Stillpoint

"My radio audience filled with caregivers from all walks of life will treasure each page."-Joel Markel, host of Preferred Company, President and Founder of Preferred Home Health Care & Nursing Services "What a delightful, comprehensive guide, reminding us all about the critical importance of self-care. The authors invite us to rethink -- perhaps redefine ­-- the concept of caregiver, transforming it into 'caresharer.' Take some time with this book, practicing its precious gems, and notice from the inside out the impact it makes on your ability to be present with yourself and all your relations."-Jamie McHugh, Somatic Movement Therapist and artist "If you are weary from caring for others and humbled by what it takes, open this book. Sheila K. Collins and her co-author Christine Gautreaux both walk this walk. Sheila is a national leader in the dance of wise caregiving for self and others. Phil Porter and I, the cofounders of InterPlay, are indebted to her for her contributions to our system. We know her backward and forward as an artist, therapist, and teacher. She's the real deal. Tested, tenacious, tender and true, a wise elder and creative guide for getting through life's hard stuff."-Cynthia Winton-Henry, InterPlay co-founder, and authorof Move: What the Body Wants and Dance: the Sacred Art "In this comprehensive guide, the Stillpoint authors creatively address a neglected component of professional social work education -- self-care! As we teach students the best practices to meet the needs of clients, we often fail to provide evidence-based tools to assist students and young professionals in maintaining a strong and vibrant self. Stillpoint could be a helpful textbook for social workers serving others in what turns out to be a hazardous occupation."-Lynn Coghill, LCSW, Director of University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work MSW Program, retired

At the turn of the twentieth century, Arctic explorer Edward Mackley sets out to reach the North Pole and vanishes into the icy landscape without a trace. He leaves behind a young wife, Emily, who awaits his return for decades, her dreams and devotion gradually freezing into rigid widowhood. A hundred years later, on a sweltering mid–summer's day, Edward's great–grand–niece Julia moves through the old family house, attempting to impose some order on the clutter of inherited belongings and memories from that ill–fated expedition, and taking care to ignore the deepening cracks within her own marriage. But as afternoon turns into evening, Julia makes a discovery that splinters her long–held image of Edward and Emily's romance. The Still Point moves through past, present, and future, with dreams revealing a universal simultaneity to the choices we must all make in the faces of love and passion. Long–listed for the Orange Prize, The Still Point is a powerful literary debut, masterfully told in the language of the heart.

Tom Harpur shows how ancient wisdoms, together with exciting new scientific findings, are combining to show why mere coping techniques are not enough for meeting the stress crisis. Divorced from their spiritual underpinnings and/or religious understanding, such techniques lack the potency which they originally had. Central to a spiritual response to stress is the practice of spiritual meditation in its various forms. While many within traditional Christianity still view meditation with suspicion, Harpur shows it to be one of the lost jewels of a historic treasury of Christian gifts designed for healing. More than that, it is a revitalizing gift, which the church can reclaim for its own sake, and offer the outside church who are seeking identity, meaning and purpose.

One of the simplest, easiest-to-understand guides to Zen meditation--with audio exercises to serve as meditation companions. Through Zen meditation it is possible to find stillness of mind even amidst our everyday activities--and this book reveals how. With easy-to-understand instructions, practical lessons, and short-but-sweet tid-bits of useful information, beloved Zen master John Daido Loori shares the way of Zen meditation in terms that even those starting from the very beginning can understand. Guided audio instructions--available for download online--supplement the teachings throughout the book, giving beginners the tools they need to take that first step into Zen practice and meditation.

The poems in Still Point contrast the calm and tumult of Hurricane Katrina, the deconstruction of Detroit, the financial crisis of 2008, and the BP Gulf oil spill, weaving lyrical sequences and individual pieces into a coherent whole focused on humanity's relationship to itself and to nature. Still Point tells a story of beauty and horror, and how normalcy stubbornly persists amid history's arc.

In the final installment to the trilogy begun with Awaken, Maddie returns home to make her final stand against Digital School, and uncovers deeply guarded secrets about her family an new truths about herself.

Dr. Michael J. Shea’s series on Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is based on healthcare providers physically sensing love and accessing a deep sense of warmth and stillness in the heart. He begins this third volume by emphasizing the therapeutic application of touch therapy skills. As in the previous two books, he teaches these skills by explaining the importance of practitioners being able to perceive Primary Respiration, a slow rhythmic tidal movement in the fluids of the body. He goes on to discuss the distinctive influence of human embryology on any therapeutic modality. A number of other experts in the field contribute chapters that illuminate the spiritual and psychological dimensions of human embryonic development, especially the heart. Dr. Shea offers valuable new skills for anyone, from midwives to pediatricians, working therapeutically with infants. In addition, he summarizes current thinking on infant brain development, discusses the long-term consequences of attachment issues between the mother and infant, and explores the importance of understanding the similarities of the mother-infant and the therapistpatient relationships.