Open to Life invites us to cultivate love in support of ourselves and others. Through six sessions of in-depth teachings, guided meditations, and engaging practices, you'll join this celebrated meditation teacher to explore: how the inner critic hinders our ability to care for ourselves and how to overcome it, practices to bring greater authenticity and balance to our relationships, how to expand our capacity to love difficult people, how fierce compassion protects us, how love opens us to all of life's experiences, and more.

Thousands of years prove it, and Western science backs it: Meditation sharpens focus. Meditation lowers blood pressure, relieves chronic pain, reduces stress. Meditation helps us experience greater calm. Meditation connects us to our inner-most feelings and challenges our habits of self-judgment. Meditation helps protect the brain against aging and improves our capacity for learning new things. Meditation opens the door to real and accessible happiness. There is no better person to show a beginner how to harness the power of meditation than Sharon Salzberg....

Real Love is a creative tool kit of mindfulness exercises and meditation techniques that help you to truly engage with your present experience and create deeper love relationships with yourself, your partner, friends and family, and with life itself. Sharon Salzberg, a leading expert in Lovingkindness meditation, encourages us to strip away layers of negative habits and obstacles, helping us to experience authentic love based on direct experience, rather than preconceptions.

In today's fractured world, we're constantly flooded with breaking news that causes anger, grief, and pain. People are feeling more stressed out than ever, and in the face of this fear and anxiety they can feel burnt out and overwhelmed. In Real Change Sharon Salzberg, a leading expert in loving-kindness meditation, shares sage advice and indispensable techniques to help free ourselves from these negative feelings and actions. She teaches us that meditation is not a replacement for action, but rather a way to practice generosity with ourselves and summon courage....

Within your own heart is a limitless source of supreme energy, the energy of love. No other force in the universe compares to it. The world's great spiritual traditions, both past and present, agree on this simple principle. Can love be harnessed and applied to others, used as a "tool" for changing lives? Lovingkindness Meditation teaches a traditional practice for cultivating love, and applying it as a life-changing force.

We tend to think of faith as a commodity you either have or you don't. But in many of the world's wisdom traditions, faith isn't something you possess; it's something you do. "Faith is a willingness to take the next step, to see the unknown as an adventure, to launch a journey," teaches Sharon Salzberg. Now this beloved meditation teacher and author shares her unique understanding of faith, distinguishing it from belief and dogma, to help you cultivate this profound force in your life.

Presented by renowned meditation teacher and best-selling author Sharon Salzberg, these 10 core practices were created to give you the feel of a meditation retreat at home - but can be enjoyed in any place conducive to a period of undisturbed quiet. Room to Breathe brings listeners eight core exercises: Calming the Mind, Facing Challenges, Being Present, Letting Go, Trusting Yourself, and more.

"Just follow your breath." It sounds so simple, but as every seasoned practitioner will tell you, "just breathing" can be surprisingly challenging. To experience the deep rewards of this practice, start off on the right foot with expert help from Insight Meditation Society instructors Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein. They'll help you find the skillful balance of concentration and relaxation that results in a finely attuned state of ease that will stay with you long after you get off the cushion.

In countless moments, opportunities arise for us to either judge or support ourselves, to envy another's joy or to celebrate with them, to turn away from others or to connect. Embracing Your Boundless Heart opens the way for us to amplify love in ourselves and with our families, coworkers, communities, and even those we struggle with the most.

Ten million Americans will meditate today - and that number is only expected to rise. What's the best way to get started? Learn from an experienced teacher. Sharon Salzberg, known for her ability to make meditation accessible while keeping true to tradition, offers Guided Meditation for Love and Wisdom. With more than a dozen beginner-friendly meditations, this program offers a well-rounded practice that will open your heart and mind.

This modern spiritual classic, presented as a 30-day meditation retreat taught by Joseph Goldstein, offers timeless practical instructions and real-world advice for practicing meditation - whether walking or sitting in formal practice or engaging in everyday life. Goldstein uses the retreat format to explain various basic Buddhist teachings including karma, selflessness, and the four noble truths, while also drawing connections to many different spiritual traditions.

You have within you an unlimited capacity for extraordinary love, for joy, for communion with life, and for unshakable freedom - and here is how to awaken it. In The Wise Heart, celebrated author and psychologist Jack Kornfield offers an accessible, comprehensive, and illuminating guide to the universal teachings of Buddhist psychology. He shows you how to use powerful Buddhist insights and practices to go beyond the trap of "self-improvement".

Shetty grew up in a family where you could become one of three things—a doctor, a lawyer, or a failure. His family was convinced he had chosen option three: Instead of attending his college graduation ceremony, he headed to India to become a monk, to meditate every day for four to eight hours, and devote his life to helping others. After three years, one of his teachers told him that he would have more impact on the world if he left the monk’s path to share his experience and wisdom with others.

Tara Brach is an in-the-trenches teacher whose work counters today's ever-increasing onslaught of news, conflict, demands, and anxieties - stresses that leave us rushing around on auto-pilot and cut off from the presence and creativity that give our lives meaning. In this heartfelt and deeply practical audiobook, she offers an antidote: an easy-to-learn four-step meditation that quickly loosens the grip of difficult emotions and limiting beliefs.

When does enlightenment come? At the end of the spiritual journey? Or the beginning? In After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, Jack Kornfield brings into focus the truth about satori, the awakened state of consciousness, and enlightenment practices today. The result is this extraordinary look at the hard work we all must do - the laundry - no matter how often we experience ecstatic states of consciousness through meditation and other disciplines.

The inner critic is the voice inside our heads reminding us that we are never "good enough". It's behind the insidious thoughts that can make us second-guess our every action and doubt our own value. The inner critic might feel overpowering, but it can be managed effectively. Meditation teacher and therapist Mark Coleman helps listeners understand and free themselves from the inner critic using the tools of mindfulness and compassion.

Despite our best-laid plans, life can often be difficult, disappointing, and stressful. Consequently, when things don’t go right, we are often left in a state of emotional chaos, dealing with feelings like anger, anxiety, frustration, and doubt, which can cloud our perspective and negatively affect the way we live our lives. But in this inspiring book, Phillip Moffitt shows us that we need not be at the mercy of our emotions. By cultivating a responsive mind rather than a reactive one, we can achieve a state of emotional clarity.

The question "What do I want to do with my life?" is more difficult to answer for today's 20-somethings than it was for their parents - not only do today's jobs look different, but career paths are altogether less of a sure thing. It's in this modern context that Lodro Rinzler provides Generation Y with wisdom for approaching the whole issue of livelihood - not only how to find work, but how to bring compassion and meaning into the job once you’ve got it. It’s wisdom from the Buddhist tradition that works for anyone.

We already know from scientific research that mindfulness practices enhance mental health and improve clarity and focus. Finding the Space to Lead shows how this training has specific value for leaders. This is not a new leadership system to add to the burden of already overworked people. It brings the concepts of mindfulness into the everyday life of anyone in a leadership role, through specific exercises that address practical issues.

The Buddhist practice of mindfulness caught on in the west when we began to understand the everyday, personal benefits it brought us. Now, in this extraordinary audiobook, the highly acclaimed thought leader and longtime English translator of His Holiness the Dalai Lama shows us that compassion can bring us even more.

In this unabridged recording of Miracles at Work - read by the author herself - Emily Bennington invites listeners to begin an adventure and fold their spiritual selves more fully into their professional lives. She merges principles of A Course in Miracles with mindfulness practices, emotional intelligence, and her own proven strategies for success. Miracles at Work is an exceptional guide to applying timeless wisdom to your career.

In this book, renowned Buddhist teacher Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche leads us through the three steps of his Emotional Rescue Plan. First, Mindful Gap is the practice of creating a safe distance between you and your emotions, which gives you the psychological space to work with their energy. Clear Seeing involves recognizing the bigger picture. Finally, Letting Go is the practice of releasing stressful physical and emotional energy through physical exercise, relaxation, and awareness.

William Ury, co-author of the classic best seller on negotiation Getting to Yes, has taught tens of thousands of people from all walks of life - managers, salespeople, students, parents, lawyers, and diplomats - how to become better negotiators. Over the years, Ury has discovered that the greatest obstacle to successful agreements and satisfying relationships is not the other side, as difficult as they can be.

Joy is not for just the lucky few - it's a choice anyone can make. In this groundbreaking book, based on his popular course, James Baraz helps you discover a path to the happiness that's right in front of you, offering a step-by-step program that will reorient your mind away from dissatisfaction and distraction and toward the contentment and delight that is abundantly available in our everyday lives. You can decide to be happy.

These days, many of us find it easier to avoid face-to-face contact in favor of technological shortcuts. Why take the trouble to meet someone in person when we can simply send an email or a text? But as Michael Gelb argues in this compelling book, the meaningful relationships that come from real interaction are the basis of success. In The Art of Connection, Gelb offers listeners seven methods of developing better rapport in their professional and personal lives.

Charlotte Kasl's perennial favorites If the Buddha Dated and If the Buddha Married have inspired readers with their empowering blend of spiritual and psychological insights. Her third "If the Buddha" book, If the Buddha Got Stuck, is a wise yet lighthearted book that will speak to anyone who's ever experienced being stuck in life and wanted to break free.

Have you ever driven several miles without noticing anything on the road or read a page in a book without registering any of it? Do the day's worries and disappointments crowd your mind as you're trying to fall asleep at night? Do you feel stressed much of the time and aren't sure how to find peace? In this book Amit Sood, MD, MSc, a Mayo Clinic specialist in stress and resiliency, reveals how the mind's instinctive restlessness and shortsightedness generate stress and anxiety and presents strategies for living a more peaceful life.

Buddhism for Mothers explores the potential to be with your children in the all-important present moment; to gain the most joy out of being with them. How can this be done calmly and with a minimum of anger, worry and negative thinking? How can mothers negotiate the changed conditions of their relationships with partners, family and even with friends? Using Buddhist practices, Sarah Napthali offers ways of coping with the day-to-day challenges of motherhood.

Most of us believe when we're depressed that our situation is hopeless. That's a mistake, Dr. Elisha Goldstein reassures us in Uncovering Happiness. The secret to overcoming depression and uncovering happiness is in harnessing our brain's own natural antidepressant power and ultimately creating a more resilient antidepressant brain.

In 21 Days to Resilience, Dr. Zelana Montminy gives you a practical, concrete toolkit to develop your capacity to recover quickly. Each day of her powerful program, Dr. Montmimy introduces a key concept necessary to improve resiliency and enhance well-being - such as courage, focus, positivity, self-care, and social support - then provides three quick skills to accomplish. Throughout the book she teaches you lifelong skills you can continue to practice and return to as needed to keep your resiliency muscles strong.

Thousands of years prove it, and Western science backs it: Meditation sharpens focus. Meditation lowers blood pressure, relieves chronic pain, reduces stress. Meditation helps us experience greater calm. Meditation connects us to our inner-most feelings and challenges our habits of self-judgment. Meditation helps protect the brain against aging and improves our capacity for learning new things. Meditation opens the door to real and accessible happiness. There is no better person to show a beginner how to harness the power of meditation than Sharon Salzberg....

Throughout our lives we long to love ourselves more deeply and find a greater sense of connection with others. Our fear of intimacy—both with others and with ourselves—creates feelings of pain and longing. But these feelings can also awaken in us the desire for freedom and the willingness to take up the spiritual path.

When we feel alone, cut off, or trapped, we can let those difficulties steer us onto a path toward an authentic, flourishing life—living in a way that allows us to find the wholeness that lies within. Even when we’re alone, a sense of community can accompany us through the stormy times. Our words, hearts, and actions can line up with a larger vision, rather than the smaller views our anxious, fearful thoughts arouse in us. To live in a less constricted way—Salzberg says we need to get real about what’s most important.

We tend to think of faith as a commodity you either have or you don't. But in many of the world's wisdom traditions, faith isn't something you possess; it's something you do. "Faith is a willingness to take the next step, to see the unknown as an adventure, to launch a journey," teaches Sharon Salzberg. Now this beloved meditation teacher and author shares her unique understanding of faith, distinguishing it from belief and dogma, to help you cultivate this profound force in your life.

Real Love is a creative tool kit of mindfulness exercises and meditation techniques that help you to truly engage with your present experience and create deeper love relationships with yourself, your partner, friends and family, and with life itself. Sharon Salzberg, a leading expert in Lovingkindness meditation, encourages us to strip away layers of negative habits and obstacles, helping us to experience authentic love based on direct experience, rather than preconceptions.

With sections on daily practice, relationships, physical practices, mindful eating, and practicing with children, Happiness is a comprehensive guide to living our daily lives with full awareness, whether we are working, eating, parenting, driving, walking, or simply sitting and breathing.

In this book, renowned Buddhist teacher Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche leads us through the three steps of his Emotional Rescue Plan. First, Mindful Gap is the practice of creating a safe distance between you and your emotions, which gives you the psychological space to work with their energy. Clear Seeing involves recognizing the bigger picture. Finally, Letting Go is the practice of releasing stressful physical and emotional energy through physical exercise, relaxation, and awareness.

This book compiles, for the first time, Stephen W. Porges's decades of research. A leading expert in developmental psychophysiology and developmental behavioral neuroscience, Porges is the mind behind the groundbreaking Polyvagal Theory, which has startling implications for the treatment of anxiety, depression, trauma, and autism. Adopted by clinicians around the world, the Polyvagal Theory has provided exciting new insights into the way our autonomic nervous system unconsciously mediates social engagement, trust, and intimacy.

Presented by renowned meditation teacher and best-selling author Sharon Salzberg, these 10 core practices were created to give you the feel of a meditation retreat at home - but can be enjoyed in any place conducive to a period of undisturbed quiet. Room to Breathe brings listeners eight core exercises: Calming the Mind, Facing Challenges, Being Present, Letting Go, Trusting Yourself, and more.

In this provocative and inspiring audiobook, David Richo distills 30 years of experience as a therapist to explain the underlying roots of unhappiness - and the surprising secret to finding freedom and fulfillment. There are certain facts of life that we cannot change - the unavoidable "givens" of human existence: (1) everything changes and ends, (2) things do not always go according to plan, (3) life is not always fair, (4) pain is a part of life, and (5) people are not loving and loyal all the time.