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Whether you recently lost your cherished pet or know you soon will, this book is for you. Healing Wisdom for Pet Loss is designed to help readers understand the bond they have with their pets and why losing them is uniquely painful; aid them in understanding the grief they experience in the aftermath of that loss; and teach them the skills they need to process this loss. In these pages, licensed mental health counselor Anne Marie Farage-Smith offers detailed explanations of the types of grief that one may encounter upon the loss or impending loss of a pet and provides validation for the emotions experienced in relation to that loss. She also reminds readers that help is available, and gives actionable criteria for the reader to determine when professional assistance is needed and how to find it. Containing a variety of deliberately open-ended writing exercises Farage-Smith has seen help others to understand and heal their grief, as well as suggestions for a variety of ways to honor and remember one’s pet, Healing Wisdom for Pet Loss is the loving, supportive grief journey companion every bereaved pet parent needs. Author: Anne Marie Farrage-Smith Publication Date:June 4, 2024 -
Karen Gershowitz is officially a travel addict—one with more than ninety countries under her belt. In these engaging stories, she brings readers along as her companions as she explores, laughs, and marvels at the richness of other cultures. Whether she’s picking through the worst meal ever in the wilds of Tanzania, eating a transcendent strudel in Vienna, meeting the locals in an isolated opal mining hamlet in Australia’s outback, or learning to make noodles in a Chinese village, she invites you to share in her experiences. Whatever kind of traveler you are, novice or experienced, or even if you prefer sitting in your armchair, these stories will transport you deep into other ways of living in the world—and, hopefully, inspire you to set out on your own journeys! Author: Karen Gershowitz Pub Date: October 3, 2023 -
Why are we so determined to be loved rather than to love ourselves? Why is it so hard to forgive our imperfections and remember that we’re extraordinary? Why are we so willing to listen to others’ voices when our own voice is right here, screaming to be heard? Full of the stories that have brought her to this moment and the accompanying wisdom those experiences have lent her, Mighty Gorgeous is Amy Ferris’s answer—tender, fierce, irreverent—to these questions, and much more. Why? Because we are not on this earth to master suffering; we are here to create magic. Because perfection is overrated; all of our flaws and imperfections and scars are our beauty marks. Because all women deserve to speak their truth, to be heard and seen, to awaken to their own greatness. Because life is so very hard and so very brutal at times, bitter and cruel and excruciatingly difficult to navigate, and sometimes we need a light to guide us through that darkness. Because it’s time for us all to come home to ourselves—and Amy’s here to cheerlead you all the way to your own front door. Author: Amy Ferris Pub Day: October 3, 2023 -
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted corporate life as we know it—and become a tipping point for a change that’s long overdue. But how do we make that change happen? It’s easy to become overwhelmed by what to do next and end up taking a scattergun approach, making lots of changes without really considering exactly what it was about work that was not working. But Sharon Darmody—founding director of Strive Occupational Rehabilitation, a group dedicated to helping organizations improve the health and well-being of their staff—is here to help. In this interactive, easy-to-follow guide, Darmody provides readers a clear pathway to diagnosing the specific issues at play in their workplace, and what they need to do to make a change. She encourages people to get their heads out of the sand, really look at where their workplaces are at, and acknowledge what we have all known for some time—that workplaces are not working, and it’s time to stop ignoring the signs and start overhauling the system. Straightforward, approachable, and informed by Darmody’s twenty-five-plus years as an organizational coach and consultant, Work Your Magic is an indispensable roadmap for creating a new work order that actually works. Author: Sharon Darmody Pub Date: September 5, 2023 -
Feeling crappy? Wanna be happier? Wanna up your game? Happy AF is your comprehensive roadmap for happiness. Drawing heavily from neuroscience, positive psychology, and behavioral science, the straightforward strategies and exercises in this how-to guide will teach you how to strengthen your happiness muscle and live up to your greatest potential. Happiness junky Beth Romero serves up a life-affirming parable laced with contextual how-tos—all backed by clinical research—in fresh, insightful, and accessible language you can relate to. Kinda like your best friend giving it to you straight (with love) over cocktails. In this book, you will discover: * the art of letting go * proven ways to jiu-jitsu your negative thoughts to transform your life * how goals, vision, purpose are the stepping-stones to greatness * the importance of gratitude and grace in your happiness journey * the scientific link between sleep, morning routines, diet, and exercise on your mental well-being * and much, much more! Happiness is a choice—and it’s within your reach. If you do the work. If you believe. Much like Dorothy with her ruby slippers, the power is always within you . . . just waiting for you to access it. So get ready to click your Manolos, Dr. Martens, or Adidas and find your happy place. Author: Beth Romero Pub Date: November 14, 2023 -
We wouldn’t consider letting Isis, Medusa, Pandora, or Persephone slip from our lexicon. To somehow forget the legend of Harriet Tubman, Anne Frank, or Mother Teresa would never cross our minds. And yet when it comes to the stories of Eve and other biblical characters, they are rarely known, barely appreciated, and ostensibly “lost” by most of us not deeply entwined within organized religion. Trapped in patriarchy and theological argument, dismissed as irrelevant, or viewed as unchangeable even as times change, these women’s voices, desires, and hearts have too often been silenced through misunderstanding and neglect. As result, we are as well. But when they are reimagined, deconstructed, disentangled from doctrine and dogma, and heard on their own terms, these stories become powerful inspiration and a source of discernment that reconnects us to a feminine lineage and a sovereign sense of self we’ve never known to call on or trust. In Rewriting Eve, Ronna Detrick invites us into the presence and power of ten sacred women, revealing the endlessly relevant ways in which they speak today and showing how they can heal, embolden, and transform our stories. Author: Ronna J. Detrick Pub Date: October 3, 2023 -
Sometimes, dreams do come true. There’s a lot of advice out there about how to pursue your goals, but sometimes all a dreamer needs to keep going is a true story of a dream becoming reality: proof that lows are a normal part of the process, and hope that all your hard work might still have a chance of paying off. The Little Book of Big Dreams is filled with true stories of dreamers just like you who dared to reach for the stars and actually go for the things they wanted most in life—but the most important story in this book is yours. Each uplifting tale in these pages is meant to inspire you along your dream journey, not only helping you keep going when things get hard but also reminding you that obstacles don’t mean you’re doing this wrong—they mean you’re on your way. The dreamers in this book include Oscar winner Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Disney producer Don Hahn, Pensole Lewis College founder D’Wayne Edwards, Hamilton cast member Seth Stewart, Black Girls Code founder Kimberly Bryant, actor and filmmaker Justin Baldoni, and more. Author: Isa Adney Pub Date: November 7, 2023 -
Melanie Smith knows from experience how grief and trauma can feel complex and immovable. She used that experience to fuel her research into the issues of trauma, loss, and finding happiness, which led to the creation of Unfinished Business—an eight-step, actionable, step-by-step process that will help you uncover the story of your life from the perspective of heartbreaks, limiting beliefs, old patterns, and unconscious habits. As you work through this process, you will examine who your models and influencers were and are, as well as the relationships in your life that remain unresolved and incomplete; and you will learn to heal the past, forgive, and overcome long-held beliefs, patterns of behavior, negative self-talk, self-judgment, overwhelm, and misalignment that have held you back from succeeding in love, relationships, business, finance, and health. Through this work, you will come to know yourself at the deepest level, experience clarity of vision, and find complete self-awareness. Grounded in a scientifically supported and solution-based methodology, Melanie’s Unfinished Business system has already transformed many people’s lives through her one-on-one and small group coaching sessions; now everyone can access it—and change their lives once and for all. Author: Melanie Smith Pub Date: August 8, 2023 -
Every day, we take in data from the world around us and store that data in our intellect. Then, without conscious awareness, we listen to that data—a process we call “thinking”—and use what it tells us to inform our decisions. But living our lives this way means always living in the past, and it limits us more than we think. In The Inward Outlook, psychologist Laura Basha shares how to discern this habitual way of thinking from the innate wisdom and common sense that we all have available to us at all times. Once we can see this distinction between personal thinking from the past and in-the-moment, impersonal, diffuse thinking, we are awakened to the conscious choice point, which allows us to make choices with awareness and to release judgment of ourselves and of others. We then consciously create ourselves to be the best version of ourselves we can be: our authentic, powerfully creative, compassionate selves. A powerful guide to accessing one’s own innate health, well-being, and wisdom, The Inward Outlook is an accessible exploration of a principle-based paradigm that educates people in the role thought plays in creating their experience of reality—and a road map to cultivating inspired focus, accomplishment, and peace of mind in one’s life. Pub Day: April 4, 2023 Author: Laura Basha, PhD -
Meet Beige. Beige is reliable, practical, sensible, and safe. Beige doesn’t put up a fuss; it follows the rules, blends in, doesn’t want to stand out. Now meet Magenta. Magenta is rich, dynamic, loud, sometimes garish, and not easily overlooked. Society has decidedly beige expectations when it comes to aging, and the intrinsic danger of beige and its many practical aspects is that it precludes creative thinking. Creative thinking is critical in avoiding a beige aging journey. Be Brave. Lose the Beige! Finding Your Sass after Sixty encourages women to trot out their inner magenta and defy those beige expectations. Be Brave. Lose the Beige! started as a blog and morphed into a movement. This movement gently pokes fun at ageist rules and expectations. It says “yes” when the rest of the world keeps saying “no.” In these pages, Liz Kitchens chronicles how creative thinking helped her cope with empty nest syndrome, navigate sex over sixty, transition from being outtasight to literally being out-of-sight . . . and so much more. The stories and creative techniques outlined in this book are guaranteed to introduce color, sass, and a lightness of spirit into your later years. Are you ready to start coloring outside the lines, even if a few pesky rules get trampled in the process? Pub Date: May 16, 2023 Author: Liz Kitchens -
In this beautifully crafted blend of memoir and guidebook, Suzanne Anderson invites you to walk with her through the brutal landscape of trauma and loss in a way that is profoundly transformational. Whether you are going through a personal dark night or struggling with these uncertain and disruptive global times, this book offers a proven pathway to allow the breaking down to be the breaking open into a whole new way of living, loving, and leading. Structured into three distinct parts, Part One sets the stage and walks us through the shocking event of her husband’s suicide and the dismantling of her life. Using compelling personal stories throughout, Part Two explores how to embody each of the eight critical capacities of resilience, and Part Three provides some of the inner tools, rituals and broader perspectives needed. Drawing from her years of exploration into the development of human potential and the personal, shattering journey of loss, Suzanne guides you to make your own path through the darkest of times—and to become a light in the world that others can look to in their own times of need. Pub Date: June 13, 2023 Author: Suzanne Anderson -
What do we, as parents, really mean when we say we want the best for our children? Irena Smith tackles this question from a unique vantage point: as a former Stanford admissions officer, a private Palo Alto college counselor, and a mother of three children who struggle to find their place in the long shadow of Stanford University. Written as a series of responses to actual college essay prompts, this witty, raw memoir takes the reader from the smoke-filled lobby of the Hebrew Aid Society in Rome, where Irena and her parents await asylum with other Soviet refugees in 1977, to the overpriced house she and her husband buy in Palo Alto in 1999, to the hushed inner sanctum of the Stanford admissions office. Irena grows a successful college counseling practice but struggles to reconcile the lofty aspirations of tightly wound, competitive high school seniors (and their anxious parents) with her own attempts to keep her family from unraveling as, one by one, her children are diagnosed with autism, learning differences, depression, and anxiety. And although she doesn’t initially understand her children—or how to help them—she will not stop stumbling and learning until she figures it out. The Golden Ticket opens a much-needed conversation about extreme parenting, the weight of generational expectations, and what happens when Gen-X dreams meet unexpected realities. It's a sharp-eyed depiction of hard-won triumphs and of the messy, challenging parts of parenting you won't see on Facebook or Instagram. Above all, it's an invitation to embrace a broader, more generous definition of success. Pub Date: April 18, 2023 Author: Irena Smith -
Art keeps good alive in the worst of times. In the face of ugliness, pain, and death, it’s art that has the power to open us all to a healing imagining of new possibility; it’s art that whispers to the collective that even in the ashes of loss, life always grows again. That’s why right now, in this tumultuous time of war and pandemic, we need poets more than we need politicians. In response to the multitude of global crises we’re currently experiencing, editor Stefanie Raffelock put out a much-needed call to her writing community for art to uplift and inform the world, and the authors of She Writes Press answered. Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis—a sometimes comforting, sometimes devastating, but universally relatable collection of prose, poetry, and art about living through difficult times like these—is the result. Addressing topics including grief and loss, COVID-19 and war in Ukraine, the gravity of need and being needed, the broad range of human response to crisis in all its forms, and more, these pieces explore how we can find beauty, hope, and deeper interpretation of world events through art—even when the world seems like it’s been turned inside out and upside-down. Any and all royalties from Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis will be donated to World Central Kitchen. Publication Date: June 7, 2022 Editor: Stephanie Raffelock Foreword By: Brooke Warner -
“riveting … powerful … brilliant … necessary” —Kirkus Reviews For those drawn to both Tara Westover’s moving account of a difficult childhood and Susan Cain’s research on underappreciated traits … Canaries Among Us reveals the exquisite joy and tender heartache inherent in raising a child who is undervalued by a community. A lifeline to those struggling with learning differences, bullying, and anxiety, Canaries Among Us explores one of the most widespread threats to child well-being: a lack of acceptance. This heart-rending exposé provides a candid view of the ways unique children are regularly misunderstood and mistreated. Fortunately, through raw storytelling and ground-breaking science, Taylor points to an inspirational alternative: supporting, and even celebrating, the dazzling variety of our humanity. The author is donating her profits to organizations promoting mental health, neurodiversity, and bullying prevention. Note: This book was previously subtitled "A Mother’s Quest to Honor her Child’s Individuality in a Culture Determined to Negate It." Publication Date: October 11, 2022 Author: Kayla Taylor -
Stuff with four letters ending in a “t” happens to everyone; it’s how you handle it that matters . . . Life puts us all through change; some might even say life is change. In the blink of an eye, the unexpected can happen. Your life can suddenly be toast—butter side down, full of icky stuff you don’t want anywhere near you. Conversely, you can also land butter side up, with wonderful opportunities you never could have imagined. The COVID-19 pandemic is a reminder to all of us that change can change its mind anytime. Now more than ever, it is important to keep perspective and remember that our life is what we create. Positive thoughts have a good effect on us. They can support us to become happier, heathier, and add value to our entire lives—especially during times of great uncertainty. Maintaining a positive mindset can attract more brightness into your life, so you can successfully navigate those curveballs out of left field and move forward, not backward, while life plays out. Jane’s Jam is not self-help jargon; it is edutainment for the soul. Following in the footsteps of Butter Side Up: How I Survived My Most Terrible Year and Created My Super Awesome Life, this powerful, uniquely inspiring, and humorous OMG-playbook approach to overcoming adversity and living your best life will help readers look on the bright side, bounce back from the unthinkable, and intentionally create a super awesome life—no matter what the situation. Author: Jane Enright Publication Date: November 1, 2022 -
Pray. Trust. Ride: encourages you to stay in the saddle and ride through life with a looser rein. We live more fully when we can let go— even when all looks bleak and our brains scream, Hang on and do something! Do anything! Fix this! Stop that! The truth is, those problems that strangle our hearts are the sort of problems that we can’t fix. King Jehoshaphat understood that when he was boxed in by his enemy; at his most vulnerable moment, he leaned on God and let go of the outcome. Using this approach as her guiding principle, Lisa Boucher shares in this helpful guide how to lean on spiritual principles to help people live with less anxiety and strife, and how letting go allows us to accept that we can’t solve all our problems; we can’t save others from themselves; we can’t stop the inevitable from happening. What we can do is let go and trust that God has our backs. Author: Lisa Boucher Publication Date: November 1, 2022 -
In this no-holds-barred, provocative book, Terri Laxton Brooks tells a story that often remains hidden— that of a successful professional who has many friends and family and yet all her life has struggled with a loneliness she’s never revealed to anyone. Terri thinks her feelings of isolation will end with her marriage to her childhood sweetheart and their move from a farm town to the city of Chicago. But once the sheen of newlywed passion wears off, her husband, by nature reticent, grows even more emotionally distant. In her new job as a reporter for a Chicago paper, Terri hides her loneliness under a flurry of bylines and deadlines. But she can’t shake a feeling she’s had since childhood—of failure to connect, not just as a wife but also as a daughter, friend, and colleague—and soon she and her husband separate. Adrift, Terri contemplates suicide. Could a move to different city, to a fresh start, solve her problem? Terri’s decision to transplant herself to New York City forces her hand in a way she never imagined: it plunges her into a loneliness so total that out of desperation she grabs the key to her own salvation— ; love of interviewing, researching, hearing people’s stories. After starting therapy, her curiosity leads her into four years of soul-searching conversations with America’s leading psychologists and psychiatrists about how to cope with loneliness, why it is a normal and necessary stage of healthy growth, and how to stop resisting it. She explores with growing understanding intimate details of her dreams, her past traumas, and her role in her own loneliness—and learns not only how to live comfortably with that loneliness but how to use it to her advantage. Author: Terri Laxton Brooks Publication Date: November 29, 2022 -
Alan and Joanne marry in midlife and live a happily-ever-after existence until, at sixty-nine, Alan is diagnosed with a rare, fatal, neurodegenerative illness. As he becomes increasingly disabled and dependent on others, and decreasingly able to find joy in life, he decides he wants to end his suffering using Colorado’s Medical Aid in Dying law. Joanne desperately wants Alan to live, but when he asks for her help completing the Medical Aid in Dying application, she can’t say no. She helps him complete the requirements, hoping deep down that his application will be denied . . . only to be stunned when his medical team approves his request and writes him a prescription for the life-ending drugs. Told with affection and spiced with humor, Walking Him Home is Joanne’s tale of coming to terms with her kind, funny husband’s illness; of learning to navigate the intricate passageways of caregiving and the pitfalls of our medical system; and of choosing to help Alan in his quest to die with dignity, even though she wants nothing more than to grow old with him. Tender and heartfelt, this is one woman’s story about loving extravagantly—and being loved in kind. Author: Joanne Tubbs Kelly Publication Date: August 9, 2022 -
We live in a critical and oftentimes violent world. People are afraid to talk about what they feel, think, or believe. They withhold energy for fear of being ridiculed, punished, or excluded. They hide their deepest dreams and desires away and cover them up with doubt, insecurity, old experiences, and fears. Cynthia James know this—because that was her experience. Covering seven decades of living, traveling, and growing, Does My Voice Matter? follows James’s journey of self-discovery and authenticity as she gradually recognizes that she has a voice—and learns how to use it. She uses her own life experiences as a backdrop for her exploration of how the voice is used as a tool of engagement; how a singular or collective voice can enhance empowerment, transparency, and accountability; and, finally, how expression can develop new ideas, shift cultures, political views, transform organizations, create laws, and improve lives. Written for anyone who wants to discover the power within that makes them special, Does My Voice Matter? has a vital message: Uniqueness is your own glorious imprint on this planet, and it is calling you to come out. It doesn’t matter if your awakening is large or small, it doesn’t matter what your age, race, religion, or history is—anyone can begin right where they are, right now. Author: Cynthia Jones Publication Date: September 27, 2022 -
Many women live in silence, holding fear and shame about their finances. Many know they could feel better financially but are unsure how to even begin to change. In You Are Worthy, Kelley Holland, a former New York Times business editor and award-winning financial journalist, goes to the heart of women’s money challenges—shining a light on problem areas, providing solutions, and instilling the confidence and skills you need to take charge of your money and achieve financial well-being. In this accessible, easy-to-follow resource, Holland leverages her professional experience and more than 100 interviews with women around the country, taking you step by step through the process of transforming your relationship to money. You will shed outdated beliefs about your abilities; you will be inspired to put your money to work; and you will come away with skills and knowledge to create an integrated financial plan to help you achieve your goals. Affirming and empowering, You Are Worthy will leave you feeling as if you’ve just had a thorough, reassuring money conversation with a trusted guide. After reading this book, you will feel less alone in your money challenges. You will build vital financial skills and knowledge. And you will come away with greater confidence, clarity, and hope—not just about money but about your whole life. Author: Kelley Holland Publication Date: September 20, 2022 -
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Through personal stories and extensive research, Sidelined: How Women Manage (and Mismanage) Their Health examines the many ways in which women unwittingly neglect their own health. Researcher and writer Susan Salenger describes how women tend to place their needs behind the needs of their families, how they blame themselves for getting sick, and how they too often hesitate to question their doctors’ advice. But women’s attitudes toward themselves and their health don’t exist in a vacuum—which is why Salenger also examines the cultural and medical history that has conditioned women not to act in their own best interest, offering insight into the gender biases of the medical community and exploring why women are misdiagnosed more often than men and why we’ve been routinely omitted from clinical trials. Designed to help women—particularly women over thirty-five—become more aware of why they make the decisions they do and Sidelined will equip readers with the knowledge, language, and skill sets they need to get the best healthcare possible. Author: Susan Salenger Pub Date: April 12, 2022 -
A full one-fifth of the United States has engaged in consensual non-monogamy (CNM) at some point in their lives, and 29 percent of adults under thirty today consider open relationships to be morally acceptable—yet there are few resources to turn to when it comes to navigating this more non-traditional and explorative territory. Picking up where CNM self-help books like Open Up, The Ethical Slut, and More Than Two leave off, Open Deeplytackles the most difficult challenges posed by CNM. Therapist Kate Loree—who has practiced non-monogamy since 2003, and who specializes in treating clients who also practice non-monogamy—pulls no punches as she uses vignettes based on her own life, as well as her clients’ experiences, to illustrate the highs, lows, and in-betweens of life as a consensual non-monogamist. Interwoven with these stories are thorough explanations of how attachment theory impacts non-monogamy, how blending cutting-edge, neurobiology-informed grounding skills with effective communication skills will make even the most challenging conversations regarding non-monogamy manageable, and more. The result is a compassionate, attachment-focused template for non-monogamy that will allow readers to avoid pitfalls and find adventure while concurrently building healthy relationships. Non-monogamy is a wild and woolly ride—and Open Deeply is here to help make it a great one. Author: Kate Loree Pub Date: April 19, 2022 -
Lucinda Jackson, a harried scientist and business executive, sets off to make a break from her corporate decades and have an “extraordinary” retirement. She launches into a five-phase “Project Escape,” complete with a vision, goals, and a scorecard of success to deliver this next chapter. Soon, Jackson and her semi-reluctant husband of thirty years are off to the Pacific island country of Palau. But while Jackson got the girl out of the corporation, even the jolt of Palau can’t fully get the corporation out of the girl. Struggling through self-examination around purpose, identity, ego, marriage, and parenthood after years of investing so much in career, Jackson learns who she is again. Whether you’re thinking ahead to retirement or are already there, Project Escape provides an unvarnished but ultimately encouraging reference in navigating the “post-career” era. Author: Lucinda Jackson Pub Date: April 12, 2022
