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.

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.

Dear Listener, I know what you're thinking, is it some kind of macabre joke? How can Ruby Wax write a book about good news when the world is facing the worst disaster since the Plague? Let me explain. I began writing in 2018, back when the world's worries were somewhat different. Climate change, greedy bankers, exam results, crap politicians, mental health: these are still huge issues, but even the ancient soothsayers reading pig entrails couldn't have predicted this. This is my new mission: to share the green shoots of hope peeping through the soil of civilisation.

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. 

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.

Mindfulness is the easy way to gently let go of stress and be in the moment. It has fast become the slow way to manage the modern world - without chanting mantras or setting aside hours of time for meditation. Dr Patrizia Collard will show you how to bring simple 5- and 10-minute practices into your day in order to free yourself from stress and ultimately find more peace in your life. This audiobook will set you and your family on the road of mindfulness so you can lead a more mindful, peaceful and relaxed life.

So, you're losing your sh*t with your kids. You scream, you shout, you snap at them. You're cranky and irritable more often than you'd like to admit. You know how you want to parent; you want to be a calmer, more rational and intentional parent, but no matter how hard you try, you can't help it. You keep losing your shit.

For many of us, life can feel like it's moving too fast, with pressure bearing down on us from all sides - whether that's from school or work, family or social media. As a result we find ourselves frazzled, lost and - too often - feeling blue. It's a subject close to Fearne's heart. Drawing on her own experiences and including expert advice, Happy offers practical ways of finding joy each and every day. Happiness isn't a mountain to climb; it's just one foot in front of the other on the path of life, and here you'll find little steps that will help make the differences that count.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Dummies takes you through the eight-week MBCT course, using the principles of mindfulness to complement established CBT techniques. You'll discover how using MBCT can help lower your risk of relapsing into depression and reduce the risk of other mental health disorders including anxiety, stress, and low self-esteem.

In a world where 'busyness' is the norm, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed out. But proactively paying attention to how we feel and understanding how to respond to our emotions, is the key to looking after our own mental health and well-being. In this audiobook, clinical psychologist Dr Emma Hepburn (a.k.a. @ThePsychologyMum) uses her warm and witty illustrations to introduce practical tools for your day-to-day mental well-being.

The Kindness Method is the key to breaking unwanted habits for good. By combining her own therapeutic style, personal experience and techniques learned from working in substance misuse, Shahroo Izadi shares simple steps that help strengthen your willpower like a muscle, so you can sustain motivation for the long haul.Shahroo shares her totally non-judgmental and flexible process for mapping and changing your habits, based on treating yourself with the compassion and understanding that would normally be reserved for others.

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.

The authors of the classic Difficult Conversations teach you how to take criticism productively in Thanks for the Feedback. We get feedback every day of our lives, from friends and family, colleagues, customers, and bosses, teachers, doctors, and strangers. We're assessed, coached, and criticised about our performance, personalities and appearance. We know that feedback is essential for professional development and healthy relationships - but we dread it and even dismiss it.

From depression and anxiety to personality disorders, one in four of us experience mental health issues every year and, in these strange and unsettling times, more of us than ever are struggling to cope. In No Such Thing as Normal, Bryony offers sensible, practical advice, covering subjects such as sleep, addiction, worry, medication, self-image, boundary setting, therapy, learned behaviour, mindfulness and, of course - as the founder of Mental Health Mates - the power of walking and talking.

Why is it easier to ruminate over hurt feelings than it is to bask in the warmth of being appreciated? Because your brain evolved to learn quickly from bad experiences but slowly from the good ones. You can change this. Hardwiring Happiness lays out a simple method that uses the hidden power of everyday experiences to build new neural structures full of happiness, love, confidence, and peace. Dr. Hanson’s four steps build strengths into your brain, balancing its ancient negativity bias, making contentment and a powerful sense of resilience the new normal.