Do you ever think you're the only one making any sense? Or tried to reason with your partner with disastrous results? Do long, rambling answers drive you crazy? Or does your colleague's abrasive manner get your back up? You are not alone. After a disastrous meeting with a highly successful entrepreneur, who was genuinely convinced he was 'surrounded by idiots', communication expert and bestselling author, Thomas Erikson dedicated himself to understanding how people function and why we often struggle to connect with certain types of people. Originally published in Swedish in 2014 as Omgiven Av Idioter, Erikson's Surrounded by Idiots is already an international phenomenon, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide, of which over 750,000 copies have been sold in Sweden alone.

It offers a simple, yet ground-breaking method for assessing the personalities of people we communicate with - in and out of the office - based on four personality types (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow), and provides insights into how we can adjust the way(s) we speak and share information. Erikson will help you understand yourself better, hone communication and social skills, handle conflict with confidence, improve dynamics with your boss and team, and get the best out of the people you deal with and manage. He also shares simple tricks on body language, improving written communication and advice on when to back away or when to push on, and when to speak up or indeed shut up.

Packed with 'aha!' and 'oh no!' moments, Surrounded by Idiots will help you understand and influence those around you, even people you currently think are beyond all comprehension. And with a bit of luck you can also be confident that the idiot out there isn't you!

An insightful look at the science behind love, Attached offers readers a road map for building stronger, more fulfilling connections. Is there a science to love? In this groundbreaking book, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Amir Levine and psychologist Rachel S. F.

Heller reveal how an understanding of attachment theory - the most advanced relationship science in existence today - can help us find and sustain love. Pioneered by psychologist John Bowlby in the 1950s, the field of attachment explains that each of us behaves in relationships in one of three distinct ways:Anxious people are often preoccupied with their relationships and tend to worry about their partner's ability to love them back. Avoidant people equate intimacy with a loss of independence and constantly try to minimize closeness.

Secure people feel comfortable with intimacy and are usually warm and loving. With fascinating psychological insight, quizzes and case studies, Dr Amir Levine and Rachel Heller help you understand the three attachment styles, identify your own and recognize the styles of others so that you can find compatible partners or improve your existing relationship.

Today, our lives are dominated by an ideology of extreme competition and individualism. It misrepresents human nature, destroying hope and common purpose. But we cannot replace it without a positive vision, one that reengages people in politics and lights a path to a better world.

Urgent and passionate, George Monbiot shows how new findings in psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology cast humans in a radically different light: as the supreme altruists and cooperators. He shows how both democracy and economic life can be radically reorganised from the bottom up, enabling us to take back control and overthrow the forces that have thwarted our ambitions for a better society. Out of the Wreckage explains just how communities can be rebuilt with the help of a new "politics of belonging".

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H is for Hawk
by Helen Macdonald (Author)
Format:Paperback / softback 320 pages
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Imprint:Vintage
ISBN:9780099575450
Published:26 Feb 2015
Classifications:Wildlife: birds & birdwatching
Readership:General (US: Trade)
Weight:258g
Dimensions:196 x 129 x 21 (mm)
Pub. Country:United Kingdom
For sale in: United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Germany, France, (See full list)
Description
Discover the number one bestselling phenomenon that is a powerful and profound mediation on grief expressed through the trials of training a goshawk. As a child, Helen Macdonald was determined to become a falconer, learning the arcane terminology and reading all the classic books. Years later, when her father died and she was struck deeply by grief, she became obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk.

She bought Mabel for GBP800 on a Scottish quayside and took her home to Cambridge, ready to embark on the long, strange business of trying to train this wildest of animals. H is for Hawk is an unflinchingly honest account of Macdonald's struggle with grief during the difficult process of the hawk's taming and her own untaming. This is a book about memory, nature and nation, and how it might be possible to reconcile death with life and love.

'This beautiful book is at once heartfelt and clever in the way it mixes elegy with celebration' Andrew Motion
'It just sings. I couldn't stop reading' Mark Haddon, bestselling author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
Dazzling... Deeply affecting, utterly fascinating and blazing with love and intelligence' Financial Times

Yuval Noah HarariIt's a belief that unites the left and right, psychologists and philosophers, writers and historians. It drives the headlines that surround us and the laws that touch our lives.

From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Dawkins, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought. Human beings, we're taught, are by nature selfish and governed by self-interest. Humankind makes a new argument: that it is realistic, as well as revolutionary, to assume that people are good.

By thinking the worst of others, we bring out the worst in our politics and economics too. In this major book, internationally bestselling author Rutger Bregman takes some of the world's most famous studies and events and reframes them, providing a new perspective on the last 200,000 years of human history. From the real-life Lord of the Flies to the Blitz, a Siberian fox farm to an infamous New York murder, Stanley Milgram's Yale shock machine to the Stanford prison experiment, Bregman shows how believing in human kindness and altruism can be a new way to think - and act as the foundation for achieving true change in our society.

It is time for a new view of human nature.

'I can understand myself only in the light of inner happenings. It is these that make up the singularity of my life, and with these my autobiography deals' Carl Jung An eye-opening biography of one of the most influential psychiatrists of the modern age, drawing from his lectures, conversations, and own writings. In the spring of 1957, when he was eighty-one years old, Carl Gustav Jung undertook the telling of his life story.

Memories, Dreams, Reflections is that book, composed of conversations with his colleague and friend Aniela Jaffe, as well as chapters written in his own hand, and other materials. Jung continued to work on the final stages of the manuscript until shortly before his death on June 6, 1961, making this a uniquely comprehensive reflection on a remarkable life.

Why do human beings behave as they do?

'Awe-inspiring... You will learn more about human nature than in any other book I can think of' Henry Marsh, bestselling author of Do No Harm
One of the best scientist-writers of our time' Oliver Sacks

We are capable of savage acts of violence but also spectacular feats of kindness: is one side of our nature destined to win out over the other? Every act of human behaviour has multiple layers of causation, spiralling back seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, even centuries, right back to the dawn of time and the origins of our species. In the epic sweep of history, how does our biology affect the arc of war and peace, justice and persecution? How have our brains evolved alongside our cultures? This is the exhilarating story of human morality and the science underpinning the biggest question of all: what makes us human?'

Drawing on deep scientific research and Dr Gabor Mate's acclaimed clinical work, When the Body Says No provides the answers to critical questions about the mind-body link - and the role that stress and our emotional makeup play in an array of common diseases. When the Body Says No:- Explores the role of the mind-body link in conditions and diseases such as arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, irritable bowel syndrome and multiple sclerosis. - Shares dozens of enlightening case studies and stories, including those of people such as Lou Gehrig (ALS), Betty Ford (breast cancer), Ronald Reagan (Alzheimer's), Gilda Radner (ovarian cancer) and Lance Armstrong (testicular cancer)- Reveals 'The Seven A's of Healing': principles in healing and the prevention of illness from hidden stress

Scattered Minds explodes the myth of attention deficit disorder as genetically based - and offers real hope and advice for children and adults who live with the condition. Gabor Mate is a revered physician who specializes in neurology, psychiatry and psychology - and himself has ADD. With wisdom gained through years of medical practice and research, Scattered Minds is a must-read for parents - and for anyone interested how experiences in infancy shape the biology and psychology of the human brain.

Scattered Minds:- Demonstrates that ADD is not an inherited illness, but a reversible impairment and developmental delay- Explains that in ADD, circuits in the brain whose job is emotional self-regulation and attention control fail to develop in infancy - and why- Shows how 'distractibility' is the psychological product of life experience- Allows parents to understand what makes their ADD children tick, and adults with ADD to gain insights into their emotions and behaviours- Expresses optimism about neurological development even in adulthood- Presents a programme of how to promote this development in both children and adults

To heal addiction, you have to go back to the start... Featured on Russell Brand's podcast Under the Skin Dr Gabor Mate is one of the world's most revered thinkers on the psychology of addiction. His radical findings - based on decades of work with patients challenged by catastrophic drug addiction and mental illness - are reframing how we view all human development.

In this award-winning modern classic, Gabor Mate takes a holistic and compassionate approach to addiction, whether to alcohol, drugs, sex, money or anything self-destructive. He presents it not as a discrete phenomenon confined to a weak-willed few, but as a continuum that runs through (and even underpins) our society; not as a medical 'condition', but rather the result of a complex interplay of personal history, emotional development and brain chemistry. Distilling cutting-edge research from around the world, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts avoids glib self-help remedies, instead promoting self-understanding as the first key to healing and wellness.

Blending personal stories and science with positive solutions, and written in spellbinding prose, it is a must-read that will change how you see yourself, others and the world. 10th anniversary edition, updated with new chapter on the Opiod crisis

'A tour de force.' - THE SECRET BARRISTER'
Clear-eyed and hard-headed. His defence of liberalism is political writing at its most urgent and engaging.' - NICK COHEN, OBSERVER COLUMNIST
'Dunt's gift for making complicated issues comprehensible is second to none. Courageous.' - JAMES O'BRIEN, LBC

The authoritarian right is taking control. From Viktor Orban in Hungary, to Brexit in Britain, to Donald Trump in America, nationalists have launched an all-out assault on liberal values. In this groundbreaking new book, political journalist Ian Dunt tells the story of liberalism, from its birth in the fight against absolute monarchy to the modern-day resistance against the new populism. In a soaring narrative that stretches from the battlefields of the English Civil War to the 2008 financial crash and beyond, this vivid, page-turning book explains the political ideas which underpin the modern world.

But it is also something much more than that - it is a rallying cry for those who still believe in freedom and reason.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Give the gift of inspiration: an essential guide to living wisely and well, no matter what challenges the world throws at you - from Alain de Botton, the bestselling author of The Consolations of Philosophy, The Art of Travel and The Course of Love.

This is a book about everything you were never taught at school. It's about how to understand your emotions, find and sustain love, succeed in your career, fail well and overcome shame and guilt. It's also about letting go of the myth of a perfect life in order to achieve genuine emotional maturity.

Written in a hugely accessible, warm and humane style, The School of Life is the ultimate guide to the emotionally fulfilled lives we all long for - and deserve. This book brings together ten years of essential and transformative research on emotional intelligence, with practical topics including: - how to understand yourself- how to master the dilemmas of relationships- how to become more effective at work - how to endure failure- how to grow more serene and resilient Praise for Alain de Botton:'What he has managed to do is remarkable: to help us think better so that we may live better lives' Irish Times'A serious and optimistic set of practical ideas that could improve and alter the way we live' Jeanette Winterson, The Times'Alain de Botton likes to take big, complex subjects and write about them with thoughtful and deceptive innocence' Observer

Yes, there actually is a way to let everything become your teacher, to let life itself, and everything that unfolds within it, the "full catastrophe" of the human condition in the words of Zorba the Greek, shape your ongoing development and maturation. Millions have followed this path to greater sanity, balance, and well-being, often in the face of huge stress, pain, uncertainty, sorrow, and illness.
In his landmark book, Full Catastrophe Living, Jon Kabat-Zinn shared this innovative approach, known as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), with the world. Now, in this companion volume, 100 pointers from that groundbreaking work have been carefully selected to inspire you to embrace what is deepest and best and most beautiful in yourself.

Whether you are trying to learn patience, cope with pain, deal with the enormous stress and challenges of the age we live in, improve your relationships, or free yourself from destructive emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, these deceptively simple meditations will remind you that you have deep inner resources to draw upon, the most important of which is the present moment itself. Regardless of your age or whether you are familiar with the healing power of mindfulness, this insightful, inspirational guide will help you to honor, embrace, learn from, and grow into each moment of your life.

'Thich Nhat Hanh's work has proven to be the antidote to our modern pain and sorrows' Ocean Vuong

Mindfulness recognizes anger, is aware of its presence, accepts and allows it to be there. In this transformative book, world renowned spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh shares wisdom and practical advice to teach you how to transform your relationships, focus your energy and rejuvenate the parts of yourself that have been lost to anger. This is your guide to achieving inner peace, healing and harmony.

'The monk who taught the world mindfulness' Time

Break free from anxiety and be free to live a full, happy life with internationally renowned psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr Judson Brewer - based on over 20 years of research and his simple habit-breaking programme. We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic and political upheaval or as personal as having kids at home fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control.

But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone. We think of anxiety as everything from mild unease to full-blown panic. But it's also what drives the addictive behaviours and bad habits we use to cope (e.g. stress eating, procrastination, doomscrolling and social media). Plus, anxiety lives in a part of the brain that resists rational thought. So we get stuck in anxiety habit loops that we can't think our way out of or use willpower to overcome.

Dr. Brewer teaches us map our brains to discover our triggers, defuse them with the simple but powerful practice of curiosity, and to train our brains using mindfulness and other practices that his lab has proven can work. Distilling more than 20 years of research and hands-on work with thousands of patients, including Olympic athletes and coaches, and leaders in government and business, Dr.

Brewer has created a clear, solution-oriented programme that anyone can use to feel better - no matter how anxious they feel.

Nature's Lessons in Healing Trauma...

Waking the Tiger offers a new and hopeful vision of trauma. It views the human animal as a unique being, endowed with an instinctual capacity. It asks and answers an intriguing question: why are animals in the wild, though threatened routinely, rarely traumatized? By understanding the dynamics that make wild animals virtually immune to traumatic symptoms, the mystery of human trauma is revealed.

Waking the Tiger normalizes the symptoms of trauma and the steps needed to heal them. People are often traumatized by seemingly ordinary experiences. The reader is taken on a guided tour of the subtle, yet powerful impulses that govern our responses to overwhelming life events. To do this, it employs a series of exercises that help us focus on bodily sensations. Through heightened awareness of these sensations trauma can be healed.

For the past twenty-five years, Belinda Kirk's professional life has revolved around adventure. She's seen it change people first hand: turning the timid into the confident, the addicted into the recovering, and the lost into the intentionally wandering. As a force for change, adventure can be powerful like few others.

This book is about this transformational power, and the first to explore why adventure is essential to our wellbeing. From managing anxiety and overcoming fear, to finding self-worth and building interpersonal connections, to being happier, healthier, and more playful, ADVENTURE REVOLUTION draws lessons from more than two decades of experience leading groups into the wilderness around the globe. Illuminated with Belinda's personal narrative, her own research with modern hunter-gatherers, and the latest findings in neuroscience and behaviour, ADVENTURE REVOLUTION presents a compelling case for ditching the living room in favour of a longer, happier, and more adventurous life

Mindfulness is considered the heart of Buddhist meditation. But its essence is universal and of deep practical benefit to everyone. In Wherever You Go, There You Are, Jon Kabat-Zinn maps out a simple path for cultivating mindfulness in our lives, and awakening us to the unique beauty and possibilities of each present moment.

Since its first publication in 1994 (as Mindfulness Meditation for Beginners), this book has changed lived across the globe. This tenth anniversary edition of the original classic text, featuring a new afterword by the author, brings this wonderful book with an even larger audience.

Soul initiation is an essential spiritual adventure that most of the world has forgotten - or not yet discovered. Here, visionary ecopsychologist Bill Plotkin maps this journey, one that has not been previously illuminated in the contemporary Western world and yet is vital for the future of our species and our planet. Based on the experiences of thousands of people, this book provides phase-by-phase guidance for the descent to soul - the dissolution of current identity; the encounter with the mythopoetic mysteries of soul; and the metamorphosis of the ego into a cocreator of life-enhancing culture. Plotkin illustrates each phase of this riveting and sometimes hazardous odyssey with fascinating stories from many people, including those he has guided. Throughout he weaves an in-depth exploration of Carl Jung's Red Book - and an innovative framework for understanding it.

For over 2000 years, Buddhist psychology has offered invaluable insights into the nature of the heart and mind, and transformed the way many people around the world handle life's challenges. But the ancient texts on which these remarkable teachings are based can be difficult to penetrate for modern seekers. Now, drawing on his experience as a monk trained in Thailand, Burma and India, as well as his expert psychology practice, Jack Kornfield provides an accessible, definitive guide to Buddhism for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.

This important new work is in the tradition of his classic works A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, offering practical tools to coping with modern life and dealing with emotions such as fear, anger and shame. Kornfield also shares the illuminating stories of his students and fellow practitioners, as well as his own journey towards enlightenment, including his recovery from a violence-filled childhood. Here is a rare treasure that will give readers greater access to the secret beauty within - and without.

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A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century : Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life
by Heather Heying (Author) , Bret Weinstein (Author)

Format:Hardback 352 pages
Publisher:Swift Press
Imprint:Swift Press
ISBN:9781800750746
Published:16 Sep 2021
Classifications:Popular science
Readership:General (US: Trade)
Weight:530g
Dimensions:162 x 246 x 33 (mm)
Pub. Country:United Kingdom
For sale in: United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Germany, France, (See full list)
Description
A bold, provocative exploration of the tension between our evolutionary history and our modern woes - and what we can do about itWe are living through the most prosperous age in all of human history, yet we are listless, divided and miserable. Wealth and comfort are unparalleled, but our political landscape is unmoored, and rates of suicide, loneliness and chronic illness continue to skyrocket. How do we explain the gap between these truths? And how should we respond?For evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein, the cause of our woes is clear: the modern world is out of sync with our ancient brains and bodies.

We evolved to live in clans, but today many people don't even know their neighbours' names. Survival in our earliest societies depended on living in harmony with nature, but today the food we eat, the work we do - even the light we absorb - is radically different from what our minds and bodies evolved to expect. In this book, Heying and Weinstein draw on decades of their work teaching in college classrooms and exploring earth's most biodiverse ecosystems to confront today's pressing social ills - from widespread sleep deprivation and dangerous diets to damaging parenting styles and backward education practices.

A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century outlines a science-based worldview that will empower you to live a better, wiser life.

In A Book of Secrets, internationally bestselling author Derren Brown considers the value and benefit of having pain in our lives, asking: * Is it in those moments that we are faced with adversity that we find the most lasting rewards? * Do we spend so much time trying to make sense of our lives that we forget what makes us wonderfully us? * What are the secrets that show us how to meet challenging moments head on?In thirteen fascinating chapters, Derren takes us back to his own scenes of childhood humiliation, to lonely evenings on tour, to being paralysed by shyness at a dinner party hosted by famous guests, to navigating middle age and to finding love. By sharing his own moments of anger, frustration, loneliness and loss, Derren reveals how it's possible to find consolation and compassion in our most challenging times.

A Book of Secrets is a profound and practical guide to finding value in sadness and strength from what life throws at us - it is from the difficulty of life that we find meaning and grow.

THE LANDMARK INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER ON MINDFULNESS, MEDITATION AND HEALING

Stress. It can sap our energy, undermine our health and even shorten our lives. It makes us more vulnerable to anxiety and depression, disconnection and disease.

Based on Jon Kabat-Zinn's renowned mindfulness-based stress reduction programme, this classic, ground-breaking work which gave rise to a whole new field in medicine and psychology - shows you how to use medically proven mind-body approaches derived from meditation and yoga to counteract stress, establish greater balance of body and mind, and stimulate well-being and healing. By engaging in these mindfulness practices and integrating them into your life from moment to moment and from day to day, you can learn to manage chronic pain, promote optimal healing, reduce anxiety and feelings of panic, and improve the overall quality of your life, relationships, and social networks. Full Catastrophe Living is a book for the young and the old, the well and the ill, and anyone trying to live a healthier and saner life in our fast-paced world.

'To say that this wise, deep book is helpful to those who face the challenges of human crisis would be a vast understatement. It is essential, unique, and, above all, fundamentally healing.' Donald M. Berwick, president emeritus and senior fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement