Showing results by publisher "Penguin Audio" in Consciousness & Thought

Here, Alain de Botton follows the arc of a mental health journey, from crisis to recuperation; the moments we realize we cannot cope; the acts of selfcare or therapy in which we find respite; and the days we finally reclaim a sense of stability. Written with understanding and kindness, it is both a source of companionship in our loneliest moments - whether it's a relationship breakdown, a career setback or anxiety around the everyday - and a practical guide that will help us find reasons for hope.

Every year, we are given a fixed number of days. Some days pass us by without leaving a trace and some days we remember forever. Do you remember your first kiss? Or how the first rays of the spring sun feel? Or how about the best meal you ever had? These memorable experiences are characterised by intensity of perception, depth of feeling or sense of profound significance causing them to stand out in our mind and involve a heightened sense of wonder and awe. 

If you have anxiety, this book is for you. If you love someone who is anxious, this book is for you. I Quit Sugar founder and New York Times best-selling author Sarah Wilson has lived through high anxiety - including bipolar, OCD and several suicide attempts - her whole life. Perhaps like you, she grew tired of seeing anxiety as a disease that must be medicated into submission. Could anxiety be resewn, she asked, into a thing of beauty? So began a seven-year journey to find a more meaningful and helpful take on anxiety.

The Instant New York Times Bestseller "Pollan’s real genius—the word is not too strong—remains intact. That is his uncanny ability to scent the direction in which the culture is headed. He did it with food and psychedelics, and now, though A World Appears focuses on AI only intermittently...

Many of us often feel challenged by the question of what gives our lives true meaning. What are we searching for? How do we know we are on the right path? In Playing Dead, Robert Sheehan shares intimate reflections on his own search for purpose, looking back at this journey so far and sharing the lessons he has learnt along the way. Meditation is at the heart of Robert's route to awakening and here he reveals how we can welcome practice into our daily lives to nurture a quiet mind and content heart.

Ubuntu is a Xhosa word originating from a South African philosophy that encapsulates all our aspirations about how to live life well, together. It is the belief in a universal human bond: I am only because you are. And it means that if you are able to see everyone as fully human, connected to you by their humanity, you will never be able to treat others as disposable or without worth. By embracing the philosophy of Ubuntu and living it out in daily life it's possible to overcome division and be stronger together in a world where the wise build bridges, not walls.

Daniel C. Dennett, philosopher and cognitive scientist, has spent his career considering consciousness. I've Been Thinking traces the development of Dennett's own intellect and instructs us how we too can become good thinkers. Dennett's restless curiosity leads him from his childhood in Beirut to Harvard, and from Parisian jazz clubs to 'tillosophy' on his tractor in Maine. Along the way, he encounters and debates with a host of legendary thinkers, and reveals the breakthroughs and misjudgments that shaped his paradigm-shifting philosophies.

'What is life?' asked the poet Shelley, and could not come up with an answer. Scientists, too, have not solved the puzzle. Yet biographers and obituarists continue to corral lives in a few columns, or a few hundred pages, aware all the time how fleeting and elusive their subject is. In Lifescapes, the acclaimed biographer and obituarist Ann Wroe reflects on a career spent pursuing life: a process, as she sees it, not of chronological narration but of trying to seize souls.

The world is louder than ever. It's not just the noise in our ears, but also the noise on our screens and in our heads. 'Silence is golden,' the adage goes. But how do we find it in times like these? Justin Zorn and Leigh Marz take us on an unlikely journey exploring why silence is essential for physical health, mental clarity, professional fulfilment, nourishing relationships, ecological sustainability and vibrant community. 

During the 2010 Olympic speed skating final, Mark Tuitert wasn't thinking about winning, but about Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus and Zeno - philosophers belonging to an ancient school of thought that emerged from their experiences of personal hardship. The Stoics developed a philosophy grounded in striving toward unbiased thinking, self-betterment through virtues, and a focus on only that which lies in our power to control. Now, after two decades of applying this philosophy, he has distilled Stoicism and his personal experience into ten powerful lessons.

An Economist Best Book of 2024 “If you are at all curious about the brain or the surgeons who operate on it, Gray Matters is a must read and Dr. Theodore Schwartz is the perfect guide, a master brain surgeon and superbly talented writer. I have not read a better biography of our shared...

A Japanese cultural historian shares a path to joyful living drawn from her nation’s unique approach to spirituality and nature, offering a “fascinating” (Wintering author Katherine May) blend of memoir, cultural reporting, and practical guidance for anyone struggling to find balance in...

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER AND THE ECONOMIST “Life Is Hard is a humane consolation for challenging times. Reading it is like speaking with a thoughtful friend who never tells you to cheer up, but, by offering gentle companionship and a change of perspective, makes you feel...

Find happiness by living fully in the present with this definitive guide to ichigo ichie--the Japanese art of making the most of every moment--from the bestselling authors of Ikigai and The Four-Way Path. Each moment in our life happens only once, and if we let it slip away, we lose it...

Julia Cameron shares beautiful prayers of empowerment followed by potent declarations and reflections on the nature of change and coping. They extend beyond affirmations to facilitate a powerful awakening of the potential of the human soul and to revitalize our abilities to transform our lives...

The New York Times bestseller One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2023 A New York Times Notable Book “A book of big and bold ideas, Humanly Possible is humane in approach and, more important, readable and worth reading. . . Bakewell is wide-ranging, witty and compassionate.”...

"We need books like this one." --Steven Pinker At last, stupidity explained! And by some of the world's smartest people, among them Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely, Alison Gopnik, Howard Gardner, Antonio Damasio, Aaron James, and Ryan Holiday. And so I proclaim, o idiots of every stripe and morons...

Sick of striving? Giving up on grit? Had enough of hustle culture? Daunted by the 10,000-hour rule? Relax: As the French know, it's the best way to be better at everything. In the realm of love, what could be less seductive than someone who's trying to seduce you? Seduction is the art of...