Search results for ""Author Kelly McGonigal""

An in-depth audio program for getting the daily support and structure you need to create life-affirming new habits How many times have you tried to build a positive new habit, only to end up falling short? If so, you probably didn’t have the structure and support critical for instilling a new behavior. With 40 Days to Positive Change, Kelly McGonigal, PhD, provides just that—the helping hand necessary to create the change you most desire in your life. Whether it’s exercising every day, devoting yourself fully to a personal project, or establishing a regular meditation practice, this innovative program will provide the scaffolding necessary to instill a positive habit in your life. Drawing upon the latest neuroscientific and behavioral research, 40 Days to Positive Change emphasizes that new habits are built on a foundation of intention, gratitude, joy, loving compassion, and interdependence. Part mentor, part professor, and part coach, McGonigal will guide you in daily practices and lessons to follow through in each of these areas. By the end of this audio journey, you’ll have all the tricks and tools you need to live out your new, better habit without letting it drop by the wayside. Best of all, this program’s lessons are endlessly renewable. Once you’ve followed the 40-day journey toward habit change, you can begin again to weave another positive behavior into the fabric of your life.

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Breakthrough Science and Practical Tools for Cultivating Compassion Why is compassion so powerful? Like many forms of spirituality and meditation, compassion practice has been shown by research to enhance your health, psychological well-being, relationships, and sense of purpose. "The unique quality of compassion," teaches Dr. Kelly McGonigal, "is that its benefits extend to the one who offers it, the one who receives it, and all those who witness compassion in action." With The Science of Compassion, this acclaimed researcher presents a practical workshop to help you understand what makes compassion work—and how you can cultivate it in your life. The Power of Choosing Compassion Compassion can be a difficult choice to make—after all, why would we deliberately choose to add another person’s pain to our own? "Not only does our compassion ease the suffering of others," teaches Dr. McGonigal, "Our brain, heart, and entire physiology are tuned to support us when we make the courageous decision to be compassionate." In this seven-hour training intensive, she provides invaluable tools and guidance for overcoming emotional fatigue, empathic distress, self-judgment, and other obstacles that can keep us closed down and afraid to reach out. "Compassion is an embodied state that prepares us to take positive action," says Dr. McGonigal. Here is an audio course filled with cutting-edge science, inspirational stories, and research-based practices to help you build your capacity for generosity, empathy, and kindness—and become a compassionate force in the world. HIGHLIGHTS • The Biology of Compassion—empowering findings from the latest compassion research • The Upward Spiral of Compassion—the power of witnessing and sharing stories of kindness • The Unique Challenge of Self-Compassion—three keys for offering loving support to ourselves • Compassionate Presence—when simply being with another without trying to change anything is the best choice • Empathic Distress—how to keep from being overwhelmed by another’s suffering • Receiving Compassion—guidance for allowing help to come when we need it • Difficult Compassion—practices for broadening your ability to offer forgiveness and generosity towards those who cause you pain • Healing with Compassion—the positive effects of compassion on stress, loneliness, and social anxiety • Beyond the Self—how we can connect to a source of compassion that surpasses our normal human limits • Sustaining Openheartedness—how to overcome the common challenges of "compassion fatigue" and "compassion collapse" • Meditation and Mindfulness—potent tools for cultivating compassion, including guided practices • Eleven sessions of breakthrough research, heart-opening stories, and transformative practices from renowned health psychologist Dr. Kelly McGonigal

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Based on Stanford University psychologist Kelly McGonigal's wildly popular course "The Science of Willpower," The Willpower Instinct is the first book to explain the science of self-control and how it can be harnessed to improve our health, happiness, and productivity.Informed by the latest research and combining cutting-edge insights from psychology, economics, neuroscience, and medicine, The Willpower Instinct explains exactly what willpower is, how it works, and why it matters. For example, readers will learn: • Willpower is a mind-body response, not a virtue. It is a biological function that can be improved through mindfulness, exercise, nutrition, and sleep. • Willpower is not an unlimited resource. Too much self-control can actually be bad for your health. • Temptation and stress hijack the brain's systems of self-control, but the brain can be trained for greater willpower • Guilt and shame over your setbacks lead to giving in again, but self-forgiveness and self-compassion boost self-control. • Giving up control is sometimes the only way to gain self-control. • Willpower failures are contagious—you can catch the desire to overspend or overeat from your friends­­—but you can also catch self-control from the right role models.In the groundbreaking tradition of Getting Things Done, The Willpower Instinct combines life-changing prescriptive advice and complementary exercises to help readers with goals ranging from losing weight to more patient parenting, less procrastination, better health, and greater productivity at work.

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What if everything you thought you knew about stress was wrong?Over the years we've grown to see stress as Public Enemy No.1, responsible for countless health problems, relationship troubles, unhappiness and anxiety, and to be avoided at all costs. But what if changing your mindset about stress could actually make you healthier, happier and better able to reach your goals?In this new book, health psychologist Dr Kelly McGonigal reveals the new science of stress, showing that by embracing stress and changing your thinking, your stress response could become your most powerful ally. Drawing on the latest research and practical brain-training techniques, The Upside of Stress shows you how to do stress better, to improve your health and resilience, focus your energy, build relationships and boost courage. Rethink stress, and watch your life change for the better.

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It's no secret that yoga increases muscular flexibility and strength, but you may not know that yoga is a proven treatment for back pain, knee pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and other chronic pain conditions. Yoga also helps to ease the stress, anxiety, and depression that can create and reinforce pain, making you feel more comfortable in both your mind and your body. Written by a yoga instructor and former chronic pain sufferer, Yoga for Pain Relief is packed with gentle postures and practical strategies for ending pain. This complete mind-body tool kit for healing also includes deep relaxation practices drawn from the yogic tradition and psychological techniques for helping you make peace with your body and dissolve pain. As the ancient practice of yoga releases the hold that chronic pain has over your life, you will begin to feel more like yourself again

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