Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times: Powerful Tools to Cultivate Calm, Clarity, and Courage

by Philip Goldberg

A practical guide to surviving and thriving in a world gone madDo you ever feel torn between finding refuge and staying informed and engaged? Have you ever felt too stressed out to meditate? Too anxious to roll out your yoga mat or pray? The truth is, when the world gets chaotic and confounding, we need spiritual practice more than ever. That's when our souls need sustenance the most. That's when we really need to recharge and ground ourselves to take on the challenge. This concise, compassionate guide will help you access the silent sanctuary within you. It's filled with practical tools that provide spiritual support at a moment's notice, in whatever time you have, with whatever attention you can spare. Expert teacher Philip Goldberg draws on authoritative texts and masters from every spiritual path, especially the empirical methods of the Yoga tradition--as well as contemporary psychology, scientific research, and decades of interviews and personal experience. The result is a wide range of techniques to relieve the mind and body, refresh the spirit, and gird you for constructive action. You'll get insightful instruction in practices ranging from deep meditation to cognitive reframing to "spiritual space management," from silently communing with nature to actively engaging with spiritual companions. And you'll find detailed guidelines for creating a regular practice routine--along with an inventory of supplementary methods--that suits your personal needs and lifestyle. This breezy, thorough, pragmatic book will help you find refuge and healing from the crazy times we're living in--and it will prepare you for taking robust steps to help restore sanity in the world around you.

Genres: Spirituality, Self Help, Meditation, Psychology, Nonfiction

215 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 14, 2020

Reviews

[Navya · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

It is difficult to judge the advice before trying it out, but it is written clearly, effectively and simply. I enjoyed the approach to spirituality presented here.

A special credit to how disinterested the author was in making this advice seem 'business-like'. I believe the topics of self-betterment and spirituality have seen more than its fair share of hacks and quacks, and Goldberg seems genuinely very far from that world. I implicitly trust the advice given here to be shared in good faith.

What I struggled with (just a little) (as an atheist) was the reliance of religion and religious thinking. Goldberg makes a sincere and excellent effort to make most of this book secular, and while he largely succeed, there is something about spirituality that still requires working with the Divine or its Substitutes (tm). I continue to be on the lookout for a robust alternative.

[Maxim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been skimming it, but there are some very insightful passages among the fluff.

[Olena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This insightful book came to me at a perfect moment. I had many questions about meditation practices and found most of the answers in this tiny book.
Everybody can learn to meditate. And every learning experience is progressing better with a useful guide. This book is an excellent guidance on how to meditate and stay calm and peaceful during uncertain times.

[JoAnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully thought provoking!

I felt as though a dear friend was speaking with me, not to me, about ideas and feelings I wanted to explore. I am more hopeful about surviving these crazy times.

[Francine Apollo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is outstanding. I used it as one of my Lenten readings and it lifted me up every time I read it. I will keep it to read again next Lenten season. I especially liked it for the practical techniques to calm oneself and the focus on meditation.

Highly recommended

[Hasmik Manukyan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're someone who is already on spiritual journey, there's not much this book can give you. But I think there are a few things to learn and practice about spirituality for absolute beginners.

[ameni · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was exactly what I needed

[Sian Lile-Pastore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really helpful, loved it.