with this classic account of the levels of insight that consciousness-changing drugs can facilitate when accompanied with sustained philosophical reflection by a person who is in search, not of kicks, but of understanding. Watts and peers including foreword authors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (then Harvard professors) anticipated physicists recognizing the individuals inseparability from the rest of the world, the work of New Age thinkers who combine scientific findings and spiritual experiences, and federally funded clinical trials utilizing psilocybin to treat a variety of conditions. More than an artifact, The Joyous Cosmology is both a riveting memoir of Wattss personal experiments and a profound meditation on our perennial questions about the nature of existence and the existence of the sacred.

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Our human psyches possess astonishing resources that wait within us, but we might not even know they exist until we discover how to access them and cultivate their powers, their untapped potentials and depths. Wild Mind identifies these resources  which Bill Plotkin calls the four facets of the Self, or the four dimensions of our innate human wholeness  and also the four sets of fragmented or wounded subpersonalities that form during childhood. Rather than proposing ways to eliminate our subpersonalities (which is not possible) or to beat them into submission, Plotkin describes how to cultivate the four facets of the Self and discover the gifts of our subpersonalities. The key to reclaiming our original wholeness is not merely to suppress psychological symptoms, recover from addictions and trauma, or manage stress but rather to fully embody our multifaceted wild minds, commit ourselves to the largest, soul-infused story were capable of living, and serve the greater Earth community.