With a little help from a monk (who tells us how our mind works) and a neuroscientist (who tells us how our brain works), Ruby Wax answers every question you've ever had about evolution, thoughts, emotions, the body, addictions, relationships, sex, kids, the future and compassion. Filled with witty anecdotes from Ruby's own life, and backed up by smart science and practical mindfulness exercises, How to be Human is the only manual you need to help you upgrade your mind as much as you've upgraded your iPhone.

Ruby Wax - comedian, writer and mental health campaigner - shows us how our minds can jeopardize our sanity. With her own periods of depression and now a Masters from Oxford in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy to draw from, she explains how our busy, chattering, self-critical thoughts drive us to anxiety and stress. If we are to break the cycle, we need to understand how our brains work, rewire our thinking and find calm in a frenetic world.

In this Audible Original, Ruby Wax hunts down her heroes - brain scientists - in the UK and across America, to learn more about what makes us tick: why we get stressed, how we feel pain, what makes us addicted - and has a lot of fun along the way. She faces death with Past Mortems author Carla Valentine, explores how video games affect our attention with gamification expert Gabe Zichermann, and discovers the benefits of vaginal smearing with Professor Tim Spector. Natural Born Learners author Alex Beard reveals what teenagers really need to know for a good education and visitors to a New York soup kitchen help Ruby confront her fear of compassion. 

What is the secret to being happy? Does happiness come from outside us or do we need to look within? Can meditation help? Gelong Thubten has worked with everyone from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to Ruby Wax and Benedict Cumberbatch. In his warm and engaging debut book he explores the nature of happiness and explains how to bring meditation into our busy 21st-century lives with simple yet effective exercises. Gelong Thubten, Buddhist monk, meditation teacher and author, has always been fascinated by the question of happiness.

Andy Puddicombe, founder of the much publicised Headspace, is on a mission: to get people to take 10 minutes out of their day to sit in the here and now. Here he shares his simple to learn, but highly effective techniques of meditation. Accessible and portable, these powerful techniques promise amazing results. Quiet the mind, feel less stressed, less tired and achieve a new level of calm and fulfillment. By following the daily exercises you will start to experience literally life changing results.

Quiet includes interviews with people who have helped Fearne to accept her flaws and love her own imperfections as well as advice on how to drown out misinformation and the sometimes pressurising noise from family, work and friends, which can fuel our insecurities and self-doubt. Fearne talks honestly and openly about what it's like to live in the public eye and shares some of the methods and practical activities she uses to ignore negative online chatter and trolls. 

This ground-breaking new book combines the best of Compassion-Focused Therapy with the most effective mindfulness techniques. The result is an extremely effective approach to overcoming everyday emotional and psychological problems and improving one's sense of well being. Based on the latest work from Professor Paul Gilbert OBE, best-selling author of The Compassionate Mind, and Buddhist expert Choden.

Do you suffer from frequent bouts of severe depression or anxiety? Do you feel like a hostage to your own mind’s whims? Or is it a challenge for you to deal with the overbearing, controlling, arrogant, and manipulative ways of narcissists in your life? Well, this special edition has been designed with the goal to provide you with the best psychotherapist practices, techniques, and strategies in order to break you free from those increasingly frequent issues.

Susan Calman is a well-known comedian and writer who has appeared on countless radio and television programmes. Her solo stand up show, Susan Calman Is Convicted, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and dealt with subjects like the death penalty, appearance and depression. The reaction to the show she wrote about mental health was so positive that she wanted to expand on the show and write a more detailed account of surviving when you're the world's most negative person.

Louise L. Hay shows your how to Love Your Body. This powerful work by Louise Hay will help you to create and maintain a positive self-image. Includes over 51 affirmation treatments, each focusing on a specific body part.

When Jo Brand hosted Have I Got News For You late last year, her calm explanation of the effects of sexism on women to a bemused all-male cast turned into a viral phenomenon. There has been a whole tradition of books over hundreds of years where a father shares his wisdom with his son - started by Lord Chesterfield in the 18th century - while women have been silent (aka bullied into thinking their advice wasn't worth writing down). This book puts a stop to all that.  

From Little Nell to Miss Havisham, Dickens’ Women tells the story of Charles Dickens’ life through his beloved characters. Cowritten and performed by Miriam Margolyes, best known for her role as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films, this one-women show is a celebration of her infectious passion for Dickens’ work. Taking on 23 different Dickensian characters, many of whom were inspired by real people such as Mary Hogwarth, Dickens' sister-in-law, Margolyes showcases her astonishing versatility as a performer. Dickens’ Women delighted audiences across the world in 2012 as Margolyes took her Olivier nominated show on tour for the bicentenary of Dicken’s birth.

If you've ever struggled with depression or know someone who has, take heart: Mindfulness practice is a simple, powerful way to naturally break depression's self-perpetuating cycle. With The Mindful Way Through Depression, four leading researchers present insightful lessons drawn from both Eastern meditative traditions and cognitive therapy about how to triumph over this illness - and, more importantly, how to prevent it from striking again.

For decades we've been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F*ck positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let's be honest, shit is f*cked, and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn't sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is - a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is his antidote to the coddling, let's-all-feel-good mind-set that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

From everyday stress to severe trauma, many obstacles to a full life can be overcome by developing what Dr. Daniel J. Siegel calls "mindsight," our ability to perceive the mind and literally redirect the flow of energy and information within our brains. Through this powerful capacity for insight and empathy, we can "rewire" crucial connections, create dynamic linkages, and open ourselves to relationships in a new way.