Alternative Psychology

Few drugs in history have generated as much controversy as MDMA—or held as much promise. Once vilified as a Schedule I substance that would supposedly eat holes in users’ brains, MDMA (also known as Molly or Ecstasy) is now being hailed as a therapeutic agent that could transform the field of mental health and outpace psilocybin and ketamine as the first psychedelic approved for widespread clinical use. In I Feel Love, science journalist Rachel Nuwer separates fact from fantasy, hope from hype, in the drug’s contested history and still-evolving future.

Divided into three parts like a traditional Buddhist text, Joyful Wisdom identifies the sources of our unease, describes methods of meditation that enable us to transform our experience into deeper insight, and applies these methods to common emotional, physical, and personal problems. The result is a work at once wise, anecdotal, funny, informed, and graced with the author's irresistible charm.

Are you an overthinker? You're not alone! In a world full of deadlines, and technology, and constant stress, anxiety sometimes feels inevitable. But what if you learned to ride the wave of anxiety, instead of getting lost in it? Get Out of My Head is here to help, providing guidance and inspiration for anxious overthinkers of all sorts. This compact, illustrated book offers soothing techniques for understanding anxiety and moving through the traps of overthinking.

Dive into five hours of guided meditations that are all about boosting your focus, clearing up your mind, and helping you stay attentive for longer. Welcome to Peaceful Valley Institute. We're passionate about crafting meditation and hypnosis sessions that are designed to give your mind a little extra push, making you think more clearly and sharply.

One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps has established itself as a classic, a bellwether of the most significant recovery movement of the 21st century, combining Buddhist mindfulness practices with a 12-step recovery program.

The Abhidharma, one of the three major text collections of the original Buddhist canon, frames the psychological system of Buddhism, explaining the workings of reality and the nature of the human mind. Because of its complexity, the Abhidharma has traditionally been reserved only for academic or monastic study; now, for the first time, clinical psychologist Beth Jacobs brings this dynamic body of work to general listeners, using practical explanation, personal stories, and vivid examples to gently untangle the technical aspects of the Abhidharma.

Author Corinne Zupko undertook her study of psychology out of necessity when debilitating anxiety threatened to derail her life. Seeking ways to do more than temporarily alleviate her symptoms, Corinne began to study A Course in Miracles (ACIM), mindfulness meditation, and the latest therapeutic approaches for treating anxiety. In From Anxiety to Love, she shares what she learned and gently guides you through the process, helping you undo anxiety-based thinking and fostering mindful shifts in your thoughts and actions.

People with harm OCD - a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) - suffer from violent, unwanted thoughts and a crippling fear of harming others. They may also resist seeking treatment for fear of being judged. In Overcoming Harm OCD, psychotherapist and OCD expert Jon Hershfield offers powerful cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness tools to help listeners break the endless cycle of pain and self-doubt caused by their disorder, and overcome their most debilitating symptoms.

I constantly fought everything going on in my life with my mind. Day to day stressors like traffic, the mean lady at the gas station with the bad breath that I had to see every morning, and the long hours put in at work were enough to drain me. My boss, with his long nose hair, breathing down my neck about my productivity level was enough to deplete a person every day. I could not even enjoy a second of my day because I was lost in worry and stress over what was going to happen next and what I could do to control it.

In our busy, get-it-done-now culture, stress has become the new normal - a normal that's embedding itself into our minds and our bodies. If left unchecked, stress can dictate how we think, feel, and act. Overwhelm, anxiousness, malaise, and unease are a daily experience. And over time, these stress-reactions turn into habits, leaving us stuck in a mental and physical rut. So, how can you soothe stress before it becomes your go-to? In this practical and accessible guide, you'll find powerful and effective tools for calming stress in both mind and body.

In his long-awaited book, Rewilding, Kripalu director Micah Mortali brings together yoga, mindfulness, wilderness training, and ancestral skills to create a unique guide for reigniting your primal energy - your undomesticated true self - and deepening your connection with the living earth. For hundreds of thousands of years, humans lived intimately with the earth. We were in the wild and of the wild. Today, we live mostly urban lives - and our vital wildness has gone dormant.

After 15 years of practice and frustrated by seeing his patients getting sicker and sicker, Dr. Brian Prax dove head first into the study of Functional Neurology. In this easy-to-listen manual, he describes many of the causes of peripheral neuropathy which affects 24 million Americans every year. This step-by-step guide outlines his natural system that is reversing neuropathy with a success rate of over 85% in a concise and straightforward format.

Find everyday calmness and clarity with simple mindfulness meditations and exercises. Mindfulness meditations are a great way to cultivate awareness and acceptance of the here and now - Practicing Mindfulness makes it easy and accessible with 75 evidence-based exercises designed to bring calmness and compassion into your day-to-day.

Discover the original, instinctive, nonreligious form of meditation that has been lost to the world. Richard L. Haight, award-winning author of The Unbound Soul and master of four samurai arts, shares the best-kept secret in self-improvement, cognitive development, and stress relief, which he calls the "warrior's meditation".

The more we learn about psychedelics, the less we seem to understand them. . . . In this engrossing, sometimes hilarious, always dramatic chronicle, a neuropsychologist deflates the hype, explores the limitless possibilities, and reveals a much-needed perspective about psychedelics, giving us a scientist’s first-person experiment with ten different compounds in ten different settings.

Drawing on techniques and perspectives from two seemingly different traditions, this second edition of the self-help classic Calming Your Anxious Mind offers you a powerful and profound approach to overcoming anxiety, fear, and panic. From the evidence-based tradition of Western medicine, learn the role your thoughts and emotions play in anxiety. And from the tradition of meditation and the inquiry into meaning and purpose, discover your own potential for presence and stillness, kindness and compassion.

Imagine you're sitting on a cushion with your legs crossed, ready to tap into unlimited joy. There's just one problem: You can't get comfortable (let alone still), and your head is full of way too many thoughts. The problem is not with meditation, or you, though - the issue may be with your approach. When properly understood and practiced, meditation should feel easy, calming, and comfortable. In Bliss More, maverick instructor Light Watkins provides the tools for making it E.A.S.Y. (Embrace, Accept, Surrender, Yield).

Despite the billions spent on prescription anti-depressant drugs and psychotherapy, people everywhere continue to grapple with depression. James Gordon, one of the nation's most respected psychiatrists, now offers a practical and effective way to get unstuck. Drawing on 40 years of pioneering work, Unstuck is Gordon's seven-stage program for relief through food and nutritional supplements, Chinese medicine; movement, exercise, and dance; psychotherapy, meditation, and guided imagery; and spiritual practice.

Hope for all those who want to meditate but feel they can't because they think too much: a remedy. Making friends with the infamous "monkey mind" to make it a means for healing and awakening.

When Columbia University doctor Kelli Harding began her clinical practice, she never intended to explore the invisible factors behind our health. But then there were the rabbits. In 1978, a seemingly straightforward experiment designed to establish the relationship between high blood cholesterol and heart health in rabbits discovered that kindness — in the form of a particularly nurturing post-doc who pet and spoke to the lab rabbits as she fed them — made the difference between a heart attack and a healthy heart.