Personal Wisdom

Compelling and straight-shooting wisdom for coping with whatever challenges life throws at us from the New York Times best-selling author of Unfu*k Yourself. In Unfu*k Yourself, Gary John Bishop taught millions of listeners how to silence the negative, self-sabotaging voice in their head to thrive. In Wise as Fu*k, he expands on his ideas, redefining what it means to be wise and showing how to tackle problems and improve our lives and those of others.

Sun Tzu's Art of War for Women helps women find the peaceful path to success through strategies made famous in the ancient Chinese text, The Art of War. Female wisdom, or common sense, is about avoiding needless confrontation, conserving energy for the things that matter, and seeking an outcome in which everyone wins. And for women, as for Sun Tzu, success doesn't come simply from knowing what to do, but from knowing who you are.

When award-winning economist Emily Oster was a mom-to-be herself, she evaluated the data behind the accepted rules of pregnancy, and discovered that most are often misguided and some are just flat-out wrong. Debunking myths and explaining everything from the real effects of caffeine to the surprising dangers of gardening, Expecting Better is the book for every pregnant woman who wants to enjoy a healthy and relaxed pregnancy—and the occasional glass of wine.

Like a constant friend, this collection of meditations is a source of strength and reassurance designed to speak to women like you, women in relationships with angry and controlling men. It helps you to digest what is happening a piece at a time, so you can gain clarity, safety, and freedom.

A broken heart is traumatic. When a relationship ends, the anguish and disappointment can be devastating. Typical recommendations to keep busy, move on, repair your hidden flaws, and then forget about it are not helpful. In these chapters, relationship writer Susan Piver reveals that heartbreak actually creates an opportunity for genuine emotional and spiritual transformation, enabling you to emerge on the other side stronger, softer, and capable of loving with renewed confidence.

When a loved one dies, the pain of loss can feel unbearable—especially in the case of a traumatizing death that leaves us shouting, “NO!” with every fiber of our body. The process of grieving can feel wild and nonlinear—and often lasts for much longer than other people, the nonbereaved, tell us it should. Organized into fifty-two short chapters, Bearing the Unbearable is a companion for life’s most difficult times, revealing how grief can open our hearts to connection, compassion, and the very essence of our shared humanity.

In an irresistible invitation to lighten up, look around, and live an unscripted life, a Stanford University professor and master of the art of improvisation explains how to adopt the attitudes and techniques used by generations of musicians and actors. These secrets are currently being taught to entrepreneurs, engineers, and first responders in a crisis as well as housewives and Alzheimer caregivers. Let's face it: Life is something we all make up as we go along.

Join author Beth Kempton on a life-changing pilgrimage through rural Japan in search of answers to some of life's biggest questions: How do we find calm in the chaos and beauty in the darkness? How do we let go of the past and stop worrying about the future? What can an awareness of impermanence teach us about living well?

In our continuous effort to be more productive and ever progressive, we tend to lose sight of the beautiful side of existence—its simplicity. A Fistful of Wisdom reminds us that life is playful and it is demanding, but it is also a gift, a precious and priceless blessing. The more we learn to appreciate the beauty in simple things, the easier our survival. This book reminds us to observe and appreciate each passing moment and experience the pure joy of just being here and now.

Digging deep into her strengths, her failures and her losses, Jann Arden brings us an inspiring account of how she has surprised herself, in her fifties, by at last becoming completely her own person. Like many women, it took Jann a long time to realize that trying to be pleasing and likeable and beautiful in the eyes of others was a loser's game. Letting it rip, and damning the consequences, is not only liberating, it's a hell of a lot of fun: "Being the age I am—that so many women are—is just the best time of my life."

Most of us live in a constant state of fear - of our past, of illness and aging and death, and of losing the things we treasure most. But it doesn't have to be this way, promises Zen master and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Drawing on a lifetime of mindfulness in action, Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how to use the practice of living in the present to acknowledge and embrace our fears, recognize their origins, and render them powerless. The world-renowned Zen teacher guides us through practical exercises for transforming fear into clarity.

Few subjects are as compelling-or as endlessly variable-as love and marriage. The Bible is filled with references to husbands and wives, from the story of Adam and Eve to advice in the New Testament, each open to interpretation. In The Meaning of Marriage, Timothy Keller, pastor of New York's Redeemer Presbyterian Church and bestselling author of The Reason for God, uses the scriptures as his guide to show readers what God's call to marriage is, and why this is such a powerful call.

Since 1994, New York Times best seller The Oz Principle has been the bible of business accountability, helping countless companies build dynamic, creative workplaces. Now Roger Connors and Tom Smith show readers how to use accountability to strengthen personal relationships, inspire and motivate their children, increase their value on the job, improve their health and financial well-being, and attain every other major goal.

Stress. It is everywhere around us. Even worse, it gets inside us: Sapping our energy, undermining our health, and making us more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and disease. Now, based on Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s renowned mindfulness-based stress reduction program, this groundbreaking audiobook shows you how to use natural, medically proven methods to soothe and heal your body, mind, and spirit. Full Catastrophe Living is an audiobook for the young and the old, the well, the ill, and anyone trying to live a healthier and saner life in today’s world.

The secret behind France's astonishingly well-behaved children is here. When American journalist Pamela Druckerman has a baby in Paris, she doesn't aspire to become a "French parent". French parenting isn't a known thing, like French fashion or French cheese. Even French parents themselves insist they aren't doing anything special. But French children are far better behaved and more in command of themselves than American kids....

Napoleon Hill’s The Language of Thought is your guide to understanding, generating, and directing more powerful thoughts so that you can live and work with more intention, joy, and success. The single most powerful tool available to human beings is not money, physical strength, influence, or a network; it is the mind. Our thoughts determine our outcomes in life, as well as our ability to enjoy the journey. In order to harness our thoughts to create material success, we do not require any personal advantage such as wealth, connections, or education.

Catherine, a top businesswoman with a young family, is the sister of Julian Mantle, the monk who sold his Ferrari. After being involved in a life-threatening accident, Catherine realizes that regardless of how high she has risen in the business world - and of her achievements and accolades - her family is the most important thing in her life. Through a series of conversations with her brother, Catherine learns how to reset the focus of her life onto her family - and how living with that culture engenders business success, too.

A lack of self-confidence is one of the greatest maladies of today’s world, one that is responsible for the rampant helplessness, lack of self-control, aimlessness, procrastination, and despair that characterize modern society. But as the venerable steel magnate Andrew Carnegie emphasized to Hill, “Confidence is a state of mind, necessary to succeed, and the starting point of developing self-confidence is definiteness of purpose.”

Everyone has issues. Erase your pain, whatever it is. Inside you is the power to heal yourself. The authors have done it as have countless others around the globe; YOU CAN TOO! Discover personal stories of overcoming trauma and pain; learn 23 tools for healing your own broken heart and traumas, small or large. Maybe you have tried other ways but are disappointed in the results. This system of stories, tools and Coaches and Mentors on call, will help you feel hopeful about change.

Most of us want to succeed. And most of us want to do the right thing. But we often forget that the way tosucceed is by doing the right thing, as Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe remind us in Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing. When the institutions that shape our society need to change, the people in them typically either make more rules or offer smarter incentives.