Category Archives: Community

Posts about community involvement and social change

Top six books for those who want to learn to meditate

2022, Change, Clean Living, Community, Environment, Exercise, Goals, How to Guide, Ideas, Inspiring, Learning, Lifestyle, meditation, New authors, New Release, new skill, Non-fiction, Personal development, Philosophy, Self Care, Top Tips, , , , , , , , ,

Meditation is known and followed by many who delight in the calm and clarity it brings them when they need it most, though others can find it lacking in science and complete woo-woo. In these crazy times we are living in with a climate crisis, global pandemics, spring inflation and even a war, Team Booko has found six amazing books that want to help ease your mind and may even change the mind of the strongest sceptic. Whether you are looking for quick suggestions to relax during the day or answers to deeper questions about the direction of your life, these books each aim to work towards a positive impact on your life while drawing on science and practice. 

Finding Peace: Meditation and Wisdom for Modern Times by Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche

Finding Peace is a practical guide to the life-changing benefits of meditation from leading Buddhist master Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche. Rinpoche is the leading Buddhist monk in the UK, who shares his collected wisdom on how we can all overcome negative thoughts and calm our minds with simple meditation practices. His teachings have transformed the lives of people all over the world and, in our modern chaotic world, have never been more pertinent.

He teaches us that our minds are infinite like the sky, which can easily become clouded with stress and emotions, but with meditation we are able to clear away these clouds. By freeing our minds of those obstacles we can find peace in every moment and live a truly fulfilled life. With practical steps on breathing, posture, forgiveness, relationships and routine, this is the definitive guide for beginners and experienced meditators alike to learn from the wisdom of a globally revered meditation master.

Breathe Like a Badass by Hannah Jane Thompson

Breathe Like a Badass is a practical handbook that shows you how to harness the power of meditation, covering everything from comparison and office politics to body image and relationships. This practical handbook teaches you how to start and stick to a non-woo-woo, scientifically based, zero-BS meditation habit that you can turn to again and again when life and work gets tough. Qualified meditation teacher and certified life coach Hannah Jane Thompson has been practising meditation for over 11 years, after discovering the difference it made to her own life. As an ambitious but chronically anxious journalist, Hannah suppressed all feelings of not being ‘good enough’ until one day she was hit with chronic depression, anxiety, and panic attacks. At her absolute lowest point, she discovered meditation, and it quite literally saved her life. Breath by breath, meditation taught her to stop, breathe, accept who she was, and question those negative thoughts and transform them into something a little more kind, positive, and mindfully productive. Drawing on her own story, her teaching practice and experiences of her clients, Hannah shows you how to harness the power of meditation. Breathe Like a Badass is your no-BS guide to creating a life-changing, burnout-busting emotional toolbox of your own.

Total Meditation: Stress Free Living Starts Here by Deepak Chopra

Times are hard. Meditation doesn’t have to be. Meditation leads to transformation. It affects every aspect of your wellbeing and can bring about positive change in your body, affect your mental outlook, increase your decision-making ability and eliminate worry and anxiety. The master of modern meditation Deepak Chopra draws on his 30 years of practice and reveals how to achieve blissful awareness by waking up to who you really are. Perfect for beginners, sceptics or those looking for a new approach to stillness, his simple 7-day programme offers a life-changing path to a quiet mind.

The No-Nonsense Meditation Book by Steven Laureys

Rigorously researched and deeply illuminating, world-leading neurologist Dr Steven Laureys works with celebrated meditators to scientifically prove the positive impact meditation has on our brains.

Dr Steven Laureys has conducted ground-breaking research into human consciousness for more than 20 years. For this bestselling book, he explores the effect of meditation on the brain. He uses hard science to explain the benefits of a practice that was once thought of as purely spiritual. The result is a highly accessible, scientifically questioning guide to meditation, designed to open the practice to a broader audience. A mix of fascinating science, inspiring anecdote and practical exercises, this accessible book offers scientific evidence that meditation can have a positive impact on all our lives.

Strong, Calm and Free: A modern guide to yoga, meditation and mindful living by Nicola Jane Hobbs

Heartfelt and deeply practical, Strong, Calm and Free brings alive the possibility of a life of inner peace, compassion and joy. Grounded in both modern science and ancient wisdom, this beautiful and inspiring book demystifies the philosophy and psychology of yoga, making the 4000-year old practice accessible for modern life. Whether you’ve never stepped foot on a yoga mat before or want to deepen your home practice, this beautifully-illustrated book is suitable for all abilities, gently guiding you through a ten-week journey of yoga sequences, meditations and mindful living practices that will build strength, bring insight and offer a path to healing and freedom. Written by holistic counsellor and international yoga and meditation teacher Nicola Jane Hobbs, Strong, Calm and Free shares the tools to help you navigate the peaks and valleys of modern life, to dispel the “I’m not good enough” myth that holds so many of us back and to experience the miracle of being yourself. By sharing her gentle wisdom alongside simple, practical exercises, Nicola invites you on a path of inner transformation. A mindful adventure of self-discovery. A journey towards health, happiness and wholeness. Towards strength, peace and freedom. Towards becoming fully and fearlessly who you are.

A Monk’s Guide to Happiness: Meditation in the 21st century by Gelong Thubten

We’re all on a search for happiness, but we’re looking in the wrong places. Everyone looks externally to find contentment, we think material possessions will unlock our happiness. A Monk’s Guide to Happiness  explains how and why we need to look within, and connect to our true essence, in order to find peace. Everyone has the potential to be happy, after all, we’re all ‘hardwired’ for happiness. But how do we get there? By meditating. Not just in the morning, but throughout the day by introducing micro moments so we never drop the mindfulness ball, even when we’re busy. Meditation is more than just a stress-reduction tool or a relaxation therapy, it is the key to finding long-lasting happiness. Gelong Thubten, a Buddhist monk who has worked with everyone from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to Ruby Wax and Benedict Cumberbatch, explores the theme of happiness in his debut book and explains how to bring meditation into our busy 21st century lives with simple exercises.

Enjoy!

Climate Change Crusaders, the voices challenging the way we treat our world 

2022, Change, Children's Books, Clean Living, Climate, Climate Change, Community, Environment, General Knowledge, Inspiring, Learning, Lifestyle, Non-fiction, Personal development, Recommended, Science, Take a stand, Top Books, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Climate Change is not a new issue, nor is it going to fix itself without our education, action and attention. There are a number of individuals and groups that have been trying to get society’s attention to take action for years. Some have made an impact quickly and have roused us to protest, change our behaviour and expect more from each other. Today we’re sharing six books tackling this topic in very different ways, one shows how their family has been impacted, another teaches us how to discuss this important topic and others outline how the world will look should we choose to ignore it.

How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference by Rebecca Huntley

Why is it so hard to talk about climate change? While scientists double down on the shocking figures, we still find ourselves unable to discuss climate change meaningfully among friends and neighbours or even to grapple with it ourselves. The key to progress on climate change is in the psychology of human attitudes and our ability to change. Whether you’re already alarmed and engaged with the issue, concerned but disengaged, a passive skeptic or an active denier, understanding our emotional reactions to climate change – why it makes us anxious, fearful, angry or detached – is critical to coping on an individual level and convincing each other to act. This book is about understanding why people who aren’t like you feel the way they do and learning to talk to them effectively. What we need are thousands – millions – of everyday conversations about the climate to enlarge the ranks of the concerned, engage the disengaged and persuade the cautious of the need for action.

Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change by Nathaniel Rich 

By 1979, we knew all that we know now about the science of climate change; what was happening, why it was happening, and how to stop it. Over the next ten years, we also had the very real opportunity to stop it. Obviously, we failed. Nathaniel Rich’s groundbreaking account of that failure and how tantalisingly close we came to signing binding treaties that would have saved us all before the fossil fuels industry and politicians committed to anti-scientific denialism, is already a journalistic blockbuster, a full issue of the New York Times Magazine that has earned favourable comparisons to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and John Hersey’s Hiroshima. In the book Losing Earth, Rich provides more of the context for what did, and didn’t, happen in the 1980s and, more important, is able to carry the story fully into the present day and wrestle with what those past failures mean for us today. It is not just an agonising revelation of historical missed opportunities, but a clear-eyed and eloquent assessment of how we got to now, and what we can and must do before it is truly too late.

Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial by Peter Stott 

Hot Air is the shocking inside story of the fight to halt climate change over the past twenty-five years by a world-renowned scientist, Peter Stott. Ours is the age of global warming. Rising sea levels, extreme weather, forest fires. Dire warnings are everywhere, so why has it taken so long for the crisis to be recognised? Here, for the first time, climate scientist Peter Stott reveals the bitter fight to get international recognition for what, among scientists, has been known for decades: human activity causes climate change. Hot Air is the urgent story of how the science was developed, how it has been repeatedly sabotaged and why humanity hasn’t a second to spare in the fight to halt climate change.

Climate: Powerful Voices, Inspiring Ideas by Christina Limpert

With climate change at the forefront of current discussion, Words of change in Climate offers a curated collection of thought-provoking quotes and passages from the writings and speeches of activists in the environmental community, with a focus on diverse and previously unheard voices.

Compiled by social scientist and researcher Christina Limpert, this collection of stirring words is intended to enlighten, to prompt change, to provide encouragement, and to deepen readers’ conviction. Celebrating activism, focusing on solutions, and avoiding apathy and pessimism, this book is call to action. The back matter includes a brief bio for each person quoted to provide context for their life and work.

Stand Up! Speak Up! A Story Inspired by the Climate Change Revolution by Andrew Joyner

From a #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator, and the creator of The Pink Hat, comes a timely picture book about a young girl’s mission to inspire others to help the planet. Celebrate young climate change activists in this charming story about an empowered girl who shows up, listens up, and ultimately, speaks up to inspire her community to take action against climate change. After attending a climate march, a young activist is motivated to make an effort and do her part to help the planet… by organising volunteers to work to make green changes in their community, from cleaning a lake, to planting trees, to making composting bins, to hosting a clothing swap and more! Here is an uplifting picture book that is an important reminder that no change is too small, and no person is too young, to make a difference. With simple text and lively illustrations, Andrew Joyner has given young children a timely story about activism, community, and hope.

In a few weeks we will be sharing more books on how to talk to children about climate change so be sure to check back again for more titles.

Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis by Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Ernman, Svante Thunberg

The profoundly moving story of how love, courage and determination brought Greta Thunberg’s family back from the brink. This is the story of a happy family whose life suddenly fell apart, never to be the same again. Of two devoted parents plunged into a waking nightmare as their eleven-year-old daughter Greta stopped speaking and eating, and her younger sister struggled to cope. They desperately searched for answers, and began to see how their children’s suffering reached far beyond medical diagnoses. This crisis was not theirs alone: they were burned-out people on a burned-out planet. And so they decided to act. Our House is on Fire shows how, amid forces that tried to silence them, one family found ways to strengthen, heal, and gain courage from the love they had for each other and for the living world. It is a parable of hope and determination in an emergency that affects us all.

You can read other titles by Greta Thunberg here.

Next week on the blog we’ll be sharing six books offering suggestions as to what changes we can do at home to aid the future of the planet. 

Enjoy!