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.
We created Elevated Existence Monthly Book Picks to help our readers narrow down their search, and make sure they don’t miss some great options!
Here are the picks for September 2017. They are listed below in alphabetical order. Click on each title to go directly to Amazon and find out more about the book.
“Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain and Body,” by Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson
Two New York Times–bestselling authors team up to unveil new research showing the truth about what meditation can really do for us and our brain, as well as exactly how to get the most out of it. The authors demonstrate the real payoffs from meditation are lasting personality traits that can result. But we need smart practice, including crucial ingredients such as targeted feedback from a master teacher and a more spacious, less attached view of the self — all of which are missing in widespread versions of mind training. They also reveal the latest data from Davidson’s own lab that point to a new methodology for developing a broader array of mind-training methods with larger implications for how we can derive the greatest benefits from the practice.
“Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone,” by Brene Brown
A timely and important new book that challenges everything we think we know about cultivating true belonging in our communities, organizations and culture, social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarization. Brown argues we’re experiencing a spiritual crisis of disconnection, and introduces four practices of true belonging that challenge everything we believe about ourselves and each other, offering the clarity and courage we need to find our way back. And that path cuts right through the wilderness. Brown writes, “The wilderness is an untamed, unpredictable place of solitude and searching. It is a place as dangerous as it is breathtaking, a place as sought after as it is feared. But it turns out to be the place of true belonging, and it’s the bravest and most sacred place you will ever stand.”
“The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles that Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, Too),” by Gretchen Rubin
During her multibook investigation into understanding human nature, Gretchen Rubin realized that by asking the seemingly dry question “How do I respond to expectations?” we gain explosive self-knowledge. She discovered that based on their answer, people fit into Four Tendencies: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers and Rebels. Our Tendency shapes every aspect of our behavior, so using this framework allows us to make better decisions, meet deadlines, suffer less stress and engage more effectively. More than 600,000 people have taken her online quiz, and managers, doctors, teachers, spouses, and parents already use the framework to help people make significant, lasting change. This book will help you get happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative because it’s far easier to succeed when you know what works for you.
“The Happiness Prayer: Ancient Jewish Wisdom for the Best Way to Live Today,” by Evan Moffic
Turning to an ancient instruction manual — a prayer for life composed 2000 years ago — Rabbi Evan Moffic shares 10 practices, any person of any faith can follow. The prayer has helped thousands of people-couples, teenagers, empty nd,esters struggling with loss, divorce, and ruptured relationships, find renewed meaning and purpose in their lives. But it’s not a typical prayer in that you just say it. It is an active prayer because you live it. The magic is not in the words. It is in the way you use the words to change yourself. You will discover those words in this book–and the ten life-changing practices it reveals.
“High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way,” by Brendon Burchard
After extensive original research and a decade as the world’s highest-paid performance coach, Brendon Burchard finally reveals the most effective habits for reaching long-term success. Based on one of the largest surveys ever conducted on high performers, it turns out that just six habits move the needle the most in helping you succeed. Adopt these six habits, and you win. Neglect them, and life is a never-ending struggle. Anyone can practice these habits and, when they do, extraordinary things happen in their lives, relationships, and careers. Whether you want to get more done, lead others better, develop skill faster, or dramatically increase your sense of joy and confidence, the habits in this book will help you achieve it. Each of the six habits is illustrated by powerful vignettes, cutting-edge science, thought-provoking exercises, and real-world daily practices you can implement right now.
“How to Own Your Mind,” by Napoleon Hill
Locked in a vault since 1941, “Think and Grow Rich” author Napoleon Hill’s definitive lesson on how to organize your thinking to attain success I found in the pages of this new book — a master class in how to think for success. In three chapters, Hill demonstrates how to organize, prioritize, and act on information so that it translates into opportunity. Knowledge is not power. Only applied knowledge is power. This book teaches you how to use what you know, and how to know what’s worth knowing.
“A Mind at Home with Itself: How Asking Four Questions Can Free Your Mind, Open Your Heart, and Turn Your World Around,” by Byron Katie
In her new book, spiritual teacher Byron Katie illuminates one of the most profound ancient Buddhist texts, The Diamond Sutra (newly translated in these pages by Stephen Mitchell) to reveal the nature of the mind and to liberate us from painful thoughts, using her revolutionary system of self-inquiry called “The Work.” She doesn’t merely describe the awakened mind — she empowers us to see it and feel it in action. It offers us a transformative new perspective on life and death.
“Own Your Glow: A Soulful Guide to Luminous Living and Crowning the Queen Within,” by Latham Thomas
Celebrity wellness and lifestyle guru, Latham Thomas provides soulful principles that offer an illuminated path for examining life’s challenges, helping you curate your path to greatness, while embracing your uniquely feminine attributes. Packed with rituals, meditations, and snackable lifestyle tips — combining spiritual, psychological, and self-reflective tools — Thomas provides a clear framework for harnessing your passion, developing spiritual fitness, and embracing true vulnerability. This guide is for anyone who wants to witness her own life transform and contribute to the positive change of the world around her.
“Practice You: A Journal,” by Elena Brower
When the way forward seems uncertain, where can we turn for guidance we can trust? For yoga luminary, meditation teacher, and artist Elena Brower, the answer has always been close at hand. “Whenever I’ve needed direction, strength, or centering, I’ve so often turned to my own journals. Why? Because many of the answers we seek are found within ourselves,” she says in the book. The author invites us to gather our own wisdom through writing, self-inquiry and reflection. Practice You is a portable sacred sanctuary to record our flashes of insight, find our ground, create and clarify our goals, and bear witness to our own evolution. With more than 150 beautiful pages of questions, teachings, inspiring imagery, and plenty of space to write, draw, and reflect, this journaling adventure guides us into nine compelling portals to our highest ways of living.
“Spiritual Graffiti: Finding My True Path,” by MC Yogi
Before he was one of the most well-known yoga teachers in North America and an international hip hop artist, MC YOGI was a juvenile delinquent who was kicked out of three schools, sent to live at a group home for at-risk youth, arrested for vandalism, and caught up in a world of drugs, chaos and carelessness. At 18, fate brought him to his first yoga class, and he devoted himself to the practice. From traveling to India to study with gurus to living and learning with many American yoga masters, MC YOGI soaked in the knowledge that would revolutionize his entire life and put him on the path to healing, wholeness, and peace. Through stories of graffiti and guns, mystics and musicians, love, loss, and finding his soul’s purpose, MC YOGI’s journey is saturated in spiritual wisdom, illuminating the potential for transformation within us all.