In this collection of observations, contemplations, and insights, award-winning author Thomas Lloyd Qualls offers a down-to-earth oracle to help decipher the riddles of modern life. Part field notes from a seeker's journey and part teachings of a would-be monk who doesn't get to live on the side of a mountain, Happiness Is An Invisible Line in the Sand is convincing in its stubborn insistence that a better world is not only possible, but within our grasp.
Millions-selling author and creator of Joy School Lisa McCourt outlines her unique formula for sustainable happiness, offering a year's worth of activities, prompts, and techniques that raise your “joy setpoint” so you can cultivate authentic, lasting peace and fulfillment in your daily life. Unprecedented global events have left many of us feeling depleted, depressed, isolated, and disconnected from many of the things that made us happy. Lisa McCourt, host of the Do Joy! podcast and founder of Joy School, helps people raise their joy setpoints regardless of what is happening around them. Learning about joy is one thing, but it’s the doing that actually shifts your energy. McCourt offers a unique approach to joy and emotional wellness, outlining a year-long adventure in happiness that can be started on any day of the year. Joy is not an elusive fantasy to be chased; it is simply a skill to be learned, practiced, and mastered. McCourt takes readers, month by month, through the life-altering principles of vibration elevation that she has taught for 20 years through her Joy School. Each of the 12 “keys” to experiencing sustainable, authentic joy builds sequentially upon the previous one to create a progressive shifting of the reader's inner landscape to one of joy and ease. As the inner landscape transforms, transformation of the external reality inevitably follows. McCourt offers weekly “homeplay” for the reader to take into their daily experience which, when followed, upgrade their thought patterns and default reactions into beneficial new habits of thought and behavior. Upon completion of the final key, the reader is invited along the “spiral,” cycling through the keys again from their newly elevated joy setpoint. Our journey toward ever greater realms of joy and personal freedom is never concluded; we can spiral through the steps, year after year, always recalibrating our lives to ever more fulfilling levels.
Based on a landmark longitudinal study, the nation's leading expert on stepfamilies reveals his breakthrough findings and offers the first detailed guide to easing the conflicts of stepfamily life and healing the scars of divorce. There are more than twenty million stepfamilies in America. For most of them, the simple, daily issues that challenge every family are even more anxiety-provoking. After conducting a comprehensive nine-year-long study funded by the National Institutes of Health, Dr. James H. Bray has written an invaluable book that explains why over half of all stepfamilies fail and reveals the strategies that help the others succeed. A stepfamily is assaulted on all sides by difficult and often divisive questions. How much control should a stepparent have over a stepchild? How much authority should a nonresidential parent exert over a child? How should a difficult former spouse be handled? How does an "ours" baby change the emotional dynamic in a stepfamily? Why is there a lack of "honeymoon effect" during the first years of stepfamily life? The purpose of Stepfamilies is to answer all the important questions of stepfamily life--to fill in the knowledge gaps that undermine so many stepfamilies today and, crucially, to learn the effect of stepfamily life on children. Based on one of the largest and longest studies of stepfamily life ever conducted, Stepfamilies interweaves the stories of real families to illustrate such study findings as how: a stepfamily has its own natural life cycle a stepfamily takes several years to develop into a family unit a stepfamily is at greatest risk during the first two years a stepfamily ultimately coalesces into one of three forms a stepfamily must solve four basic tasks in order to succeed a stepfamily can help heal the scars of divorce Filled with emotional, gripping stories, Bray's findings pinpoint the three major transitions in stepfamily life and identify the riskiest issues that can throw a family into crisis. Bray is the first to identify the several distinct forms that stepfamilies take and to explore which types of stepfamilies are more vulnerable than others and why. He also describes the natural life cycle of stepfamilies and basic tasks all stepfamilies must undertake to succeed. With a wealth of insight into the positive effects of remarriage, Bray shows how a loving, well-functioning stepfamily can lessen the trauma of divorce and restore a child's and family's sense of security. Most stepparents remarry with the highest hopes and new resolutions for a better life. Never before have their unique needs been addressed in depth. Through insightful case studies and practical advice, Stepfamilies reveals how a strong, stable stepfamily is as capable as a nuclear family of nurturing healthy development, of imbuing values, of setting limits and boundaries, and of providing a structure in which rules for living a moral and productive life are transmitted, tested, rebelled against, and ultimately affirmed. Bray's positive message and fascinating findings--many of which defy intuition--will put stepfamilies on the road to lifelong harmony.
KNOWING, REALIZING AND UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF EACH ONE OF US STEP BY STEP WITH FAITH IS THE JOURNEY YOU WOULD TRAVERSE IN THIS BOOK. AIMED AT SETTING ASIDE DEEP SEEDED NEGATIVE BELIEFS AND STARTING ON A CLEAN SLATE SO THAT THE DELIMITING FACTORS FOR REACHING EPITOME OF SUCCESS ARE ERASED ONCE AND FOR ALL. THE AUTHOR BELIEVES THAT EVERYONE INDIVIDUAL SHOULD BE MADE AWARE OF SMALL BUT IMPORTANT STEP BY STEP PROCESSES WHICH IF FOLLOWED DILIGENTLY AND PERSISTENTLY CAN MAKE A SEA OF DIFFERENCE IN THEIR LIVES. THESE PROCESSES WERE NEVER SUMMARIZED AND MADE AVAILABLE TO ALL IN AN INTERPRETEABLE FASHION. THE AUTHOR HAS TAKEN A LEAP OF FAITH TO ENSURE THAT THESE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES ARE SHARED FROM THE POSITION OF VULNERABILITY TO BECOME THE BEACON OF SUCCESS. THIS IS A POWERFUL BOOK TO BRING OUT THE EXTRAORDINARY IN YOU.
A smart and funny book by a prominent Harvard psychologist, which uses groundbreaking research and (often hilarious) anecdotes to show us why we’re so lousy at predicting what will make us happy – and what we can do about it. Most of us spend our lives steering ourselves toward the best of all possible futures, only to find that tomorrow rarely turns out as we had expected. Why? As Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert explains, when people try to imagine what the future will hold, they make some basic and consistent mistakes. Just as memory plays tricks on us when we try to look backward in time, so does imagination play tricks when we try to look forward. Using cutting-edge research, much of it original, Gilbert shakes, cajoles, persuades, tricks and jokes us into accepting the fact that happiness is not really what or where we thought it was. Among the unexpected questions he poses: Why are conjoined twins no less happy than the general population? When you go out to eat, is it better to order your favourite dish every time, or to try something new? If Ingrid Bergman hadn’t gotten on the plane at the end of Casablanca, would she and Bogey have been better off? Smart, witty, accessible and laugh-out-loud funny, Stumbling on Happiness brilliantly describes all that science has to tell us about the uniquely human ability to envision the future, and how likely we are to enjoy it when we get there.
When a bacon-loving Army Ranger and a flower-child, vegan farmer declare their true loves’ vow it won’t be enough to stop their families from feuding in this modern day marriage of convenience. David Porco has believed in true love since the first time he saw his doting parents kissing. He’s been searching for his happily-ever-after ever since—maybe a little too hard. On a mission to rekindle yet another failed relationship, he catches sight of his ex’s friend and his heart explodes with one word: mine. Jules Capulano has always wanted to feel that special spark that means she’s found her true love. There’s nothing but a fizzle with Paris, the man her family expects her to marry. But when she locks eyes with the town’s wandering romantic, a flare ignites shouting that he’s “the one.” After a magical night at the county fair, Jules and Porco are certain what they’re feeling is real. Like so many couples on the Purple Heart Ranch before them, they rush to the altar. But neither of their families are happy with the union. Not only is Porco’s cattle ranch at war with Jules’s vegan commune, but he’s a die-hard carnivore who thinks vegetables are only food for his food. As the two star crossed lovers try to find common ground, a careless mistake from Porco’s past threatens to topple everything Jules and her family have worked for. Can true love conquer a feud of this magnitude?
Fish Food is full of unconventional wisdom in regards to healing the human spirit, mind and body. Created for the ultimate human experience. Not only does the author share her own healing journey, she also shares how she came to discover the ability to communicate with spirit guides, through nature and dreams. Be forewarned, this book is full of wisdom!
In reality, prisons resemble small communities where the warden is the mayor of a small town and the unit deputy wardens serve as council members. As soon as you come to realize this background is very much like a miniature restricted adaptation of our free societies, you will understand the roles we play. The same responsibilities outside in the "free world" apply inside our prisons. Tools formalized to be available to administrators inside the prison consist of state statutes and policies and procedures that may be used to manage events which under the existing negative circumstances of a potentially hazardous work / living environment. This potential of danger may eventually lead to the use of force allowable by law that range from non lethal force to the use of deadly or lethal force, depending on the severity of the situation at hand. Thus when the comparison is finished, inside of the prison world we retain the basics of water, food, shelter, clothing and civility to a degree where these conditions resemblance limited and warped-minded kindness, compassion, respect, politeness and cooperation with each other to co-exist. Although there is no doubt of the correctional employee's boldness to brag about the job at times, it has been established "the less said in public, the better off we are explaining what we do'". This book is merely a reconstruction of events as they occurred and handled. Candidly written, the author tries to show part of a story as they were gleaned from his own eyes and his own mind. Regardless of what anyone else may think, judge or conclude to be truthful or untruthful this is his own story. In other words, it is purely personal from his point of view with a touch of reality to bring forth the issue at hand. Written in fiction and non-fiction, this book demonstrates logical and illogical decision making as well as sound correctional best practices and suggestions to make it better place to work and function.
Can’t get enough clean and wholesome western romance? Then Volume 2 of the Rangers of Purple Heart Ranch is for you! Fall in love with these modern day marriages of convenience featuring a pair of star crossed romantics who marry first and get to know each other later, along with two logical-minded scientists who fall inexplicably in love at first sight, and a marriage in trouble with one last chance at a happily ever after. In The Rancher takes his Star Crossed Love, a bacon-loving Army Ranger and a flower-child, vegan farmer declare their true loves’ vow it won’t be enough to stop their families from feuding in this modern day marriage of convenience. In The Rancher takes his Love at First Sight, you’ll deduce if an Army Ranger war games strategist and an environmental scientist bent on saving the planet fall in love at first sight? In The Rancher takes his Last Chance at Love, a military hostage negotiator is willing to pay any ransom to win back the woman who hijacked his heart. Grab these three light-hearted, sweet romances of convenient arrangements that unfold into lasting love.
Bridging the worlds of ancient Tibet and modern-day India, Painted Oxen weaves a tale of two men--one young, one old--on parallel journeys. Their separate-but-connected pilgrimages are equal parts internal and external. The old man, a Tibetan monk, is searching for a sacred hidden valley known to bring enlightenment to those who enter it. The young man is backpacking through India, searching for a guru or the love of his life; he doesn't care which. A mysterious red-haired woman who resembles an ancient goddess appears in a series of dream chapters that tie the two journeys together.
