Elevated Existence September 2018 Spiritual and Self-Help Book Picks

Posted on by Tammy

Each month, a ton of new spiritual and self-help books hit the market. It’s easy to get overwhelmed or miss out on some new releases.

I created Elevated Existence Monthly Book Picks to help narrow down your search, and make sure you don’t miss some great options!

Here are the picks for September 2018. They are listed below in alphabetical order. Click on each title to go directly to Amazon and find out more about the book.

“Chris Beat Cancer: A Comprehensive Plan for Healing Naturally,” by Chris Wark
Colon cancer survivor who opted against chemotherapy and radiation provides the toxin-free diet, lifestyle, and therapy guidelines he used to help himself heal in this new book. Two days before Christmas and at 26 years old, Chris Wark was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. He had surgery to remove a golf ball-sized tumor and a third of his colon. Instead of the traditional chemotherapy, he decided to radically change his diet and lifestyle in order to promote health and healing in his body. Readers will follow his healing journey, as he exposes the corruption and ineffectiveness of the medical and cancer industries, sharing the strategies he and many others have used to heal cancer. These include adopting the Beat Cancer Mindset; radical diet and lifestyle changes; and mental, emotional and spiritual healing, as well as advanced integrative therapies.

“The New Relationship Blueprint: 10 Steps to Reframe the Way You Love,” by Nancy Levin
Are you ready to turn the spotlight on your love life and move to the next level–something more fulfilling than you’ve had before? Nancy Levin show readers how to build relationships better from the ground up, or perform some skillful renovations.

Whether single and looking for a new relationship; happy alone, but looking for something in the future; divorced and determined to never have a relationship; or recovering from the death of a partner. And, it’s also for those who are in an unsatisfying relationship looking for a refresh.

Based on the essential truth that relationship is first and foremost where we learn to love ourselves, Levin draws on many of the same exercises used with her clients, as she walks readers through a 10-step process to work through emotional and psychological roadblocks to self-love and the relationship they truly desire.

“The Hashimoto’s Healing Diet: Anti-inflammatory Strategies for Losing Weight, Boosting Your Thyroid and Getting Your Energy Back,” by Mark Ryan, L.A.C
If you’ve been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, it can be hard to know where to start with your diet. In this book, Marc Ryan, L.Ac., will help you deal with the changes frequently involved with chronic conditions like Hashimoto’s. He shows how to use dietary inventions strategically to adapt the plan in different circumstances, and guides readers through complications associated with the disorder — along with the recommended diet and treatment protocols for each one, including Candida, histamine intolerance, intestinal problems, Epstein-Barr virus, and more.

In much the same way he explored the five elements of thyroid health in his first book, “How to Heal Hashimoto’s,” he explores the five elements of digestive health here (earth, metal, wood, water and fire). Readers will also learn a brief history of Chinese medicine and “yin fire,” one of the most important concepts in internal diseases, and an action plan for readers to continue on their journey toward total wellness.

“Practicing Mindfulness: 75 Essential Meditations to Reduce Stress, Improve Mental Health and Find Peace in Everyday,” by Matthew Sockolov
With over 75 essential meditations—that take between 5-20 minutes from start to finish — this book is an approachable way to easily apply mindfulness in your day-to-day life routine.

Reduce stress, improve mental health, and stay present no matter what the day holds when you practice mindfulness, with clear explanations of what mindfulness is, along with why and how it helps in your day-to-day life; meditations organized by difficulty; advice for overcoming obstacles to your mindfulness practice, including how to deal with distracting noises or fight off sleepiness.

“The Tapping Solution to Create Lasting Change: A Guide to Get Unstuck and Find Your Flow,” by Jessica Ortner
Why do we fear the unknown so intensely that we’re willing to shy away from our deepest desires and settle for playing small? Why do we get enthused when we first start something, only to burn out the moment things feel challenging? Why does getting what we want sometimes feel just as scary as not getting what we want? And why, even with new outcomes we desire, do we often struggle to sustain them and instead slip back into old, self-sabotaging patterns?

Jessica Ortner asked herself these question and realized it all came down to change — an unavoidable constant in our lives. In this new book, the latest in the best-selling Tapping Solution series, she shares the lessons she’s learned about what it feels like to flow through change and how to create positive, lasting change in ways that feel both authentic and empowering.

Readers will learn how to use Tapping (also known as Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT) to navigate the unknown with new energy, hope and an open heart, covering topics such as fnding our way through fear and uncertainty; discerning whether our inner critical voice is friend or foe; learning to release the doubts and fears that cloud our judgment; getting past procrastination; and letting go of “goals” and finding a new way to focus on what you desire.

“The Ultimate Guide to Chakras: The Beginner’s Guide to Balancing, Healing and Unblocking Your Chakras for Health and Positive Energy,” by Athena Perrakis
Our chakras are the power centers that translate between the seen world of the physical body and the unseen world of energy, and they hold the key to our well-being.

Athena Perrakis, leading metaphysical teacher and creator of the world’s largest online metaphysical resource website, SageGoddess.com, addresses the nine major chakras we can tap into to balance, heal and manifest. This guide explains how and why different crystals, essential oils, and sacred plants help to support each chakra.

Each chapter includes exercises for accessing the energy of each chakra, including meditations, journal exercises and working with goddesses and spirit guides. Readers will even learn how to create a dedicated chakra altar.

“Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying,” by Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush
Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush began their friendship more than four decades ago at the foot of their guru, Neem Karoli Baba, also known as Maharaj-ji. He transmitted to them a simple philosophy: love everyone, tell the truth, and give up attachment to material things. After impacting millions of people through the years with these teachings, they have reunited once more with this new bok to enlighten and engage readers on the spiritual opportunities within the dying process. They share intimate personal experiences and timeless practices, gently exploring every aspect of this journey. And, at 86 years old, Ram Dass reminds us, “This time we have a real deadline.”

Readers will learn guidelines for being a “loving rock” for the dying, how to grieve fully and authentically, how to transform a fear of death, leaving a spiritual legacy, creating a sacred space for dying, and more. Join these two lifelong friends and spiritual luminaries as they explore what it means to live and die consciously, remember who we really are, and illuminate the path we walk together.

Elevated Existence Honors Ram Dass with 2013 Spiritual Service Award

Posted on by Tammy

Elevated Existence Magazine is honoring Ram Dass with the 2013 Elevated Existence Spiritual Service Award, presented each year to a person whose actions, intentions and work spread the gift of spirituality, enlighten others with the wisdom and tools to improve the quality of their lives, and contribute to the overall uplifting of the world’s consciousness.

Ram Dass traveled to India in 1967 where he met his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, known as Maharaj-ji. Since then, he has dedicated his life to helping others open their heart, connect with their soul and transform their lives through divine love. He was given the name, Ram Dass, by Maharaj-ji, which means “servant of God,” and he continues to serve others today at the age of 82.

“We are all souls, and what we have to learn in this incarnation is to rid ourselves of separateness,” he said in Elevated Existence’s December 2013 cover story. “Each individual soul has God within it, and all the love, light, joy and peace that comes from melding with God.”

In his newest boo, “Polishing the Mirror,” Ram Dass explains that in order to gain our soul, we must first lose our minds. He says that discovering the soul is similar to peeling away layers of an onion to get to the core within.

“The mind is the ego. It tells us who we are and identifies with this incarnation and our roles in it,” he said in the cover story. “But it’s about going from the role to the soul.”

One of the practices he offers to help with this shift is the Loving Awareness Meditation. This assists a person in moving into his or her heart or spirit and out of the mind or ego self. By meditating on and repeating the phrase “I am loving awareness,” one can begin to make this journey, and move into the energy of love.

“The spiritual journey is not about acquiring something outside yourself. Rather, you are penetrating deep layers and veils to return to the deepest truth of your own being,” he said.

For more form Ram Dass, see the December 2013 issue of Elevated Existence Magazine.

VIDEO: “The Reality of Truth” Documentary Examines Perception and Reality

Posted on by Tammy

“The Reality of Truth,” is a new documentary set for release this summer, created by Mike “Zappy” Zapolin and Deepak Chopra. The film identifies the perception problem plaguing society today, and analyzes specific techniques to break through to a new reality—one that is more peaceful, tolerant and, when looked at properly, amusing, according to the creators.

“Transcendence is the key to taking off the filters that separate and blind us, so that we can see things as they actually exist,” said Zapolin. “There are many techniques people use to transcend—meditation, prayer, dance, music, even psychedelics—and for this film we set out to explore the effectiveness of these different techniques.”

Highly controversial in nature, “The Reality of Truth” introduces audiences to the modalities people have used throughout history to transcend into an alternate reality, and suggests these techniques may be the breakthrough humankind needs to move into the future.

Conversations include a panel discussion with Dr. John Hagelin, PhD and Fred Travis, faculty members of the Maharishi University of Management, and Dr. Norman Rosenthal, author of New York Times Bestseller “Transcendence.” The panel was held in Fairfield, Iowa, where thousands of people in the transcendental meditation community meditate together each day. The team also traveled to Maui to speak with legendary spiritual leader Ram Dass, who was with Timothy Leary during his infamous Harvard experiments.

“The Judeo-Christian religions, Vedic traditions, and Shamanistic rituals all incorporate techniques for transcending,” said Zapolin. “In the history of mankind, we have tenaciously sought out gateways to spirituality and found them in meditation, prayer and the consumption of natural substances.”

Some of the plants that have documented transcending capabilities, according to the film, are: ayahuasca, a giant vine native to South America, noted for its psychotropic properties; ibogaine, a hallucinogenic compound derived from the roots of a West African shrub, sometimes used as a treatment for heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine addiction; the psychoactive compounds psilocybin and psilocin found in certain mushrooms, especially liberty caps (aka magic mushrooms); and marijuana.

“One of the more provocative scenes of the film documents me with actress Michelle Rodriguez and MacMillan Publishing’s Dan MacMillan participating in a life-changing ayahuasca ceremony with a shaman. It was a mind-blowing experience that I think audiences will truly appreciate,” said Zapolin.

“The Reality of Truth” is being produced by Kurt Engfehr, who co-produced “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 911.” The film includes interviews with Marianne Williamson; Ram Dass; John Hagelin, PhD; Bruce H Lipton, PhD; Foster Gamble (who recently released the documentary “Thrive”); Charles Grob, MD; Peter Coyote; Lior Suchard; and Ravi Zacharai. Executive producer is Wall Street icon and just capitalist Peter Janssen.

For more information about The Reality of Truth, visit http://therealityoftruth.com/, and view the trailer in the video below.