Elevated Existence September 2017 Spiritual and Self-Help Book Picks

Posted on by Tammy

Each month, a ton of new spiritual and self-help books hit the market. It’s easy to get overwhelmed or miss out on some new releases.

We created Elevated Existence Monthly Book Picks to help our readers narrow down their search, and make sure they don’t miss some great options!

Here are the picks for September 2017. They are listed below in alphabetical order. Click on each title to go directly to Amazon and find out more about the book.

“Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain and Body,” by Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson
Two New York Times–bestselling authors team up to unveil new research showing the truth about what meditation can really do for us and our brain, as well as exactly how to get the most out of it. The authors demonstrate the real payoffs from meditation are lasting personality traits that can result. But we need smart practice, including crucial ingredients such as targeted feedback from a master teacher and a more spacious, less attached view of the self — all of which are missing in widespread versions of mind training. They also reveal the latest data from Davidson’s own lab that point to a new methodology for developing a broader array of mind-training methods with larger implications for how we can derive the greatest benefits from the practice.

“Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone,” by Brene Brown
A timely and important new book that challenges everything we think we know about cultivating true belonging in our communities, organizations and culture, social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarization. Brown argues we’re experiencing a spiritual crisis of disconnection, and introduces four practices of true belonging that challenge everything we believe about ourselves and each other, offering the clarity and courage we need to find our way back. And that path cuts right through the wilderness. Brown writes, “The wilderness is an untamed, unpredictable place of solitude and searching. It is a place as dangerous as it is breathtaking, a place as sought after as it is feared. But it turns out to be the place of true belonging, and it’s the bravest and most sacred place you will ever stand.”

“The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles that Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, Too),” by Gretchen Rubin
During her multibook investigation into understanding human nature, Gretchen Rubin realized that by asking the seemingly dry question “How do I respond to expectations?” we gain explosive self-knowledge. She discovered that based on their answer, people fit into Four Tendencies: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers and Rebels. Our Tendency shapes every aspect of our behavior, so using this framework allows us to make better decisions, meet deadlines, suffer less stress and engage more effectively. More than 600,000 people have taken her online quiz, and managers, doctors, teachers, spouses, and parents already use the framework to help people make significant, lasting change. This book will help you get happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative because it’s far easier to succeed when you know what works for you.

“The Happiness Prayer: Ancient Jewish Wisdom for the Best Way to Live Today,” by Evan Moffic
Turning to an ancient instruction manual — a prayer for life composed 2000 years ago — Rabbi Evan Moffic shares 10 practices, any person of any faith can follow. The prayer has helped thousands of people-couples, teenagers, empty nd,esters struggling with loss, divorce, and ruptured relationships, find renewed meaning and purpose in their lives. But it’s not a typical prayer in that you just say it. It is an active prayer because you live it. The magic is not in the words. It is in the way you use the words to change yourself. You will discover those words in this book–and the ten life-changing practices it reveals.

“High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way,” by Brendon Burchard
After extensive original research and a decade as the world’s highest-paid performance coach, Brendon Burchard finally reveals the most effective habits for reaching long-term success. Based on one of the largest surveys ever conducted on high performers, it turns out that just six habits move the needle the most in helping you succeed. Adopt these six habits, and you win. Neglect them, and life is a never-ending struggle. Anyone can practice these habits and, when they do, extraordinary things happen in their lives, relationships, and careers. Whether you want to get more done, lead others better, develop skill faster, or dramatically increase your sense of joy and confidence, the habits in this book will help you achieve it. Each of the six habits is illustrated by powerful vignettes, cutting-edge science, thought-provoking exercises, and real-world daily practices you can implement right now.

“How to Own Your Mind,” by Napoleon Hill
Locked in a vault since 1941, “Think and Grow Rich” author Napoleon Hill’s definitive lesson on how to organize your thinking to attain success I found in the pages of this new book — a master class in how to think for success. In three chapters, Hill demonstrates how to organize, prioritize, and act on information so that it translates into opportunity. Knowledge is not power. Only applied knowledge is power. This book teaches you how to use what you know, and how to know what’s worth knowing.

“A Mind at Home with Itself: How Asking Four Questions Can Free Your Mind, Open Your Heart, and Turn Your World Around,” by Byron Katie
In her new book, spiritual teacher Byron Katie illuminates one of the most profound ancient Buddhist texts, The Diamond Sutra (newly translated in these pages by Stephen Mitchell) to reveal the nature of the mind and to liberate us from painful thoughts, using her revolutionary system of self-inquiry called “The Work.” She doesn’t merely describe the awakened mind — she empowers us to see it and feel it in action. It offers us a transformative new perspective on life and death.

“Own Your Glow: A Soulful Guide to Luminous Living and Crowning the Queen Within,” by Latham Thomas
Celebrity wellness and lifestyle guru, Latham Thomas provides soulful principles that offer an illuminated path for examining life’s challenges, helping you curate your path to greatness, while embracing your uniquely feminine attributes. Packed with rituals, meditations, and snackable lifestyle tips — combining spiritual, psychological, and self-reflective tools — Thomas provides a clear framework for harnessing your passion, developing spiritual fitness, and embracing true vulnerability. This guide is for anyone who wants to witness her own life transform and contribute to the positive change of the world around her.

“Practice You: A Journal,” by Elena Brower
When the way forward seems uncertain, where can we turn for guidance we can trust? For yoga luminary, meditation teacher, and artist Elena Brower, the answer has always been close at hand. “Whenever I’ve needed direction, strength, or centering, I’ve so often turned to my own journals. Why? Because many of the answers we seek are found within ourselves,” she says in the book. The author invites us to gather our own wisdom through writing, self-inquiry and reflection. Practice You is a portable sacred sanctuary to record our flashes of insight, find our ground, create and clarify our goals, and bear witness to our own evolution. With more than 150 beautiful pages of questions, teachings, inspiring imagery, and plenty of space to write, draw, and reflect, this journaling adventure guides us into nine compelling portals to our highest ways of living.

“Spiritual Graffiti: Finding My True Path,” by MC Yogi
Before he was one of the most well-known yoga teachers in North America and an international hip hop artist, MC YOGI was a juvenile delinquent who was kicked out of three schools, sent to live at a group home for at-risk youth, arrested for vandalism, and caught up in a world of drugs, chaos and carelessness. At 18, fate brought him to his first yoga class, and he devoted himself to the practice. From traveling to India to study with gurus to living and learning with many American yoga masters, MC YOGI soaked in the knowledge that would revolutionize his entire life and put him on the path to healing, wholeness, and peace. Through stories of graffiti and guns, mystics and musicians, love, loss, and finding his soul’s purpose, MC YOGI’s journey is saturated in spiritual wisdom, illuminating the potential for transformation within us all.

Elevated Existence June 2017 New Spiritual and Self-Help Book Picks

Posted on by Tammy

Each month, a ton of new spiritual and self-help books hit the market. It’s easy to get overwhelmed or miss out on some new releases.

We created Elevated Existence Monthly Book Picks to help our readers narrow down their search, and make sure they don’t miss some great options!

Here are the picks for June 2017. They are listed below in alphabetical order. Click on each title to go directly to Amazon and find out more about the book.

“Discovering Your Soul’s Purpose: Finding Your Path in Life, Work and Personal Mission the Edgar Cayce Way,” by Mark Thurston Ph.D.
This new edition of the classic guide to using the spiritual and psychological insights of renowned mystic and psychic Edgar Cayce can help readers find their authentic mission in life. Mark Thurston, one of the most significant teachers of Cayce’s work as a medical clairvoyant, updated and revised this book to help readers use Cacye’s teaching in the 21^st century for greater purpose in relationships, career and mission in life.

“The Headspace Guide to a Mindful Pregnancy,” by Andy Puddicombe
From the co-founder of Headspace, known for its online meditation, this book offers a new approach to pregnancy, birth and new parenthood. It will teach women and their partners how to calmly navigate the anxieties and demands of parenthood. It includes exercises for both partners, including tools to live mindfully during it all.

“The Humming Effect: Sound Healing for Health and Happiness,” by Jonathan Goldman
Offering a guide to the practice of the self-healing method of conscious humming, Jonathan and Andi Goldman detail both conscious humming and breathing exercises from simple to advanced — including online access to examples of these practices. It also examines the latest studies on sound, revealing how humming helps with stress levels, sleep and blood pressure, increases lymphatic circulation, releases endorphins, creates neural pathways in the brain and boost blood platelet production. The book also explores the spiritual use of humming, including the sonic yoga technique.

“Napoleon Hill’s Success Principles Rediscovered,” by Napoleon Hill
Learn to take action and see the results with the timeless wisdom on Napoleon Hill, author of the well-known book “Think and Grow Rich.” Success starts with achieving and maintaining a positive mental attitude, and then taking action to achieve all the success we desire in life. This book offers the teaching on how to do it.

“Reclaiming Your Body: Healing from Trauma and Awakening to Your Body’s Wisdom,” by Suzanne Scurlock Durana
Having spent 30 years studying the gifts of the body and teaching thousands how to reclaim them, Suzanne Scurlock-Durana offers a guided tour through the body’s innate haling powers. She explains what she calls the gifts of the body as a strength, which she likens to a GPS, based on her own experience with al life-threatening trauma, and walks readers through different areas of the body, revealing wisdom found in each and how to reconnect with it.

“Rushing Woman’s Syndrome: The Impact of a Never-Ending To-Do List and How to Stay Healthy in Today’s Busy World,” by Libby Weaver
Do you often feel overwhelmed, and in a daily battle to keep up — like you rarely get on top of your to-do list, and at times feel out of control and unable to cope? If so, you may be experiencing the first signs of Rushing Woman’s Syndrome, and in her new book, nutritional biochemist Dr. Libby Weaver shares how stressful, fast-paced lifestyle can have dangerous effects on all areas of women’s health. These include the nervous system, adrenal glands, reproductive system, digestive system, emotions and more. And she offers solutions to restore health to stay productive and healthy at the same time.

AUDIOS
“Rising Strong As a Spiritual Practice,” by Brene Brown
Bestselling author Brene Brown defines spirituality as something not reliant on religion, theology or dogma, but as a belief in interconnectedness and a loving force greater than ourselves. Based on her book, “Rising Strong,” this audio program explores where we find the strength to get back up after we fall — and based on her research — it shares how rising back up is a spiritual practice bringing a sense of perspective, meaning and purpose to our lives.

“Conscious Loving: The Journey to Co-Commitment — A Way to Be fully Together Without Giving Up Yourself,” Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks
This new program can help clear away unconscious agreement patterns that undermine even your best intentions. Through their own marriage and through 20 years experience counseling more than 1,000 couples, therapists Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks developed precise strategies to help create a vital partnership and enhance the energy, creativity and happiness of each individual. They share how to let go of power struggles and need for control; balance needs for closeness and separateness; increase intimacy by telling the “microscopic truth”; communicate in a positive way that stops arguments; make agreements you can keep; and allow more pleasure into your life.

Brene Brown Talks “Rising Strong” With Time Magazine

Posted on by Tammy

In a recent interview with Time Magazine to promote her new book “Rising Strong,” Brene Brown explained the difference between guilt and shame, and opened up about her own experiences with failure.

“People look at the success of “Daring Greatly” or “The Gifts of Imperfection” and think, Oh man, this has worked out really well. But I self-published my first book. I could wallpaper this building with ‘As sexy as a book about shame sounds, we’re going to pass’ letters,” Brown said in the interview. “I borrowed money from my parents and sold copies out of my trunk. And then I got a book deal, and that book failed.”

In her new book “Rising Strong,” she set out to tackle the common thread between men and women who have experienced falls, but get back up. What she found was those who are “the most capable of being uncomfortable rise the fastest,” she told Time Magazine.

To read the full interview, visit Time Magazine.

Emerging Women Live to Feature Brene Brown, Gabrielle Bernstein & More in NYC, October 2014

Posted on by Tammy

The 2^nd annual Emerging Women Live conference “Changing the World Through Feminine Leadership and Entrepreneurship,” is coming to New York City this October 9-12, 2014 at the Sheraton Times Square.

Arianna Huffington, Brené Brown, Danielle LaPorte, Gabrielle Bernstein and more will share their ultimate success secrets for women ready to make a quantum leap in their professional lives..

“Emerging Women Live helps women learn to leverage their feminine attributes in an empowering environment to redefine the 21st century business culture,” said Emerging Women founder and host Chantal Pierrat. “It used to be that fierce competitiveness ensured success, but now we are moving into the age of partnership and collaboration. Women take this even further and go for true connection. Authenticity is becoming the new competitive edge.”

For 10 years, Pierrat served as the vice president of sales and marketing for Sounds True, a multimedia publishing company focused on spirituality, personal growth, and holistic living. She spearheaded the successful launch of the Wake Up Festival, their first annual national event with over 25 speakers and 800 attendees, and founded Emerging Women and Emerging Women Live in 2012.

Participants at Emerging Women Live 2014 will:

— Learn practical methods and tools for growing a business
— Find the courage and inspiration to take their work to the next level
— Navigate the complexities of online marketing, crowd-funding, cash flow and investing
— Discover the power of feminine expression
— Form deep connections with friends, circles and mentors that will support them as entrepreneurs, leaders and creators
— Meet the presenters through keynotes, social time and book signings
— Get nourished with integrative practices like yoga, dance, and meditation

Emerging Women is rapidly becoming the premier platform for women in business by facilitating authentic connection between the participants, planting the seeds for creative partnerships and synergies that continue well beyond the actual event. It’s a place to be inspired, gain knowledge, and to find a sisterhood of powerful, conscious women – women who are choosing entrepreneurship as a path to a career of meaning and purpose, creative expression and financial success, as well as women in leadership or executive positions.

More speakers include: Tara Mohr (author of Playing Big), Karen May (vice president of learning and development, Google), Tami Simon (CEO, Sounds True), Amanda Steinberg (founder/CEO, Daily Worth), Jensine Larsen (founder/director World Pulse Organization).

For more information, visit www.emergingwomen.com.

Brene Brown, Joan Halifax Roshi Talk Women & Balance at Omega Women & Power Conference

Posted on by Tammy

Authors Brene Brown and Joan Halifax Roshi joined co-founder of the Omega Institute Elizabeth Lesser on stage during the opening evening session of the Omega Institute’s “Women and Power Retreat” on September 20, 2013 to discuss the strength, vulnerability and authenticity at the heart of women’s leadership today.

In discussing authenticity, Brown shared her personal mantra: ‘Don’t shrink, don’t puff up and stand your sacred ground.’

“When I first started the research I though there are authentic people and inauthentic people, but what I learned was there is no such thing … there are just people who practice authenticity, and it’s this daily practice. I wanted to have a mantra as part of my practice,” she said.

She came up with hers after taking a trip to attend a board meeting for the Nobel Women’s Initiative. Upon returning, she was confronted by a women when picking her children up from school – a women who in the past had made her feel guilty or “like she had been slimed.”

“She said who took care of the kids while you were gone, and so shrinking would have been for me to say, ‘oh, I was gone and mom had to come in,’ and puffing up would be ‘I was changing the world with the noble women’s initiative, what were you doing last week? How was the bake sale,’” she told the audience laughing. “But that would be hurtful and not authentic and not me.” Instead she discovered her mantra.

Finding a Balance
Part of the evening’s discussion covered finding balance in our lives by taking the time we need for what Halifax Roshi calls the “in breath,” and also changing our view of gender roles.

Lesser explained many of us feel concerned for the world, worry about our children and want to give of ourselves in a way that makes a difference. But in order to give, we must take time to receive. “What good are we if we are the angry peacemaker?” she asked.

Halifax Roshi compared giving and receiving to the act of breathing. “It’s what the body teaches us – at this moment it’s an exhale and the next moment it’s an inhale. It’s just as important to have the inhale. It’s really knowing your capacities and claiming them,” she said.

Brown’s research has shown her we can’t give to people what we don’t have, and that although for many women the “in breath” time can be a shame trigger, it is necessary.

“I can’t give love and kindness to my kids or to the world or the Earth if I can’t give love and kindness to myself,” she said.

For many women, their identity is caught up in the archetype of the “do gooder,” said Halifax Roshi. “Our social approval comes from us being caregivers and that we are looked on as being self-centered and narcissistic [otherwise].”

Additionally, part of finding balance is for women to begin encouraging men to become caretakers as well, Lesser noted. “It must be a shared responsibility because humans and the Earth need care,” she said.

Brown told the audience as of Oct. 1, her husband was pulling back at work and would be home three days a week – what she called a “shared care, shared work model” – and in her research she is finding men are actually more open to this then women may think.

“What I see is men so teetering close to the edge of sheer grief about what they are missing in their lives that it is almost painful to acknowledge it. It is much easier to express it as power and rage,” Brown explained. “I think women are exhausted…we are holding our breath, not taking our deep breaths in because we want to be perceived as ‘do it all, do it perfectly, and never let them see you sweat,’ and men are holding their breath because ‘yes, we are missing out, and yes we are disengaged from stuff that we really love, but we don’t know how else to do it, and we don’t have support, not just from the systems we work in but from the female partners in their lives.’”

In fact, Brown said the No. 1 source of shame for men – according to what they have told her in her research – is women and usually the women who love them.

“I think we have a lot of healing work to do together, and I think vulnerability is that path back to each other – and the breathing.”

Omega Institute Women & Power Retreat Free Live Stream: Elizabeth Lesser, Brene Brown & Joan Halifax Roshi

Posted on by Tammy

The Omega Institute is offering a free live stream of the opening evening session for this year’s Women & Power Retreat on September 20, 2013 from 8:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Elizabeth Lesser, cofounder of Omega and the Omega Women’s Leadership Center, will open the evening with a very short talk about the importance of having a soft front and strong back in life.

Following this, she will lead a conversation with Brene Brown, author of “Daring Greatly,” and “The Gifts of Imperfection,” and Joan Halifax Roshi, author and abbot of the Upaya Zen Cetner. They will discuss the strength, vulnerability and authenticity at the heart of women’s leadership today, and explore whether there is a uniquely female kind of strength; how vulnerability can make us stronger; and how we can courageously walk our talk.

If you cannot join live, the program will be available on demand until 11:00 p.m. September 23, 2013.