New Books in Spiritual Practice and Mindfulness

Today I talked with Seth Powell, founder of Yogic Studies “were the studio meets the academy” rendering rigorous research accessible to studios, teachers, and students. Beyond completing his Yoga Studies doctorate at Harvard University, Seth is at the cutting edge of online education, at the intersection of academic expertise and public access. Seth also hosts the Yogic Studies podcast. For inform...

Join us as we continue discussion with Dr. Christopher Chapple, Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology at Layola Marymount University as we dive into his new book Living Landscapes: Meditations on the Five Elements in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain Yogas (SUNY Press, 2020). The ancient Indian philosophers conceptualized the universe as comprising 5 elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Space),...

Mindfulness has become a major buzzword in culture today, and yet very few people understand what this word actually means and how to integrate this practice into their daily lives. In a world filled with noise and distractions―including cell phones, millions of advertisements, and increasing pressure to do more, be more, get more, and make more―it is no wonder there is an alarming increase of anx...

Designed for busy professionals looking to integrate mindfulness into their daily lives, this ultimate guide draws on contemplative practice, modern neuroscience, and positive psychology to bring peace and focus to the home, the workplace, and beyond. In The Mindful Day: Practical Ways to Find Focus, Calm, and Joy from Morning to Evening (National Geographic, 2019), Laurie Cameron – a veteran of t...

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, and co-founder and chair of the World Science Festival. He is well known for his TV mini-series about string theory and the nature of reality, including the Elegant Universe, which tied in with his best-s...

Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies (University of Georgia Press, 2019), edited by Leslie M. Harris, James T. Campbell, and Alfred L. Brophy, is the first edited collection of scholarly essays devoted solely to the histories and legacies of this subject on North American campuses and in their Atlantic contexts. Gathering together contributions from scholars, activists, and administr...

Shonda Moralis, MSW, LCSW, is a women’s mindful empowerment coach, speaker, and psychotherapist in private practice. Founder of The Bea Hive, a monthly online membership for ambitious women who want to step off the hamster wheel and play bigger in 5-minutes a day, Shonda believes that when women empower themselves and create life balance, they unleash the capacity for incredible accomplishments. A...

Dr. Henry R. Carse is a is a poet, a pilgrim, a practitioner theologian and a peace activist. He is the founder of Kids4Peace International – an interfaith youth movement that teaches and practices dignity in Jerusalem (where he lived for 40 years) and cities throughout North America. Today I discussed his meditation on the Sinai desert, Sinai: The Abundant Emptiness (Ziggurat Books, 2013) Carse i...

Paradox is a sophisticated kind of magic trick. A magician's purpose is to create the appearance of impossibility, to pull a rabbit from an empty hat. Yet paradox doesn't require tangibles, like rabbits or hats. Paradox works in the abstract, with words and concepts and symbols, to create the illusion of contradiction. There are no contradictions in reality, but there can appear to be. In Sleight...

Early adulthood is filled with intense emotions and insecurity. What if you never fall in love? What if you can't find work you’re passionate about? You miss home. You miss close friends. You’re lost in the noise of how you think you should be living and worried about wasting what everyone says should be the best years of your life. In her book "What Now? Meditation for Your Twenties and Beyond (P...

Om Sweet Om is the inspiring story of how a stressed-out corporate junkie found her way to a yoga mat--and eventually, back to herself. After fifteen years of working in the land of cubicles, unreasonable deadlines, and unhealthy habits, Nicole Lovald realized there had to be a better way to live. She had lost sight of how to take care of herself, and her body was letting her know that something h...

How does the world of book reviews work? In Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times (Princeton University Press, 2020), Phillipa Chong, assistant professor in sociology at McMaster University, provides a unique sociological analysis of how critics confront the different types of uncertainty associated with their practice. The book explores how reviewers get matched to books,...

Stephanie Kaza is Professor Emerita of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont, and has written widely on Buddhism and the environment. She describes herself as a long-time lover of trees, a practicing Zen Buddhist, and an environmentalist. Green Buddhism: Practice and Compassionate Action in Uncertain Times (Shambhala, 2019) collects several essays, some written especially for this vol...

Kahlil Gibran’s 1923 The Prophet is book that’s changed people’s lives. It is a deceptively simple book, but it contains a radical insight. “Of what can I speak save of that which is even now moving in your souls?” What can a book teach us that we cannot know ourselves? To detect this thing inside of us we must break through convention: our escape into social habits, religious and political doctri...

Attending: Medicine, Mindfulness, and Humanity (Scribner, 2017) is the first book about mindfulness and medical practice written for patients, their families, and for doctors and others providing health care. It is a groundbreaking, intimate exploration of how doctors approach their work with patients. From his early days as a Harvard Medical School student, Ronald Epstein saw what makes good doct...

If you’re a grad student facing the ugly reality of finding a tenure-track job, you could easily be forgiven for thinking about a career change. However, if you’ve spent the last several years working on a PhD, or if you’re a faculty member whose career has basically consisted of higher ed, switching isn’t so easy. PhD holders are mostly trained to work as professors, and making easy connections t...

In her debut book, Vanessa Linsey takes us on an uproarious journey of spirituality, humor, and humility. Metta Mom: A Mindful Guide to Managing Your Mood & Your Brood (Bowker, 2019) brims with stories unheard outside our most intimate moments like teenage slumber parties, deathbed confessionals, and appointments with a gastroenterologist. Each humbling tale brings lifetimes of powerful lessons gl...

Deborah Eden Tull's new book Relational Mindfulness: A Handbook for Deepening Our Connection with Ourselves, Each Other, and the Planet (Wisdom Publications, 2018) is a guidebook on how to embody compassionate awareness in all of our relationships — with self, one another, and our planet in an age of global uncertainty. We all struggle at times with how to bring meditation off the cushion and into...

A former advisor to tech companies on how to make their products habit-forming, Nir Eyal found that his own smartphone use was adversely affecting his family life. He took a deep dive into research and literature on the subject, and emerged with this new book (with Julie Li), Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life (Bloomsbury, 2019). The takes his expertise and applies...

As you may know, university presses publish a lot of good books. In fact, they publish thousands of them every year. They are different from most trade books in that most of them are what you might called "fundamental research." Their authors--dedicated researchers one and all--provide the scholarly stuff upon which many non-fiction trade books are based. So when you are reading, say, a popular hi...

The things that make people academics -- as deep fascination with some arcane subject, often bordering on obsession, and a comfort with the solitude that developing expertise requires -- do not necessarily make us good teachers. Jessamyn Neuhaus’s Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers (West Virginia University Press, 2019) helps us to id...

Most test prep books, textbooks, and classes miss the mark by only focusing on strategy and content. This essential guide tackles the other half of test prep: mindfulness and your mental performance. Mindfulness is widely embraced in the business and athletic communities as a valuable technique to optimize performance. Author Logan Thompson, an expert in both test prep and mindfulness, says that i...

In every spiritual tradition, we find teachings on the virtues and qualities that we most want to pass on to our kids―such as generosity, kindness, honesty, determination, and patience. Today, a growing body of research from neuroscience and social psychology supports these teachings, offering insights into cultivating these virtues in ourselves and in our families. In his new book Raising Resilie...

In this episode of New Books in Law Siobhan talks with Candy Gunther Brown about her book Debating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools: Reforming Secular Education or Reestablishing Religion? (UNC Press, 2019). Dr. Brown is a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University Bloomington. She is a historian and ethnographer of religion and culture. Yoga and mindfulness activ...

In his recent exposé, McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality (Repeater Books, 2019), Ronald Purser Ph. D. takes a hard look at the mindfulness movement that has taken society by storm. Purser opens the book by questioning elements of the movement that have lead to its success: its scientific credibility, its secular façade, the prevailing discourse in society around...