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The PTSD Workbook: Simple, Effective Techniques for Overcoming Traumatic Stress Symptoms (New Harbinger Self-Help Workbook)

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an extremely debilitating anxiety condition that can occur after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal. Although many know that this mental health issue affects veterans of war, many may not know that it also affects victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, natural disasters, crime, car accidents and accidents in the workplace. No matter the cause of their illness, people with PTSD will often relive their traumatic experience in the form of flashbacks, memories, nightmares, and frightening thoughts. This is especially true when they are exposed to events or objects that remind them of their trauma. Left untreated, PTSD can lead to emotional numbness, insomnia, addiction, anxiety, depression, and even suicide.

In The PTSD Workbook, Second Edition, psychologists and trauma experts Mary Beth Williams and Soili Poijula outline techniques and interventions used by PTSD experts from around the world to offer trauma survivors the most effective tools available to conquer their most distressing trauma-related symptoms, whether they are a veteran, a rape survivor, or a crime victim. Based in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the book is extremely accessible and easy-to-use, offering evidence-based therapy at a low cost. This new edition features chapters focusing on veterans with PTSD, the link between cortisol and adrenaline and its role in PTSD and overall mental health, and the mind-body component of PTSD.

This book is designed to arm PTSD survivors with the emotional resilience they need to get their lives back together after a traumatic event.

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Miracles Now: 108 Life-Changing Tools for Less Stress, More Flow, and Finding Your True Purpose

     Let’s be real for a sec. Most of us don’t have time for an hour of yoga or 30 minutes of meditation every day. We’re overwhelmed as it is. Our spiritual practice shouldn’t add to that.     That’s why I’ve hand-picked 108 simple techniques to combat our most common problems—stress, burnout, frustration, jealousy, resentment. The stuff we have to deal with on a daily basis. This CD is designed so that you can achieve peace and experience miracles now.     Inspired by some of the greatest spiritual teachings, Miracles Now uses practical, moment-to-moment tools to help you eliminate blocks and live with more ease. They’re powerful, life-changing meditations and principles, modernized and broken down into easy-to-digest techniques to fit your lifestyle.

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10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress without Losing My Edge, and Found a Self-Help That Actually Works–A True Story

[*Read by the author – Dan Harris]

Nightline anchor Dan Harris embarks on an unexpected, hilarious, and deeply skeptical odyssey through the strange worlds of spirituality and self-help and discovers a way to get happier that is truly achievable. — 10% Happier takes readers on a ride from the outer reaches of neuroscience to the inner sanctum of network news to the bizarre fringes of America’s spiritual scene and leaves them with a takeaway that could actually change their lives. — After having a nationally televised panic attack on Good Morning America, Dan Harris knew he had to make some changes. A lifelong nonbeliever, he found himself on a bizarre adventure involving a disgraced pastor, a mysterious self-help guru, and a gaggle of brain scientists. Eventually, Harris realized that the source of his problems was the very thing he always thought was his greatest asset: the incessant, insatiable voice in his head, which had both propelled him through the ranks of a hypercompetitive business and also led him to make the profoundly stupid decisions that provoked his on-air freak-out. — We all have a voice in our head. It’s what has us losing our temper unnecessarily, checking our email compulsively, eating when we’re not hungry, and fixating on the past and the future at the expense of the present. Most of us would assume we’re stuck with this voice–that there’s nothing we can do to rein it in–but Harris stumbled upon an effective way to do just that. It’s a far cry from the miracle cures peddled by the self-help swamis he met; instead, it’s something he always assumed to be either impossible or useless: meditation. After learning about research that suggests meditation can do everything from lower your blood pressure to essentially rewire your brain, Harris took a deep dive into the underreported world of CEOs, scientists, and even marines who are now using it for increased calm, focus, and happiness.

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10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works–A True Story

Nightline anchor Dan Harris embarks on an unexpected, hilarious, and deeply skeptical odyssey through the strange worlds of spirituality and self-help, and discovers a way to get happier that is truly achievable.

After having a nationally televised panic attack on Good Morning America, Dan Harris knew he had to make some changes. A lifelong nonbeliever, he found himself on a bizarre adventure, involving a disgraced pastor, a mysterious self-help guru, and a gaggle of brain scientists. Eventually, Harris realized that the source of his problems was the very thing he always thought was his greatest asset: the incessant, insatiable voice in his head, which had both propelled him through the ranks of a hyper-competitive business and also led him to make the profoundly stupid decisions that provoked his on-air freak-out.

We all have a voice in our head. It’s what has us losing our temper unnecessarily, checking our email compulsively, eating when we’re not hungry, and fixating on the past and the future at the expense of the present. Most of us would assume we’re stuck with this voice – that there’s nothing we can do to rein it in – but Harris stumbled upon an effective way to do just that. It’s a far cry from the miracle cures peddled by the self-help swamis he met; instead, it’s something he always assumed to be either impossible or useless: meditation. After learning about research that suggests meditation can do everything from lower your blood pressure to essentially rewire your brain, Harris took a deep dive into the underreported world of CEOs, scientists, and even marines who are now using it for increased calm, focus, and happiness.

10% Happier takes readers on a ride from the outer reaches of neuroscience to the inner sanctum of network news to the bizarre fringes of America’s spiritual scene, and leaves them with a takeaway that could actually change their lives.

Dan Harris Gretchen Rubin Gretchin Rubin interviews Dan Harris about 10% Happier

I met Dan Harris when a mutual friend suggested that we’d enjoy talking about habits, happiness, and meditation. We had a great discussion, and in fact, Dan was one of several people who inspired me to try meditating. 10% Happier is his hilarious, thought-provoking book about his experiences with meditation. I knew Dan had done a lot of thinking about the relationship of habits and happiness, and how to use habits to foster happiness, so I was eager to hear what he had to say.

Gretchen: What’s a simple habit that consistently makes you happier?

Dan: I never in a million years thought I’d be the type of person who’d say this, but my answer is … meditation.I had always assumed that meditation was for robed gurus, acid-droppers, and people who keep yurts in their backyard. But then I heard about the explosion of scientific research that shows the practice has an almost laughably long list of health benefits, from lowering your blood pressure to boosting your immune system to essentially rewiring your brain for happiness. I started with five minutes a day, and very quickly noticed three benefits: 1. Increased focus, 2. A greater sense of calm, and 3. A vastly improved ability to jolt myself out of rumination and fantasies about the past or the future, and back to whatever was happening right in front of my face.Over time (I’ve now been at it for about four years and do 35 minutes a day), an even more substantial benefit kicked in: I created a different relationship to the voice in my head. You know the voice I’m talking about. It’s what has us reaching into the fridge when we’re not hungry, checking our e-mail while we’re in conversation with other people, and losing our temper only to regret it later. The ability to see what’s going on in your head at any given moment without reacting to it blindly—often called “mindfulness”—is a superpower.I’m certainly not arguing that meditation is a panacea. I still do tons of stupid stuff – as my wife will attest. But the practice has definitely made me happier, calmer, and nicer.

Gretchen: What’s something you know now about forming healthy habits that you didn’t know when you were 18 years old?

Dan: A neuroscientist friend of mine once told me, “The brain is a pleasure-seeking machine. ” Usually, we do what makes us feel good. What I know now about habit formation that I didn’t know then is that I generally cannot create or break habits unless there is compelling self-interest involved.So, for example, with meditation, I was motivated to start the habit by the science that says it’s good for you—and I’ve been able to maintain it because, while the act of meditating is often quite tough, the “off-the-cushion” benefits are so readily apparent to me.

Gretchen: Do you have any habits that continually get in the way of your happiness?

Dan: Two biggies:1. Multitasking: I’ve seen all the studies that say our brains are not capable of concentrating on more than one thing at a time and that multitasking is a huge drag on efficiency and productivity. And yet, I still frequently find myself flitting between email, Twitter, phone calls, and whatever work I’m actually supposed to be doing.2. Mindless eating: I try very hard to eat healthfully, but I am a huge sucker for pasta, cheeseburgers, and cookies—and when I get into a feeding frenzy, it’s hard for me to stop. These episodes are almost always followed by a shame spiral.In theory, meditation should help with the above, since it teaches you to pay careful attention to whatever you’re doing right now. Alas, I still struggle. Hence the title of my book.

Gretchen: Have you ever managed to break an unhealthy habit? If so, how?

Dan: In my early thirties, as a young reporter for ABC News, I spent many years covering wars. When I got back from one particularly long and hairy run in Baghdad, I became depressed. In an act of towering stupidity, I began to self-medicate, dabbling with cocaine and ecstasy. In hindsight, it was an attempt, at least partly, to recreate some of the thrill of the war zone.A side-effect of all of this, as my doctor later explained to me, was that the drugs increased the level of adrenaline in my brain, which is what, in all likelihood, produced a panic attack I had on live television in 2004 on Good Morning America. The shrink I consulted about this decreed in no uncertain terms that I needed to stop doing drugs—immediately. Faced with the potential demise of my career, breaking this habit was a pretty obvious call.

Gretchen: Have you ever made a flash change, where you changed a major habit very suddenly?

Dan: In the summer after I graduated from high school, I did experience a “flash change. ” I was in my car, driving to go see some friends, and I decided—seemingly out of nowhere—that after years of being a mediocre high school student, I was going to truly apply myself in the next phase of my life. The next year, when my father saw my first college report card, he nearly cried.Interestingly, the fact that I did well in college has had zero practical impact on my career in television news. I don’t think any of my employers has ever asked about my grades. But that flash change established a long-lasting habit of hard work and ambition. Which, it must be said, has sometimes been to my detriment. It was, I now believe, my fervent desire to excel at my job that led me to plunge headlong into war zones without considering the psychological consequences—which, in turn, led to the drugs and the panic attack. I’ve found that meditation has really helped me strike a better balance between striving and stress.

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Economic Stress: Harsh Truths and Keys to Empowerment

Economic Stress – Harsh Truths and Keys to Empowerment (2013) is a 13 chapter book that captures the personal stories of people who are facing challenges meeting their financial obligations because of job loss, not enough work, job instability or low wages and the impact this has on their well-being. Using their own words, stories of economic stress are shared in the first four chapters. These include some of the experiences of a civil engineer who wakes up swinging because of the economic stress that he is experiencing, a middle class family that lives paycheck to paycheck, a single mom who is trying to cope with the prospect of being unemployed for the first time in her career, and a highly educated professional who has not been able to find work for more than three years. The remainder of the book identifies strategies that could help a person or a family address economic stress more effectively by exploring issues such as: (1) managing bill collector demands for the mortgage, rent, car note, utilities and credit card payments by being proactive rather than reactive; (2) seeking social support and asking for help; (3) understanding how the job applicant process can work; (4) building relationships rather than networking; (5) knowing how to attract mentors and sponsors to increase the likelihood of finding employment; (6) changing your mindset to make your life better; and (7) entrepreneurship. A major question that is asked in this book is whether or not it may be time to redefine what the American Dream means in the 21st century. Is it home ownership with big salaries, and an abundance of disposable income and tangible items? Is it having a more frugal lifestyle that embraces health, greater peace of mind and autonomy? Or, is it being a part of a loving, strong, supportive family that has the capacity to endure and thrive? Economic Stress – Harsh Truths and Keys to Empowerment encourages the reader to examine these issues in a way that could help to promote a different outlook and also enhance a person’s or family’s quality of living.

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Indigo Teen Dreams: Guided Relaxation Techniques Designed to Decrease Stress, Anger and Anxiety while Increasing Self-esteem and Self-awareness (Indigo Dreams)

“Indigo Teen Dreams” is the 3rd CD/audio book in this stress-management series. Teens receive guided instructions for learning the relaxation/meditation techniques of breathing, visualizations, muscular relaxation and affirmations. “Indigo Teen Dreams” is designed to decrease stress, anger and anxiety while increasing self-esteem and self-awareness. These are the same proven techniques found on “Indigo Dreams” and “Indigo Ocean Dreams” but specifically designed to empower teens to become active participants in creating their own healthy, heart driven, peaceful lives. The narration is accompanied by music and an additional music sound track is included to further enhance your teen’s mind, body and spirit. Affirmations: Affirmations or positive statements build self-esteem and empower teens to accept themselves. Teens are instructed on how to use affirmations to feel good about themselves, relax or to improve an area or situation in their lives. Breathing: Teens explore breathing for calmness with the use of diaphragmatic or belly breathing. This proven technique encourages teens to feel calm and in control of their own energy. This self-calming technique can be used anytime, anywhere. Muscular Relaxation: Teens learn to manage anger, relax and see things more clearly. This easy, fun exercise relaxes muscles throughout the body as anxiety, tension and anger slip away. Teens will fall asleep more easily and experience a deeper, peaceful night’s sleep. Visualization: Teens enjoy this effective technique widely used for achieving sports goals, creating success and attaining wellness. Colorful imagery quiets the mind and relaxes the body as anger, stress and anxiety slip away.

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How to Reduce Pregnancy Stress Using the Positive Affirmations Technique (My Pregnancy Toolkit Books Collection)

Are you feeling stressed about your pregnancy and the upcoming childbirth? Do you worry that your stress will hurt your baby?  We all want this to be a calm and happy time in our life, but for many women pregnancy is a stressful experience.  Don’t let it get to you. There is a simple and efficient technique that you can use to deal with your stress. Stress can hurt both you and your baby. While you might struggle with insomnia and depression, your baby could suffer from malnutrition and an increased risk of birth defects. Stress during pregnancy can even cause preterm labor or a miscarriage. Studies have also shown that babies born to stressed-out mothers tend to follow suit and grow up to be anxiety-ridden adults. Your mood is already affecting your baby, so don’t wait to make a change.  Like you, I found pregnancy very stressful. Every day I worried that I wouldn’t be able to cope with my new role as a mother and that my childbirth would be terrifying.  I was constantly worried and anxious. It was then that I began using the positive affirmations technique and I found that my mood improved almost immediately.  
With the positive affirmations technique, you will learn how to replace negative thoughts with positive ones.Now you can change worry into reassurance and replace doubts with confidence. After you have read this book you will be able to put together your own positive affirmations and know how to use them for maximum effect. You will have a powerful tool to deal with your stress that you can use anywhere and at any time. Don’t let fear and doubts take over your pregnancy. Start working on your stress and discover just what a special time in your life this really is.  Have the calm, happy pregnancy that you want − starting today.

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Indigo Dreams: Relaxation and Stress Management Bedtime Stories for Children, Improve Sleep, Manage Stress and Anxiety (Indigo Dreams)

Indigo Dreams is a 60 minute CD/audio book designed to entertain your child while introducing them to 4 research-based, stress management techniques. Four unique bedtime stories incorporate diaphragmatic breathing, visualizations, progressive muscular relaxation, and affirmations (positive statements). These are the same techniques recommended for adults but presented in a fun, interactive format that appeal to children. Children follow the characters along as they learn belly breathing with A Boy and a Bear, make positive statements with The Affirmation Web, visualize with A Boy and a Turtle, and use progressive muscular relaxation with The Goodnight Caterpillar. All four of these stories are also available in book format. Indigo Dreams shorter stories are perfect for shorter attention spans and beginners. The stories are best suited for ages 4-9. These proven techniques encourage wellness and provide tools for children who suffer from anxiety, stress, trauma, hyperactivity, anger, sleep issues, and lack of confidence. The female narration is accompanied by soothing sounds of crickets, gentle breezes, and forest animals. An additional music sound track is included to further enhance your child’s relaxation experience.

The Relaxation Techniques found in these stories can help children:

* Decrease phobias, fears, night terrors, worries
* Deal with changes, transitions (divorce, death, relocating, family member in military, having a sibling with special needs, health challenges)
* Fall asleep peacefully and quickly * Have a more restful sleep
* Decrease moodiness, irritability * Increase creativity
* Increase positive attitude * Increase social skills
* Increase self-belief * Increase test scores
* Have greater attendance * Visit doctor less
* Manage pain during and after medical procedures and treatments
* Manage anxiety associated with hospital stays and treatments
* Sleep better when traveling, time changes, hotels, airplanes
* Self-soothe * Increase ability to focus and concentrate
* Recover from PTSD, Abuse, Neglect, Trauma * Decrease anger
* Mental Health Challenges, Depression, Bi-Polar, Anxiety Disorders
* Special Needs, Autism, Asperger, OCD, ADD, ADHD, SPD

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Affirmation Weaver: A Believe in Yourself Story, Designed to Help Children Boost Self-esteem While Decreasing Stress and Anxiety

THIS EDITION HAS REPLACED THE HARDCOVER AND THE STORY CAN BE FOUND ON THE INDIGO OCEAN DREAMS CD AND IN THE KINDLE STORE IN ENGLISH ASIN: B004NSV6T4 AND SPANISH ASIN: B005G0FS1K.

Children love to turn self-doubt into self-belief. Children relate to the dolphin in this story as the sea creatures show him how to believe in himself. Watch your child increase self esteem and build inner strength as the sea creatures weave a web of positive statements.

This feel good technique can be used to bolster self-image, manage stress and anxiety, and accomplish goals. This encouraging story will bring a smile to your face and give your child a tool that will last a lifetime.

This is one of four stories featured on the Indigo Ocean Dreams CD ISBN 9780970863362 along with Angry Octopus,, Sea Otter Cove, and Bubble Riding, all available on Amazon.