Download or read book The Book of Joy written by Dalai Lama and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An instant New York Times bestseller Two spiritual giants. Five days. One timeless question. Nobel Peace Prize Laureates His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have survived more than fifty years of exile and the soul-crushing violence of oppression. Despite their hardships—or, as they would say, because of them—they are two of the most joyful people on the planet. In April 2015, Archbishop Tutu traveled to the Dalai Lama's home in Dharamsala, India, to celebrate His Holiness's eightieth birthday and to create what they hoped would be a gift for others. They looked back on their long lives to answer a single burning question: How do we find joy in the face of life's inevitable suffering? They traded intimate stories, teased each other continually, and shared their spiritual practices. By the end of a week filled with laughter and punctuated with tears, these two global heroes had stared into the abyss and despair of our time and revealed how to live a life brimming with joy. This book offers us a rare opportunity to experience their astonishing and unprecendented week together, from the first embrace to the final good-bye. We get to listen as they explore the Nature of True Joy and confront each of the Obstacles of Joy—from fear, stress, and anger to grief, illness, and death. They then offer us the Eight Pillars of Joy, which provide the foundation for lasting happiness. Throughout, they include stories, wisdom, and science. Finally, they share their daily Joy Practices that anchor their own emotional and spiritual lives. The Archbishop has never claimed sainthood, and the Dalai Lama considers himself a simple monk. In this unique collaboration, they offer us the reflection of real lives filled with pain and turmoil in the midst of which they have been able to discover a level of peace, of courage, and of joy to which we can all aspire in our own lives.

Download or read book The Lightmaker s Manifesto written by Karen Walrond and published by Broadleaf Books . This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Karen Walrond shines her light so we can find our own." —Brené Brown Many of us have strong convictions. We want to advocate for causes we care about--but which ones? We want to work for change--but will the emotional toll lead to burn out? Leadership coach, lawyer, photographer, and activist Karen Walrond knows that when you care deeply about the world, light can seem hard to find. But when your activism grows out of your joy--and vice versa--you begin to see light everywhere. In The Lightmaker's Manifesto, Walrond helps us name the skills, values, and actions that bring us joy; identify the causes that spark our empathy and concern; and then put it all together to change the world. Creative and practical exercises, including journaling, daily intention-setting, and mindful self-compassion, are complemented by lively conversations with activists and thought leaders such as Valarie Kaur, Brené Brown, Tarana Burke, and Zuri Adele. With stories from around the world and wisdom from those leading movements for change, Walrond beckons readers toward lives of integrity, advocacy, conviction, and joy. By unearthing our passions and gifts, we learn how to joyfully advocate for justice, peace, and liberation. We learn how to become makers of light.

Download or read book Eco Soma written by Petra Kuppers and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2022-02-08 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modeling a disability culture perspective on performance practice toward socially just futures In Eco Soma, Petra Kuppers asks readers to be alert to their own embodied responses to art practice and to pay attention to themselves as active participants in a shared sociocultural world. Reading contemporary performance encounters and artful engagements, this book models a disability culture sensitivity to living in a shared world, oriented toward more socially just futures. Eco soma methods mix and merge realities on the edges of lived experience and site-specific performance. Kuppers invites us to become moths, sprout gills, listen to our heart’s drum, and take starships into crip time. And fantasy is central to these engagements: feeling/sensing monsters, catastrophes, golden lines, heartbeats, injured sharks, dotted salamanders, kissing mammoths, and more. Kuppers illuminates ecopoetic disability culture perspectives, contending that disabled people and their co-conspirators make art to live in a changing world, in contact with feminist, queer, trans, racialized, and Indigenous art projects. By offering new ways to think, frame, and feel “environments,” Kuppers focuses on art-based methods of envisioning change and argues that disability can offer imaginative ways toward living well and with agency in change, unrest, and challenge. Traditional somatics teach us how to fine-tune our introspective senses and to open up the world of our own bodies, while eco soma methods extend that attention toward the creative possibilities of the reach between self, others, and the land. Eco Soma proposes an art/life method of sensory tuning to the inside and the outside simultaneously, a method that allows for a wider opening toward ethical cohabitation with human and more-than-human others.

Download or read book The Joy of Pain written by Richard H. Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-02 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few people will easily admit to taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others. But who doesn't enjoy it when an arrogant but untalented contestant is humiliated on American Idol, or when the embarrassing vice of a self-righteous politician is exposed, or even when an envied friend suffers a small setback? The truth is that joy in someone else's pain-known by the German word schadenfreude--permeates our society. In The Joy of Pain, psychologist Richard Smith, one of the world's foremost authorities on envy and shame, sheds much light on a feeling we dare not admit. Smith argues that schadenfreude is a natural human emotion, one worth taking a closer look at, as it reveals much about who we are as human beings. We have a passion for justice. Sometimes, schadenfreude can feel like getting one's revenge, when the suffering person has previously harmed us. But most of us are also motivated to feel good about ourselves, Smith notes, and look for ways to maintain a positive sense of self. One common way to do this is to compare ourselves to others and find areas where we are better. Similarly, the downfall of others--especially when they have seemed superior to us--can lead to a boost in our self-esteem, a lessening of feelings of inferiority. This is often at the root of schadenfreude. As the author points out, most instances of schadenfreude are harmless, on par with the pleasures of light gossip. Yet we must also be mindful that envy can motivate, without full awareness, the engineering of the misfortune we delight in. And envy-induced aggression can take us into dark territory indeed, as Smith shows as he examines the role of envy and schadenfreude in the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Filled with engaging examples of schadenfreude, from popular reality shows to the Duke-Kentucky basketball rivalry, The Joy of Pain provides an intriguing glimpse into a hidden corner of the human psyche.

Download or read book Pain Points of Joy written by Madeline Kim and published by WestBow Press. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pain Points of Joy is the story about the dramatic life change Madeline Kim goes through when she marries a man with seven kids, including five who are adopted and two with special needs. She herself has one son to complete the family, thus begins the incredible ride of learning to navigate family life with eight kids. At times, it is crazy and complex, even chaotic, yet the times of stillness and joy peak inexplicably amidst it all. Each family member has their own history and struggles as they sort out the new normal. Madelines story will resonate with anyone who believes in new beginnings while overcoming the fear of the unknown. Anyone who has gone through the adoption experience or has experienced loss and the pain of abandonment will gain insight as Madeline weaves the impact of her own adoption journey into the present day. If you have ever wondered how to turn a messy life into something meaningful, Pain Points of Joy will clarify how the author found peace, joy, and most importantly, purpose, after choosing Gods standards versus the worlds.

Download or read book Walking on the Ceiling written by Aysegül Savas and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[Savaş] writes with both sensuality and coolness, as if determined to find a rational explanation for the irrationality of existence..." -- The New York Times "I fell in love with this book." -- Katie Kitamura, author of A Separation A mesmerizing novel set in Paris and a changing Istanbul, about a young Turkish woman grappling with her past and her complicated relationship with a famous British writer. After her mother's death, Nunu moves from Istanbul to a small apartment in Paris. One day outside of a bookstore, she meets M., an older British writer whose novels about Istanbul Nunu has always admired. They find themselves walking the streets of Paris and talking late into the night. What follows is an unusual friendship of eccentric correspondence and long walks around the city. M. is working on a new novel set in Turkey and Nunu tells him about her family, hoping to impress and inspire him. She recounts the idyllic landscapes of her past, mythical family meals, and her elaborate childhood games. As she does so, she also begins to confront her mother's silence and anger, her father's death, and the growing unrest in Istanbul. Their intimacy deepens, so does Nunu's fear of revealing too much to M. and of giving too much of herself and her Istanbul away. Most of all, she fears that she will have to face her own guilt about her mother and the narratives she's told to protect herself from her memories. A wise and unguarded glimpse into a young woman's coming into her own, Walking on the Ceiling is about memory, the pleasure of invention, and those places, real and imagined, we can't escape.

Download or read book A River of Royal Blood written by Amanda Joy and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two sisters must fight to the death to win the crown in this first installment of a gripping, action-packed duology set in an ancient North African-inspired fantasy world. Now in paperback. Sixteen-year-old Eva is a princess, born with the magick of blood and marrow--a dark and terrible magick that hasn't been seen for generations in the vibrant but fractured country of Myre. Its last known practitioner was Queen Raina, who toppled the native royalty and massacred thousands, including her own sister, eight generations ago, thus beginning the Rival Heir tradition. Living in Raina's long and dark shadow, Eva must now face her older sister, Isa, in a battle to the death if she hopes to ascend to the Ivory Throne--because in the Queendom of Myre only the strongest, most ruthless rulers survive. A River of Royal Blood is an enthralling debut set in a lush ancient North African inspired fantasy world that subtly but powerfully challenges our notions of power, history, and identity.

Download or read book Wayward written by Dana Spiotta and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2022-06-21 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A “furious and addictive new novel” (The New York Times) about mothers and daughters, and one woman's midlife reckoning as she flees her suburban life. “Exhilarating ... reads like a burning fever dream. A virtuosic, singular and very funny portrait of a woman seeking sanity and purpose in a world gone mad.” —The New York Times Book Review Samantha Raymond's life has begun to come apart: her mother is ill, her teenage daughter is increasingly remote, and at fifty-two she finds herself staring into "the Mids"—that hour of supreme wakefulness between three and four in the morning in which women of a certain age suddenly find themselves contemplating motherhood, mortality, and, in this case, the state of our unraveling nation. When she falls in love with a beautiful, decrepit house in a hardscrabble neighborhood in Syracuse, she buys it on a whim and flees her suburban life—and her family—as she grapples with how to be a wife, a mother, and a daughter, in a country that is coming apart at the seams. Dana Spiotta's Wayward is a stunning novel about aging, about the female body, and about female complexity in contemporary America. Probing and provocative, brainy and sensual, it is a testament to our weird times, to reforms and resistance and utopian wishes, and to the beauty of ruins.

Download or read book The Weight of this World written by David Joy and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Critically acclaimed author David Joy, whose debut, Where All Light Tends to Go, was hailed as "a savagely moving novel that will likely become an important addition to the great body of Southern literature" (The Huffington Post), returns to the mountains of North Carolina with a powerful story about the inescapable weight of the past. A combat veteran returned from war, Thad Broom can't leave the hardened world of Afghanistan behind, nor can he forgive himself for what he saw there. His mother, April, is haunted by her own demons, a secret trauma she has carried for years. Between them is Aiden McCall, loyal to both but unable to hold them together. Connected by bonds of circumstance and duty, friendship and love, these three lives are blown apart when Aiden and Thad witness the accidental death of their drug dealer and a riot of dope and cash drops in their laps. On a meth-fueled journey to nowhere, they will either find the grit to overcome the darkness or be consumed by it.

Download or read book The Hurting Kind written by Ada Limón and published by Milkweed Editions. This book was released on 2022-05-10 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An astonishing collection about interconnectedness—between the human and nonhuman, ancestors and ourselves—from National Book Critics Circle Award winner and National Book Award finalist Ada Limón. “I have always been too sensitive, a weeper / from a long line of weepers,” writes Limón. “I am the hurting kind.” What does it mean to be the hurting kind? To be sensitive not only to the world’s pain and joys, but to the meanings that bend in the scrim between the natural world and the human world? To divine the relationships between us all? To perceive ourselves in other beings—and to know that those beings are resolutely their own, that they “do not / care to be seen as symbols”? With Limón’s remarkable ability to trace thought, The Hurting Kind explores those questions—incorporating others’ stories and ways of knowing, making surprising turns, and always reaching a place of startling insight. These poems slip through the seasons, teeming with horses and kingfishers and the gleaming eyes of fish. And they honor parents, stepparents, and grandparents: the sacrifices made, the separate lives lived, the tendernesses extended to a hurting child; the abundance, in retrospect, of having two families. Along the way, we glimpse loss. There are flashes of the pandemic, ghosts whose presence manifests in unexpected memories and the mysterious behavior of pets left behind. But The Hurting Kind is filled, above all, with connection and the delight of being in the world. “Slippery and waddle thieving my tomatoes still / green in the morning’s shade,” writes Limón of a groundhog in her garden, “she is doing what she can to survive.”

Download or read book Discover the Gift written by Demian Lichtenstein and published by Balboa Press. This book was released on 2016-09-07 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the Gift presents a simple roadmap to a journey of self-discovery that will undoubtedly change your life forever. Sharing their own heartfelt personal stories of tragedy and redemption, Demian and Shajen introduce us to eight fundamental steps that will help you discover the gift within you and prepare you to share that gift with others. Along the way, you will receive both direction and support from a wide range of the world's most influential transformational leaders, people from all walks of life who not only live their gift every day but who have made it their purpose to help you do the same. Among them are His Holiness the Dalai Lama, His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Mark Victor Hansen, Dr. Sonia Powers, Mary Manin Morrissey, Dr. Barbara De Angelis, Jack Canfield, and Michael Bernard Beckwith, to name just a few. Inspiring as well as practical, Discover the Gift illuminates that place inside each of us where an extraordinary gift awaits to come alive. Your destiny awaits. Discover the gift. It's why you're here.

Download or read book Defiant Joy written by Stasi Eldredge and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We all spend a lot of energy reaching for happiness, but we're never quite able to hang on to it. Real life happens, and our circumstances take us on an emotional rollercoaster. Oftentimes, the Bible's call to "be joyful always" seems out of reach--but it doesn't have to be. We are called to live. And, miraculously, to live with joy. Join bestselling author Stasi Eldredge as she shows us how to choose a joy that stands against the tides of life's real and often overwhelming pain. Defiant Joy reminds us that a joy that is defiant in the face of this broken world was meant to be ours. This joy isn't simply happiness on steroids, it's the unyielding belief that sorrow and loss do not have the final say. It's the stubborn determination to be present in whatever may come and interpret both goodness and grief by the light of heaven. Defiant Joy will give you the encouragement you need to: Finally experience daily joy Learn how to have a posture of holy defiance when circumstances threaten to weigh down your soul Find new perspectives on the painful circumstances you've faced In Defiant Joy, Stasi invites us with courage, candor, and tender vulnerability to a place beyond sadness or happiness, leading the way as we learn how to maintain a posture of holy defiance that neither denies nor diminishes our pain but dares to live with expectant, unwavering hope.

Download or read book Finding Joy Reflections on Life in Two Different Worlds written by Joy Rewick and published by . This book was released on 2016-05-21 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I wrote this book of essays in a spirit of gratitude for all the joy that has come into my life, and with the hope that others will find joy too. Joy did not just come knocking on my door, however; I have always had to look for it, open up all of my senses to receive it, and learn many lessons along the way. In the midst of blending my two worlds - my Wisconsin roots, and the life I now live in California's Silicon Valley - I found joy in ways both simple and profound. I found joy in music, nature, persistence, solitude, kindness, darkness, and in many other ways which I share in my book. I reveal some of my deepest pain, and celebrate moments when joy came back into my life. I believe my book will uplift, encourage, and inspire others to never stop looking for all the joy their heart can hold - no matter where they live.Reader reviews:"Joy Haefs Rewick is a gifted writer. Her essays are sometimes playful, sometimes profound, but always thought-provoking. Using her own life reflections, she writes from the heart and touches upon themes that both young and old can relate to. Her book is a reminder of the things that matter most in life."Wan Chen, Founder and President, Ivy Climbing Education Services"This is a wonderful book of essays - small nuggets that sweep you away with imagery and thoughtfulness. It's a great read with nostalgia and personal reflections of small town life woven into a positive take on life's journeys." Teri Young,Assistant Coach, Mountain View-Los Altos Speech and Debate"Please keep sharing your essays with others - even a few paragraphs will encourage discussions on remembering, loving, forgiving, and going through troubles." Lois Scorgie, writer, poet, and musician.

Download or read book Radical Joy for Hard Times written by Trebbe Johnson and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a time of uncertainty and devastation--from pandemics to environmental catastrophe--a call to action for finding beauty, creating art, and healing in community. When a beloved place is decimated by physical damage, many may hit the donate button or call their congressperson. But award-winning author Trebbe Johnson argues that we need new methods for coping with these losses and invites readers to reconsider what constitutes “worthwhile action.” She discusses real wounded places ranging from weapons-testing grounds at Eglin Air Force Base, to Appalachian mountain tops destroyed by mining. These stories, along with tools for community engagement—ceremony, vigil, apology, and the creation of art with on-site materials—show us how we can find beauty in these places and discover new sources of meaning and community.

Download or read book Comfort Joy written by Kristin Hannah and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Kristin Hannah is beloved by readers around the world for her unique blend of powerful emotion and exquisite storytelling. In Comfort & Joy, she offers a modern-day fairy tale—the story of a woman who gets a miraculous chance at happiness. Joy Candellaro once loved Christmas more than any other time of the year. Now, as the holiday approaches, she is at a crossroads in her life; recently divorced and alone, she can’t summon the old enthusiasm for celebrating. So without telling anyone, she buys a ticket and boards a plane bound for the beautiful Pacific Northwest. When an unexpected detour takes her deep into the woods of the Olympic rainforest, Joy makes a bold decision to leave her ordinary life behind—to just walk away—and thus begins an adventure unlike any she could have imagined. In the small town of Rain Valley, six-year-old Bobby O’Shea is facing his first Christmas without a mother. Unable to handle the loss, Bobby has closed himself off from the world, talking only to his invisible best friend. His father Daniel is beside himself, desperate to help his son cope. Yet when the little boy meets Joy, these two unlikely souls form a deep and powerful bond. In helping Bobby and Daniel heal, Joy finds herself again. But not everything is as it seems in quiet Rain Valley, and in an instant, Joy’s world is ripped apart, and her heart is broken. On a magical Christmas Eve, a night of impossible dreams and unexpected chances, Joy must find the courage to believe in a love—and a family—that can’t possibly exist, and go in search of what she wants . . . and the new life only she can find.

Download or read book The Best Things in Life written by Thomas Hurka and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-12-03 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, philosophers, theologians, moralists, and ordinary people have asked: How should we live? What makes for a good life? In The Best Things in Life, distinguished philosopher Thomas Hurka takes a fresh look at these perennial questions as they arise for us now in the 21st century. Should we value family over career? How do we balance self-interest and serving others? What activities bring us the most joy? While religion, literature, popular psychology, and everyday wisdom all grapple with these questions, philosophy more than anything else uses the tools of reason to make important distinctions, cut away irrelevancies, and distill these issues down to their essentials. Hurka argues that if we are to live a good life, one thing we need to know is which activities and experiences will most likely lead us to happiness and which will keep us from it, while also reminding us that happiness isn't the only thing that makes life good. Hurka explores many topics: four types of good feeling (and the limits of good feeling); how we can improve our baseline level of happiness (making more money, it turns out, isn't the answer); which kinds of knowledge are most worth having; the importance of achieving worthwhile goals; the value of love and friendship; and much more. Unlike many philosophers, he stresses that there isn't just one good in life but many: pleasure, as Epicurus argued, is indeed one, but knowledge, as Socrates contended, is another, as is achievement. And while the great philosophers can help us understand what matters most in life, Hurka shows that we must ultimately decide for ourselves. This delightfully accessible book offers timely guidance on answering the most important question any of us will ever ask: How do we live a good life?

Download or read book Joy in the Mourning written by Esther Joy Grusing Hunter and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2010-11 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joy in the Mourning is not only the story of an accident that claimed the lives of Esther's three siblings on the way to their Father's funeral; it is also a detailed account of the feelings and struggles that accompany the grieving process. It portrays a clear message to those that have suffered any kind of loss, that they are not alone. From the automobile accident, the house fire, and the gradual loss of her mother during the same time period, Esther also shares moments of joy and the healing effects of humor in the midst of suffering.