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BOOKS
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Books on Ayurveda |
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Books on Permaculture Contact Permanent Publications for a comprehensive range of books on Permaculture onwards, and related topics, and also for The Permaculture Magazine - A good read showing a variety of ways permaculture principles are being put into practice around the world.
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Strands of Eternity by Vasant Lad 2004 The Ayurvedic Press ISBN 1-883725-10-0 www.ayurveda.com The Sanskrit word, sutra, means thread or suture. It is the ‘Strand of Eternity’ that sews our two selves back together and reawakens us to that which we already are. This gorgeous book of poetry will act as a catalyst to your reawakening. With clarity, compassion and humour, each of Dr Lad’s poems is derived from the ancient sutras of Ayurveda and imparts timeless truths that can radically transform your perceptions, your understanding and your way of being in the world. Open to any passage and notice what is stirred inside of you as you drink from this deep well of spiritual nourishment. |
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Dark Nights of the Soul: A guide to finding your way through life's ordeals by Thomas Moore 2004 Gotham Books ISBN 1592-40067-1 www.careofthesoul.net A 'dark night of the soul' is not a psychological syndrome, but a quest for meaning during life's darkest hours: the loss of a loved one, the end of a relationship, ageing and illness, career disappointments or just an ongoing dissatisfaction with life.
Thomas Moore's extensive experience as a psychologist and theologian has taught him that the dark night is a challenge to restore ourselves and to become someone of substance, depth and soul. By using these trying times as an opportunity to reflect and delve into the soul's deepest needs, we can find a new understanding of life's meaning. Two extracts: Interest a first step towards love Anger is Daimonic
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Shattered Lives: Children who live with courage and dignity by Camila Batmanghelidjh. 2006. Jessica Kinglsey Publishers Shattered Lives bears witness to the lives of children who have experienced abuse and neglect, and highlights the effects of early traumatic episodes. Chapters take the form of letters to a child capturing their life experiences, hugely impacted by sexual abuse, parental substance misuse and loss, leading to feelings of shame, rejection and worthlessness. Batmanghelidjh offers understanding for those baffled by these hard-to-reach children and warns against stigmatizing them for their problem behaviour. In her critique of existing structures, she exposes the plight of children who are overlooked by the authorities and denounces those who value bureaucracy over the welfare of the individual child. Society's failure to acknowledge the truth of their experiences and act to change the environment in which such mistreatment can flourish is, she strongly argues, leading to the death of childhood. This book is a clarion call for change. Camila Batmanghelidjh trained as a psychotherapist and for more than twenty years has worked with exceptionally disturbed children and young people in the two charities she has founded The Place2Be and Kids Company. Focusing on the inner city, these have concentrated on giving vulnerable children greater resilience in the face of traumatic life experiences. Kids Company has been the subject of several documentaries, and in 2005 Camila was named Social Entrepreneur of the year. |
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The Healing Fields: Working with psychotherapy and nature to rebuild shattered lives by Sonja Linden & Jenny Grut. (2002 Frances Lincoln)
Describes
the Natural Growth Project which is part of the work of The Medical
Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture
www.torturecare.org.uk where psychotherapist and gardener work side
by side with clients on allotments or in a
The Medical Foundation set up the project as
some of their clients had difficulties responding with the usual setting
of a consulting room and finding necessary language for expression of
deep emotion. Nature and gardening are used as a medium for
communication and healing. Although the Medical Foundation for the Care
of Victims of Torture are doing specific work, the principles outlined
in this book can be adapted to other healing situations. The chapter
Nature & Psychotherapy outlines the principles and gives an overview of
the use of gardening in therapeutic settings. |
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Waking the Tiger:Healing Trauma - The innate capacity to transform overwhelming experiences by Peter A. Levine 1997 North Atlantic Books.
In the introduction the author writes "I am
endlessly fascinated with the subject of trauma, with its intricate
relationship to the physical and natural sciences, to philosophy, to
mythology, and to the arts. Working with trauma has helped me to
comprehend the meaning of suffering, both necessary and unnecessary. ...
Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life
sentence. Not only can trauma be healed, but with appropriate guidance
and support, it can be transformative. ... Most trauma therapies address
the mind through talk and the molecules of the mind with drugs. Both of
these approaches can be of use. However, trauma is not, will not, and
can never be fully healed until we also address the essential role
played by the body. We must understand how the body is affected by
trauma and its central position in healing its aftermath ... beyond the
mechanistic, reductionist view of life, there exists a sensing, or
feeling, knowing, living organism. This living body, and condition we
share with all sentient beings, informs us of our innate capacity to
heal from the effects of trauma. This book is about the gift of wisdom
we received as a result of learning to harness and transform the body’s
awesome, primordial, and intelligent energies. In overcoming the
destructive force of trauma, our innate potential now... to new heights
of mastery and knowledge." The author lists the most common forms of
trauma as "automobile and other accidents, serious illness, surgery and
other innovative medical and dental procedures, assault, and
experiencing or witnessing violence, war, or a myriad of natural
disasters." |
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Ambiguous Loss: Learning to live with unresolved grief by Pauline Boss (Harvard University Press. 1999)Pauline Boss's book deals with grieving when one is left with unanswered questions about the loss. She includes a range of circumstances where the person you knew is still alive but lost to you, e.g. mental health, addiction, brain injury, family separation as well as deaths where for example the body is not found.
"The inability to resolve such ambiguous losses is due to the outside situation, not to internal personality defects. And the outside force that freezes the grief is the uncertainty and ambiguity of the loss." (p10)
But the book is optimistic, even though closure cannot be achieved in some circumstances, the goal is "to find some way to change even though the ambiguity remains. This is yet another paradox - to transform a situation that won't change. Many people succeed. ... People use their powers of mastery to make changes, not always to alter the tragedy of their own loss, but to help others who might be suffering a similar loss in the future. If the world is unjust for having caused their ambiguous loss, they resolve to make meaning out of the chaos by lowering the risks of such loss for others." (p120)
This is a book I'd like health care professionals to be aware of: "When people suffering ambiguous loss seek treatment and are evaluated in the traditional way, they often look dysfunctional, exhibiting readily diagnosed symptoms such as anxiety, depression and somatic illnesses. The question that therapists and physicians should add to their diagnostic repertoire is this: Is the patient experiencing any ambiguous losses that might account for his or her immobilization? Even in otherwise healthy people, the uncertainty of such a loss can diminish power and get in the way of action." (p10)
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Surviving Secrets: The experience of abuse for the child, the adult and the helper by Moira Walker (Open University Press. 1992) In recent years considerable attention has been paid to the subject of abuse in childhood. Less attention has been paid to what happens to the vast number of women and men who have reached adulthood with this experience haunting them. The author overviews the experience and its implications, dealing with physical, sexual and psychological abuse. An essential part of the content is based on interviews with survivors of child abuse, voicing their views on the effects of the experience and the effectiveness of the help offered. At the same time the book seeks to understand the context in which abuse takes place, the society which itself contains and sustains abuse at various levels. It is a moving account of the experience and effects of childhood abuse, and a handbook for all those in the caring professions, in voluntary organisations and elsewhere who are helping survivors of abuse.
Moira Walker says in the Preface to her book, "In my interviews with abuse survivors, it was evident that incorporating their stories into a book was empowering for them and highly significant to them. They were unanimous in wanting others to know their stories: both what happened to them as children and as adults."
"Those of us who work with abuse survivors often hear things we would prefer not to hear and not to believe. That does not make what we hear unbelievable, although it may well be inconceivable." (pp4/5)
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We’re All Doing Time:
A guide for getting free
by Bo
Lozoff.
Becoming Free Through Meditation and
Yoga
by Sister
Elaine MacInnes and Sandy Chubb. Available from
The Prison Phoenix
Trust We’re All Doing Time: A guide for getting free. The author of We are all doing time is the director of the Human Kindness Foundation and its internationally acclaimed Prison-Ashram Project. The book was written and illustrated specifically to help prisoners, but as it says in the introduction, "whoever and wherever we are, in or out of prisons, we’re all doing hard time until we find freedom inside ourselves." The book is a very straight forward introduction to yoga and meditation. It is in three parts 1. The Big View is Bo’s version of the profoundest common sense, the truth we all know deep inside our bones. 2. Getting Free is an instruction manual; it offers a lot of simple and practical ideas for gaining control of our lives; for quieting our minds so we can really see what is going on. 3. Dear Bo shares some of the letters the author has shared with prisoners over an eleven year period. Of this section he writes "Nearly every strength, weakness, and insight of the human condition—our condition—from divine to domestic, can be found here. It’s a rare opportunity we have, to study ourselves through such a wide range of windows to our souls."
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Becoming Free Through Meditation and
Yoga
by Sister
Elaine MacInnes and Sandy Chubb. Available from
The Prison Phoenix
Trust Becoming Free Through Meditation and Yoga, as the title implies, is a guide to yoga and meditation, again written for those in cells. It introduces twelve poses and the Sun Salutation. There is a paragraph commenting on the asana, followed by instructions, and supported by photographs. The meditation section has simple and common sense advice and encouragement. It gives an eight week programme for meditation for beginners. There is a section about those doubts and questions that arise when first giving time for meditation. |
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