Category Archives: Personal development

Self help and personal development

Top 5 Audio Books to listen to when life is busy

May 11, 2017Blog, Personal development, Top Books#busy, #change, #SelfhelpTeam Booko

Audiobooks are a wonderful invention for the busy person. Reading actual printed text means sitting down and focusing purely on the words and while that’s our favourite way to consume books, sometimes between work, study, going to the gym, doing the laundry, cooking dinner and putting the children to bed it’s not that easy to find time to actually sit down with a book.

That’s where audiobooks come in. Here are our top 5 to listen to when you’re feeling like life is getting on top of you.

Option B by Adam Grant and Sheryl Sandberg

Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. Option B illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to everyday struggles, allowing us to brave whatever lies ahead. Two weeks after losing her husband, Sheryl was preparing for a father-child activity. I want Dave, she cried. Her friend replied, Option A is not available, and then promised to help her make the most of Option B. We all live some form of Option B. This book will help us all make the most of it.

Start With Why by Simon Sinek

In studying the leaders who’ve had the greatest influence in the world, Simon Sinek discovered that they all think, act, and communicate in the exact same way and it’s the complete opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organisations can be built, movements can be lead, and people can be inspired. It all starts with WHY. Any organisation can explain what it does; some can explain how they do it; but very few can clearly articulate why. Why is not money or profit as those are always results. Why does your organisation exist? Why does it do the things it does? Why do customers really buy from one company or another? Why are people loyal to some leaders, but not others? Starting with Why works in big business and small business, in the nonprofit world and in politics. Those who start with Why never manipulate, they inspire. And the people who follow them don’t do so because they have to, they follow because they want to. Drawing on a wide range of real life stories, Sinek weaves together a clear vision of what it truly takes to lead and inspire. This book is for anyone who wants to inspire others or who wants to find someone to inspire them.

Make your bed: little things that can change your life, then maybe the world by William McRaven

Making your bed is a simple act with powerful consequences. To rise in the morning and complete the first task of the day will give you motivation to do more and to accomplish more. The bed also represents you. Few things in your home are more personal. Making your bed is a reflection of your discipline, your pride and your personal habits. If you can’t get up in the morning and make your bed, what else are you incapable of doing? If you want to change the world, or just make yourself a little better, start off by making your bed.

Stop Saying You’re Fine by Mel Robbins

Many people are becoming increasingly frustrated and bored with their lives. If you have come to regard yourself as your own worst enemy, constantly daydream and wonder, is this all there is? If you have a tendency when asked how you’re doing to just say ‘Fine’, you may be one of them. If this sounds familiar, there’s clearly something missing from your life. This book will help you discover what it is, and how to win it back. Written by Mel Robbins, one of America’s top relationship experts, this hands-on guide not only shows you how to put your finger on the problem, it reveals what to do about it. Mel has spent her career teaching people how to push past their self-imposed limits to get what they truly desire. She has an in-depth understanding of the psychological and social factors that repeatedly hold you back, and more importantly, a unique set of tools for getting you where you want to be.

Check out Mel’s inspiring TEDx Talk.

Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better: Wise Advice for Leaning into the Unknown by Pema Chodron

When her granddaughter was accepted to Naropa University, the celebrated author Pema Chödrön promised that she’d speak at the commencement ceremony. Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better contains the wisdom shared on that day. “What do we do when life doesn’t go the way we hoped?” begins Pema “We say, ‘I’m a failure.” But what if failing wasn’t just “okay,” but the most direct way to becoming a more complete, loving, and fulfilled human being? Through the insights of her own teachers and life journey, Pema Chödrön offers us her heartfelt advice on how to face the unknown-in ourselves and in the world-and how our missteps can open our eyes to see new possibilities and purpose. For Pema’s millions of readers, prospective graduates, or anyone at a life crossroads, this gem of clarity and reassurance is sure to find a welcome place in many a kitchen, office, and backpack.

…and finally for those who are really just too busy to sit and read…

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? Unfortunately, today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day – while you wait for your morning coffee at the cafe, for the bus, the train, or a plane to arrive. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.

Enjoy!

Books that challenge the status quo – addressing your confirmation bias

April 6, 2017Blog, Leadership, Non-fiction, Personal development, Top Books#Nonfiction, #SelfhelpTeam Booko

Confirmation bias: the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories

Confirmation bias has been around for a long time and is a topic that is currently prevalent in social media with increasing importance for everyone to become aware of and address. If affects us in many facets of our lives, from the books we buy to how we search online. It’s pretty simple to summarise but somewhat harder to change – we want to be right about how we see the world, so we seek out information which confirms our beliefs and avoid contradictory evidence and opinions.

We’ve rounded up a few of our favourite titles that challenge how we think. Brace yourself, you’ll be somewhat pensive at the end of this reading marathon!

Mistakes were made (but not by me) by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson

Why do people dodge responsibility when things fall apart? Why the parade of public figures unable to own up when they make mistakes? Why the endless marital quarrels over who is right? Why can we see hypocrisy in others but not in ourselves? Are we all liars? Or do we really believe the stories we tell? Renowned social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson take a compelling look into how the brain is wired for self-justification. When we make mistakes, we must calm the cognitive dissonance that jars our feelings of self-worth. And so we create fictions that absolve us of responsibility, restoring our belief that we are smart, moral, and right – a belief that often keeps us on a course that is dumb, immoral, and wrong. A fascinating explanation of self-deception – how it works, the harm it can cause, and how we can overcome it.

The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking

When and how did the universe begin? Why are we here? What is the nature of reality? Is the apparent ‘grand design’ of our universe evidence for a benevolent creator who set things in motion? Or does science offer another explanation? In The Grand Design, the most recent scientific thinking about the mysteries of the universe is presented, in language marked by both brilliance and simplicity. The Grand Design explains the latest thoughts about model-dependent realism (the idea that there is no one version of reality), and about the multiverse concept of reality in which there are many universes. There are new ideas about the top-down theory of cosmology (the idea that there is no one history of the universe, but that every possible history exists). A succinct, startling and lavishly illustrated guide to discoveries that are altering our understanding and threatening some of our most cherished belief systems, The Grand Design is a book that will inform – and provoke – like no other.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

The renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation. Each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions. Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking, offering practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble.

This Will Make You Smarter by John Brockton

John Brockman has brought together the most influential thinkers of our age to offer their choice of the ideas, strategies and arguments that will help all of us understand our world, and its future. Every year he sets them a question, in 2013 that question was: What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody’s Cognitive Toolkit? Their answers are collected in this book and explore philosophy, psychology, economics, and other disciplines – and all share one aim: to provide the most reliable ways of gaining knowledge about anything, whether it be human behaviour, corporate behaviour, the fate of the planet, or the future of the universe.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

Acclaimed as one of the most exciting books in history, this modern epic became an instant bestseller upon publication in 1974, transforming a generation and continuing to inspire millions. A narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and his son, the book becomes a personal and philosophical odyssey into fundamental questions of how to live. Resonant with the confusions of existence, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a touching and transcendent book of life.

Outliers by Malcom Gladwell

Malcolm Gadwell is one of my favourite authors. I have read and reread two of his other books The Tipping Point and Blink and have recommended them to many others. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers” – the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Enjoy!

Fostering adult literacy

February 15, 2017Blog, Booko, Non-fiction, Personal development#adult, #literacy, #NonfictionTeam Booko

Can you imagine not being able to help your child with their homework? For many people in our society, reading their mail or filling out a form is a seemingly impossible task.

14% of adults (one in seven) in our community have low levels of literacy, according to the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) survey. Many of the tasks you might take for granted like reading medicine labels, writing lists, interpreting maps, reading instruction manuals and other things that we encounter in our lives are a challenge.

If you know of a family member, friend or neighbour that could benefit from assistance, there’s a multitude of resources that can help improve their proficiency (as you might imagine). Here are some of them:

Adult migrant English program

Eligible adult migrants and humanitarian entrants to Australia can access up to 510 hours of free English lessons.

Literacy Net

Part of the Australian Government Department of Education and Training, this site provides a range of adult literacy resources, training material and Professional Development resources for industry trainers/assessors.

National Literacy and Numeracy Week

This occurs from 29 August – 4 September and celebrates the progress Australian schools are making in raising the literacy and numeracy levels of students.

Skills for Education and Employment

This site provides language, literacy and numeracy training to help people improve their speaking, reading, writing or basic maths skills. The program aims to improve chances of getting and keeping a job, as well as making everyday life easier.

Bringing attention to literacy challenges is quite often met with shame and embarrassment. What’s important to bear in mind is that people who acquire literacy skills later in life are adults; they think like adults and require resources and support tailored to them specifically. We’ve sourced a range of resources suited to adults learning to read and write, here are some of them:

Yes We can Read by Libby Coleman

Gatehouse Books is a great source of literacy support books. ‘Yes we can read’ is a fantastic ‘go-to’ book because it guides the coach through the entire program. Suited towards any learners between the ages of 8 and 80, it’s a phonics-based program helping people develop reading for meaning.

The book teaches you how to help with teaching individual phonic sounds, blending sounds, building words and sentences together and reading fluently.

Teach anyone to read by Lillie Pope

If you’re not trained as a teacher and not an expert in the field, teaching an adult to read might seem like an overwhelming ask. Pope’s books is as ‘no-nonsense’ as she claims. The techniques described in Pop’s book have been used successfully for more than 50 years and by thousands of instructors, helping thousands of students to read.

Liz and Joe go on holiday by Jennie Cole

This book is part of a series that feature the Liz and Joe characters. Aimed at new readers, it’s targeted at those learning English as a second language (ESOL), In short story format, the books are illustrated with colour photos and in a comic books style format. The objective of these titles is to gradually increase your vocabulary with regards to daily life. Other titles in the series include Joe’s Surprise, Liz and Joe Have a Day out and Liz Gets a Gas Bill.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Level 3 by Robert Louis Stevenson

Pearson English Readers have a great reputation as a ‘go-to book’ when working with adults. Like most readers they work in a graded system and they cover a range of titles, including Young Adult or Adult titles, making them suitable for adult literacy support.

Crow Girl Rises by Kate Cann

Crow Girl Rises is published by Barrington Stoke, a publishing company established by a mother-daughter team aimed at helping children and teens suffering with dyslexia. Innovations such as dyslexia-friendly font, tinted paper and short, engaging achievable books from an amazing range of authors have helped them win a number of publishing awards. This title is aimed at the Teen/Young Adult reader and deals with the teenage themes of love, parties and friendship (with a halloween theme).

Changing your world: how to make a difference in 2017

January 23, 2017Blog, Community, Leadership, Non-fiction#Nonfiction, #socialchangeRich Bowden

If you’re anything like me, your New Year’s resolutions are already in tatters. The standards of losing weight, doing more exercise and improving one’s diet have all been compromised by the Christmas/New Year festivities and holidays.

And the others? Well maybe next year.

However don’t despair. One resolution that everyone can still achieve is the determination to make a difference this year : to make 2017 the year you put back into your community and world, engage with people and help those worthy causes in your world and local community.

How best to go about this though? Where to start with your new altruistic approach?

Here are a few books that will help inspire you and make this year one where you make an important change in your world.

Change from within

Learn meditation. Charity begins at home is the saying and improving oneself is the first step to making a difference with others. So, why not learn meditation?

This ancient skill is proving more and more relevant (and useful) these days in the battle with the stress of modern day living. Learning to meditate is an important tool to be able to relax and focus and therefore learning how to be able to put back into our community.

Not only will learning to meditate allow you to relax, it will also help improve physical and mental health and boost creativity. Eric Harrison’s excellent book “Teach Yourself to Meditate” is an entry-level place to learn the art of meditation at your own pace with over 20 easy exercises for daily practice.

Change your community

Manage time better. One of the key factors in not being able to help out in your local community is time. You probably have work and family commitments and balancing this alone is a struggle in our time-poor society before you can consider volunteering for organisations.

However Katherine Noyes Campbell and Susan J. Ellis aptly-titled “The (Help) I-Don’t-Have-Enough-Time Guide to Volunteer Management”, will help you organise your time to build a volunteer management team and conquer those community activism goals that you’ve been aiming to do for some time.

The book is a must for the bookshelf of anyone who is looking to juggle work and family with volunteer pursuits. It contains a wealth of strategies and solutions that will help you become a more effective volunteer manager.

Social entrepreneurship. Whether you are changing the world or your local community, one effective way is to be a social entrepreneur.

David Bornstein’s How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas is both a guide and a source of inspiration for those looking at entering this sector. He shows that social entrepreneurs are people with amazing ideas that act to transform their societies.

Using the examples of a number of people who have changed their communities through ideas, the author shows the benefit that these people can make in their society. What better way to be inspired to change your own world than to read of the deeds of others?

Make the impossible happen. Sometimes trying to make a positive change in the world can seem overwhelming. There are so many needs in the community that choosing just one is difficult, if not impossible. It is common to be overwhelmed by our apparent insignificance in being able to act as a catalyst for change.

Not so, according to the groundbreaking book “Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed” by Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmermann and Michael Patton. The book shows the real driving force behind positive change is being able to harness the various forces that surround us rather than taking on all the tasks by yourself.

The authors use an array of examples from around the world that demonstrate this new, exciting way of moving positive change in our communities and the world.

Podcasting. Finally, have you considered taking your message to make a difference to potentially the world? Podcasting has increased in popularity in leaps and bounds as more folk look to download programs that can be accessed “on the go”: on mp3 files while on trains, buses, in the car or just walking or jogging.

Now you can bring positive change to the world through the power of the Internet. Choose the issue that you want to highlight: homelessness, organic food, equal rights, inequality and set up a website and podcast to deliver news items, content and podcasts to interested people.

Paul Colligan’s “How to Podcast 2016: 4 Simple Steps to Broadcast your Message to the Entire Connected Planet” is a must have ebook or book if you are thinking of reaching people in this way to change their lives. The easy-to-understand four step guide will get you on your way to connect your unique ideas to the world.

The author outlines the steps needed to deliver a quality podcast to the world without the need for expensive equipment or an extensive knowledge of computers. Perfect for the amateur looking to make a positive change.

How to be the best ‘you’, you can be.

January 5, 2017Blog, Non-fiction, Personal development#Nonfiction, #SelfhelpTeam Booko

I don’t know why but part of the process of starting a new year is determining how we can be fitter, smarter and happier individuals. A new year seems to offer opportunities and potential that the previous 9 or 10 months didn’t. Whether you are wanting to increase your confidence or work out which career best suits your strengths, here are our recommendations for some of the most popular self help guides on the market.

Create the Style You Crave on a Budget You Can Afford: The Sweet Spot Guide to Home Decor by Desha Peacock

If you are anything like me, you have spent time in friends’ homes and thought ‘how can I get my home to look like this?’

The starting point is, as Peacock explains, understanding and exploring your own unique sense of style. Then the fun part comes with working out how to bring it to life with a mixture of vintage, modern and op shop finds according to your budget. This book is a little different to most decorating books – it’s not filled with multi million dollar homes and budgets, but showcases the stories of everyday women with busy lives and limited budgets who have infused personal values, meaning, and style into making their home their own.

The Brain Fog Fix : Reclaim Your Focus, Memory and Joy in Just 3 Weeks by Mike Dow

Ever wander into a room and forget why you went in? No?? Lucky you!

Perhaps it’s a symptom of our lives becoming busier, more stressful and less….fun but many of us are wandering around in a ‘brain fog’. The good news? It’s not an irreparable condition and this book contains steps to help you reclaim your focus, memory and joy in under a month.

Want to become more ‘present’ and be able to fully participate in your life? This is the book for you.

Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Timothy Ferriss

This book has been one of our most ‘clicked’ titles on Booko for over a month now. It’s the output of Ferriss having interviewed nearly 200 world-class performers to determine what makes them successful.

In it, Ferriss discusses the routines, habits and tactics that have made these people so successful and shows you how you can implement these into your life to achieve success.

Strengths finder 2.0 by Tim Rath

If you are one of those people who are working at a job they like but don’t feel like it’s their passion or ‘calling’, this book is a great resource.

An updated version of the StrengthsFinder program developed by Gallup experts, Rath’s book helps readers to discover their distinct talents and strengths and how they can be translated into personal and career successes.

Resources include a 2.0 assessment with features that include a personalized Strengths Insight Report, an Action-Planning Guide, and a web-based Strengths Community.

The Confidence Gap by Dr Russ Harris

Sometimes all that separates us from others that are successful in their fields is the self confidence to make the most of opportunities available to us.

This is a hands-on, self-help guide to gaining long-lasting confidence and overcoming fear using mindfulness-based therapy. The author explains how many of us are playing the ‘confidence game’ using the wrong rules, and guides the reader through clear, simple exercises designed to help you manage difficult emotions such as anxiety and build genuine confidence.

Minimalism by Joshua Fields Millburn

The show I have been binge-watching on Netflix has been ‘The Minimalists’. Essentially, two guys (best friends) turned their backs on highly lucrative careers, reduced their ‘stuff’ to bare requirements and focused on what’s important.

If you find you are living pay-check to pay-check and consumed by what stuff you are going to purchase next, ‘Minimalism’ is a great read and focuses on 5 key themes that make a meaningful life: health, relationships, passion, growth and contribution. It contains actionable tasks to start creating more meaning and less ‘stuff’ in your life.

The Greatest Books On Decision Making

October 13, 2016Blog, Leadership, Personal developmentTeam Booko

Decision making…oh yes…for some it appears straight forward, easy and over in a flash. For others it’s a little more like running around in circles, going back and forward and not to mention the mental fatigue wondering if the right decision has been made. Luckily, there are a plethora of books on the market to arm us with tips and tricks and bring clarity to the method of decision making.

Blink by Malcom Gladwell

In his landmark bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionises the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant-in the blink of an eye-that actually aren’t as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work-in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Daniel Kahneman is a renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, who engages us in a lively conversation about how we think, revealing where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives–and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011, Thinking, Fast and Slow is destined to be a classic.

And in order to be fair…here’s a title that fights against eradicating our less decisive mindset…

Messy by Tim Harford

The urge to tidiness and decisiveness seems to be rooted deep in the human psyche. Many of us feel threatened by anything that is vague, unplanned, scattered around or hard to describe. We find comfort in having a script to rely on, a system to follow, in being able to categorise and file away. We all benefit from tidy organisation. A large library needs a reference system. Global trade needs the shipping container. Scientific collaboration needs measurement units. But have the forces of tidiness marched too far?

In MESSY, Tim Harford reveals how qualities we value more than ever – responsiveness, resilience and creativity – simply cannot be disentangled from the messy soil that produces them. This, then, is a book about the benefits of being messy: messy in our private lives; messy in the office, with piles of paper on the desk and unread spreadsheets; messy in the recording studio, the laboratory or in preparing for an important presentation; and messy in our approach to business, politics and economics, leaving things vague, diverse and uncomfortably made-up-on-the-spot. It’s time to rediscover the benefits of a little mess.

It would have been so much easier to have just grown up knowing how to make great decisions…so for those of you that are helping to shape the next generation, here are a few titles for children.

What Pet Should I Get? by Dr Seuss

What happens when a brother and sister visit a pet store to pick a pet? Naturally, they can’t choose just one! This tale captures a classic childhood moment, choosing a pet, and uses it to illuminate a very important life lesson. It is hard to make up your mind, but sometimes you just have to do it.

Have You Filled A Bucket Today? Carol McCloud

This book is brilliant. My children’s school uses this book within all classes to encourage positive behaviour. Through simple prose and vivid illustrations, this heartwarming book encourages positive behaviour as children see how rewarding it is to express daily kindness, appreciation, and love. Bucket filling and dipping are effective metaphors for understanding the effects of our actions and words on the well being of others and ourselves. This book helps children to stop and consider feelings of those around them before they decide to act.

Happy reading.

Great family board games to try

September 25, 2016Activities, Blog, Board Games, Children, Lifestyle#boardgames, #mindfulnessTeam Booko

When it comes to spending time together as a family, the habit is often to jump in the car and get ‘out and about.’ Children want unhurried time with their family where you can just take pleasure in each other’s company. Quite often, the actual activity isn’t that important. Bearing that in mind, board games have come back into vogue and also have a secondary benefit of teaching social skills such as how to win, lose, take turns and comprehend rules together. Some board games are particularly useful in boosting number, shape and letter recognition, as well as hand and eye coordination in children.

We may have been brought up on old favourites such as Monopoly, Cluedo and Scrabble as children, but there are a fantastic range of new board games on the market that you can play together, all available on Booko. Here are some of our recommendations:

Ticket To Ride – Europe

The aim of this game is for players to claim train routes between European cities in turn-of-the-Century Europe. There are different coloured routes linking cities such as Paris, Moscow and London . Players must collect train cards that match the colour of the route to win it. A light-hearted family game, this is best played with 4-5 players. This game is fun and easy to understand for younger players.

Carcassonne Over Hill and Dale Board Game

Part of the larger series of Carcassonne games, ‘Carcassonne Over Hill and Dale’ allows players to be farmers who care for animals on their large farms and cultivate the fruits and vegetables in their fields. Players must take turns selecting tiles and fit them with the current landscape. Players can claim control of roads or fields and win points when these are completed. This game is more of a relaxing, thinking game than high energy.

Pandemic Legacy

Pandemic Legacy has been reviewed against hundreds of board games and crowned ‘The Best Board Game Ever Made.’ Such an impressive title, but the subject matter is slightly depressing: the game is based on a fight between four disease specialists who travel the world trying to find a cure to four different diseases that threaten to bring the world to the brink of disaster. Each month will bring new surprises and your actions in each game will have repercussions on the next. The game is played co-op style and is won by curing diseases. The thinking man or woman’s board game.

TImeline: Music & Cinema

A card game played using 110 cards, ‘Timeline: Music and Cinema’ is based on players placing their cards in the correct chronological order of an historical event. The winner is the person who places all of their cards in the correct date order. Great for lovers of pop and historical culture. Ages 8+.

Mysterium

Mysterium is a cooperative game involving ghosts, a psychic and a murder. All players bar one are psychics, spending time in a haunted house after a murder has taken place. The ghost must guide the psychics to the correct murder weapon, crime scene and culprit as quickly as possible. The final round involves psychics deciphering a single dream to tell them who committed the murder. This game is loads of fun and an easy to play card game.

Dixit

Dixit Memories is the latest offering from the Internationally best-selling Dixit series. A card-based game for 3-6 players, there are 84 cards to the series. Each of the cards contains surrealist images from artists Carine Hinder and Jerome Pelissier. The cards contain images of exotic landscapes and beautiful creatures. The active player must provide a clue to what their chosen card is. The remaining players must then select one of their cards that best represents the clue from their pack. The players must then vote on what they believe the active player’s card is. We were enchanted by the beautiful artwork on the playing cards.

For more options on the board games available through Booko, visit our Pinterest page.

The best mindful eating cookbooks

September 19, 2016Clean Living, Personal development#Cookbooks, #mindfulnessTeam Booko

As we are packing more and more into each day, the act of eating is simply another task that is completed while we are online or engaged in another activity. As a result, we’re not fully aware of what food is being consumed.

The practice of mindful eating is about focusing and minimising distractions so you are paying full attention to the foods you are eating: by taking this more slowly you can really savour the food and pay attention to how much of it you are consuming. Reports indicate that many consumers base their food choices on taste first, followed by the price and finally the health benefits of the food. There are many resources that can support the practice of mindful eating, including cookbooks and guides that help us slow down and engage with our food. Here are some of our recommended reads for this genre:

Every bite affects the world by Catherine Verrall

Every Bite Affects the World is a guide that helps connect our bodies to the external world around us.

Verrall’s book helps us to be mindful of the connections between what we eat and the health of our bodies, as well as the health of the soil, water, climate, communities and farmers both here and far away.

Featuring many vegetarian recipes, ‘Every Bite’ also contains the imperative for meat eaters to obtain their food locally and from humanely raised sources.

Mindful Eating by Jan Chozen Bays

Ever feel that you really taste the first few bites of a meal and then, seemingly on auto pilot, find that your meal has been eaten and you have not even tasted the rest? This book is for you.

Drawing on recent research and integrating her experiences as a physician and meditation teacher, Dr. Jan Bays offers a clear presentation of what mindfulness is and how it can help with food issues. Particularly interesting are the 7 different types of hunger and how they impact your food choices: eyes, nose, mouth, stomach, mind, heart, and cell hunger.

Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink

This book is based around common sense thinking with respect to our eating but backs it up with research, which makes it a comprehensive read.

Every day, we each make around 200 decisions about eating. But studies have shown that 90% of these decisions are made without any conscious choice. Why? Wansink explains the hidden ‘persuaders’ that are used by restaurants and supermarkets to encourage you to eat more. Even music choice and the colour of a room can influence how much and how quickly you eat. ‘Mindless Eating’ will change the way you think about your next meal.

The Alkaline Cure: The remarkable 14-day diet and anti-ageing plan by Dr Stephan Domenig

Want to lose weight, improve your health and look younger, all in 14 days? Who doesn’t??

Our bodies function best with a pH balance of between 7.3 and 7.5. According to Dr Domenig, our modern lifestyles upset this balance by making our bodies too acidic. His book aims to rectify the balance.

‘The Alkaline Cure’ is a clinically tested fourteen-day plan designed to help establish acid-alkaline balance in the body. It includes daily menus and more than 40 recipes to give your body a kick start.

The Conscious Cook: Delicious Meatless Recipes That Will Change the Way You Eat by Tal Ronnen

A former steak-lover himself, Chef Tal struggled for years on a vegan diet that left him filled with cravings for meat and dairy. Frustrated by the limited options available and unwilling to sacrifice the delicious flavours he associated with eating meat, he created vegan meals that could hold their own at the centre of the plate. Chef Tal found that by applying traditional French culinary techniques to meatless cuisine, he was able to create delicious meals full of rich flavour.

The Oh She Glows Cookbook by Angela Liddon

‘Oh She Glows’ was written after Liddon struggled for over a decade with an eating disorder and ate predominantly low-calorie processed foods. Seeing the benefits of changing her diet to whole foods, she spent time perfecting cooking and eating the right foods in the right way.

‘Oh She Glows’ contains over 100 vegan recipes that are easy to perfect. Whether you are a vegan or you simply want to incorporate a few vegan meals into your week, Angela’s recipes are a must-have for anyone who longs to eat well, feel great, and simply glow!

What we can learn from the Slow Books movement

September 13, 2016Personal development#mindfulness, #Reading, #readingtips, #slowbooksKaren Seligman

source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Are you a booklover who struggles to find time to read? If, like me, your answer is yes, then the Slow Books movement is for you.

Slow Books is the extension of a philosophy first appearing as Slow Food. It encourages people to rediscover “old-fashioned reading” – sit down and read a book, uninterrupted, for at least 30 minutes each day. Such reading should be deliberate and reflective, not simply trying to finish as many pages as possible. Slow Books devotees suggest that slow reading reduces stress, as well as improve people’s ability to think, concentrate and empathise.

Slow Books ties in with digital detox; an opportunity to reduce mental clutter and to re-develop our attention spans and comprehension – known negative effects of our increasing reliance upon online reading. The Internet’s effect upon changes to our cognition is explored in Nicholas Carr’s provocative book The Shallows: how the internet is changing the way we read, think and remember.

Besides Slow Food and Slow Books, the Slow philosophy can also be applied to activities including travel, education and relationships. Carl Honoré’s In Praise of Slowness offers a compelling overview of the Slow ideal, including how it can be applied to daily life. This subversive book also spawned a popular TED talk. The guiding principle of the Slow Movement is the rejection of the “faster is better” mentality ; instead it advocates a mindful approach where we slow down to do something properly – savouring the process along the way.

And if you need any more encouragement, just remember that a recent study from Yale has found that regular book-readers live almost two years longer than non-readers.

How to get started: Ingredients for enjoying books, slowly

Create a comfortable reading spot – beanbag, armchair or in bed? An internet search on “reading nooks” will reveal gorgeous examples, from cosy to quirky to elegant.
Make time for reading – before it becomes a natural habit, use reminders to help you set aside a regular timeslot. You can even join a Slow Reading Club if you prefer to read in a social environment.
Find a great book – a gripping story that will draw you in and help you forget the passage of time. Start with a genre you enjoy, or try some current bestsellers such as The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, and Truly, Madly, Guilty by Liane Moriarty.

How to choose the right colouring book for you

September 5, 2016Activities, Personal development#colouring, #mindfulnessTeam Booko

Adult colouring books are now ubiquitous: you can find them everywhere from specialty bookstores to your local Coles or Kmart. The question is: are colouring books for grown-ups a trend or have they morphed into a mechanism for adults to cope with their increasingly busy lives? Psychologists have found that some of the qualities of adult colouring books prompt positive neurological responses in their patients: namely those of repetition, pattern and detail. If you haven’t joined the wave of this trend yet or you’re looking for some different options, here are our recommendations for colouring books for adults:

Animal Kingdom by Millie Marotta

This is a colouring book to keep and treasure forever. The wonderful illustrations from Millie Marotta’s Animal KIngdom are reproduced here on the thickest paper yet (180 gsm) on one side only, including five additional prints that can be pulled out of an envelope at the back of the book. This is an edition for all Millie fans and even those new to her work who want something special to record their creative outputs.

Colour Me Good London by I Love Mel

Perfect for London lovers or global travellers, this colouring book captures the key landmarks and the madcap culture that is London life. Over 16 pages, you can enjoy colouring landmarks such as Piccadilly Circus, well-known faces like Will and Kate and common sights such as a black cab and fish & chips.

Fill Me In by Moose Allain

Perfect for both adults and children alike, ‘Fill Me In’ invites people to draw, imagine and complete the dense line drawings. Why not complete your own city or draw your own comic book? Perfect for the doodler as well as the colouring-in fan, this book is fun to share with a friend, be they big or small.

Dream Cities by Rosie Goodwin and Alice Chadwick

Fancy going on a journey around the world in black and white? From the huge domes of Moscow to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, choose your colours, unleash your creativity and lose yourself in a wonderful coloured universe. As you focus on colouring in and forget the stresses of everyday life, you’ll find calm returning.

Animorphia by Kerby Rosanes

Welcome to this weird and wacky colouring challenge. There are pictures to colour in, drawings to complete, spaces to scribble in and lots of things to find in these super-detailed doodles by artist Kerby Rosanes. This book features unique and intricate ink drawings of incredible animals, shape-shifting aliens and breathtaking scenes. Readers will have to keep their eyes peeled for hidden treasures and creatures scattered throughout the pages.

Doodle Invasion by Zifflin and Kerby Rosanes

Described by some as a colouring book on steroids, this book is another great option for those that love doodling. Doodle Invasion is filled with 50 unique and extremely detailed works of art by the master of doodles Kerby Rosanes. With thick, single-sided pages perfect for markers, this book is perfect for the serious doodler. The intricate artworks are spectacularly drawn and will keep even the most serious doodler busy for hours.

If you’re interested in more of our colouring-in picks, check out the Pinterest board!