Becoming Alive and Real

Becoming Alive and Real
Author: Cherie McCoy
Publisher:
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2016-07-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9781535074902

In Becoming Alive and Real, Cherie McCoy depicts the process of Self Acceptance Training, a healing method which delivers insights into the connections between life experiences and the patterns of emotions, tensions and pain which can be held within the body. Utilizing tools and principles she has refined over 47 years of teaching, she describes guiding students in search of understanding, catharsis, and ultimately peace. Along with explaining the philosophy behind her work, Cherie offers real life examples of how Self Acceptance Training can bring physical, emotional and spiritual life changes. In our very intellectual and analytical culture where so much power and credence is given to the mind, we often forget that we are essentially a body, with an ability to think, which separates us from other animals. As we journey into the body's truth, we're exploring a new frontier, and just like the pioneers of history, we don't always know what we will discover. This is an exciting and sometimes scary adventure which is always extremely rewarding. At the end of each foray into these discoveries, the gifts of peace, self confidence, inner strength, and a wondrous connection with our true self emerges.

Becoming Alive

Becoming Alive
Author: Ryan LaMothe
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2005
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9781583919316

Becoming Alive draws on the Winnicottian idea of transitional objects, and puts forward the argument that human beings relate to and use objects in order to generate experiences of 'being alive'.

All American Boys

All American Boys
Author: Jason Reynolds
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2015-09-29
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1481463357

A 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book, and recipient of the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature. In this New York Times bestselling novel, two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension. A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement? There were witnesses: Quinn Collins—a varsity basketball player and Rashad’s classmate who has been raised by Paul since his own father died in Afghanistan—and a video camera. Soon the beating is all over the news and Paul is getting threatened with accusations of prejudice and racial brutality. Quinn refuses to believe that the man who has basically been his savior could possibly be guilty. But then Rashad is absent. And absent again. And again. And the basketball team—half of whom are Rashad’s best friends—start to take sides. As does the school. And the town. Simmering tensions threaten to explode as Rashad and Quinn are forced to face decisions and consequences they had never considered before. Written in tandem by two award-winning authors, this four-starred reviewed tour de force shares the alternating perspectives of Rashad and Quinn as the complications from that single violent moment, the type taken directly from today’s headlines, unfold and reverberate to highlight an unwelcome truth.

How to Die

How to Die
Author: Ray Robertson
Publisher: Biblioasis
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2020-01-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1771960957

A radical revaluation of how contemporary society perceives death—and an argument for how it can make us happy. “He who would teach men to die would teach them to live,” writes Montaigne in Essais, and in How to Die: A Book about Being Alive, Ray Robertson takes up the challenge. Though contemporary society avoids the subject and often values the mere continuation of existence over its quality, Robertson argues that the active and intentional consideration of death is neither morbid nor frivolous, but instead essential to our ability to fully value life. How to Die is both an absorbing excursion through some of Western literature’s most compelling works on the subject of death as well as an anecdote-driven argument for cultivating a better understanding of death in the belief that, if we do, we’ll know more about what it means to live a meaningful life.

Man Alive

Man Alive
Author: Thomas Page McBee
Publisher: Canongate Books
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2017-05-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1786890895

If he is to become a man, what sort of man should Thomas Page McBee be? To find out, McBee must confront the suffering he has endured at the hands of men: the abuse he endured as a child from his father, and the violent mugging which almost killed him as an adult. Standing at the brink of the life-changing decision to transition from female to male, McBee seeks to understand these examples of flawed manhood, and reclaim his body on his own terms. Powerful, uplifting and profound, Man Alive is a story about transformation; about freedom, and love, and finding the strength to rebuild ourselves as the people we are meant to be.

WHEREAS

WHEREAS
Author: Layli Long Soldier
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Total Pages: 121
Release: 2017-03-07
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1555979610

The astonishing, powerful debut by the winner of a 2016 Whiting Writers' Award WHEREAS her birth signaled the responsibility as mother to teach what it is to be Lakota therein the question: What did I know about being Lakota? Signaled panic, blood rush my embarrassment. What did I know of our language but pieces? Would I teach her to be pieces? Until a friend comforted, Don’t worry, you and your daughter will learn together. Today she stood sunlight on her shoulders lean and straight to share a song in Diné, her father’s language. To sing she motions simultaneously with her hands; I watch her be in multiple musics. —from “WHEREAS Statements” WHEREAS confronts the coercive language of the United States government in its responses, treaties, and apologies to Native American peoples and tribes, and reflects that language in its officiousness and duplicity back on its perpetrators. Through a virtuosic array of short lyrics, prose poems, longer narrative sequences, resolutions, and disclaimers, Layli Long Soldier has created a brilliantly innovative text to examine histories, landscapes, her own writing, and her predicament inside national affiliations. “I am,” she writes, “a citizen of the United States and an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, meaning I am a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation—and in this dual citizenship I must work, I must eat, I must art, I must mother, I must friend, I must listen, I must observe, constantly I must live.” This strident, plaintive book introduces a major new voice in contemporary literature.

Dreaming of You

Dreaming of You
Author: Melissa Lozada-Oliva
Publisher: Astra Publishing House
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2021-10-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1662600593

"A feverish story of young adulthood, exploring how fandom and obsession shape how we relate to the world . . . Dreaming of You navigates the complexities of Latinx identity, self-loathing, love, and the loneliness of drifting into adulthood." —Miguel Salazar, Vulture "At the center of this exploration of insecurities, joys, and identity stands Melissa Lozada-Oliva—an unapologetic poet who isn’t afraid of the rawness of the mind and is resilient in her writing— so much so that it feels like we’re talking to our best friend." —Bianca Pérez, Porter House Review A macabre novel in verse of loss, longing, and identity crises following a poet who resurrects pop star Selena from the dead. Melissa Lozada-Oliva's Dreaming of You is an absurd yet heartfelt examination of celebrity worship. A young Latinx poet grappling with loneliness and heartache decides one day to bring Tejano pop star Selena Quintanilla back to life. The séance kicks off an uncanny trip narrated by a Greek chorus of gossiping spirits as she journeys through a dead celebrity prom, encounters her shadow self, and performs karaoke in hell. In visceral poems embodying millennial angst, paragraph-long conversations overheard at her local coffeeshop, and unhinged Twitter rants, Lozada-Oliva reveals an eerie, sometimes gruesome, yet moving love story. Playfully morbid and profoundly candid, an interrogation of Latinidad, womanhood, obsession, and disillusionment, Dreaming of You grapples with the cost of being seen for your truest self.

If We Were Villains

If We Were Villains
Author: M. L. Rio
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2017-04-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250095301

“Much like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, M. L. Rio’s sparkling debut is a richly layered story of love, friendship, and obsession...will keep you riveted through its final, electrifying moments.” —Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The Nest "Nerdily (and winningly) in love with Shakespeare...Readable, smart.” —New York Times Book Review On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the truth, and after ten years, Oliver is finally ready to tell it. A decade ago: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extras. But in their fourth and final year, good-natured rivalries turn ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students’ world of make-believe. In the morning, the fourth-years find themselves facing their very own tragedy, and their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, each other, and themselves that they are innocent. If We Were Villains was named one of Bustle's Best Thriller Novels of the Year, and Mystery Scene says, "A well-written and gripping ode to the stage...A fascinating, unorthodox take on rivalry, friendship, and truth."

Zen Play (Instructions on Becoming Fully Alive)

Zen Play (Instructions on Becoming Fully Alive)
Author: Brenda Shoshanna
Publisher: Brenda Shoshanna
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2019-07-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1094310670

"Brenda Eshin Shoshanna's book - Zen Play, is a brilliant gem, the graceand precision of turning problems into koans keeps us spellbound. Koans like,"Find Your Precious Jewel," remind us to stop looking outside for what can onlybe found within. And, "Drink A Cup of Green Tea", restores us to beautifulsimplicity and clarity, which ignites our spirit of aliveness. I've read itfrom the first page to the last, love it and highly recommend it." --Michio J. Rolek, Author, LifeCoach, Great granddaughter of Sokei-an Shigestsu Sassaki, First Zen Patriarchin the West. "Brenda Shoshanna is one of the most innovative and provocative Buddhistthinkers in the United States today. In Zen Play, she provides a compelling newapproach to traditional koan study--one that offers the reader the opportunityto turn his or her whole life into a koan. Written in a simple yet evocativestyle and filled with timeless wisdom, Zen Play is a work that will appeal to bothnewcomers to Zen thought as well as those seeking to deepen their understandingof koan practice. --Michael S. Russo, Ph.D. Professorof Philosophy, Molloy College "The need to help others transform their suffering doesn't come to everyone.Brenda Shoshanna has proven it time and again, with compassion and clarity, walkingwith so many. Zen Play, Instructions on Becoming Fully Alive, offers the readera way to wake up and to love." --Danny Eglowitz, CASAC, DynamicYouth Community “Brenda's Zen work is a good place to begin, to begin again and to never finish. Those searching for the "Way" will find there is no such thing. But much more, Brenda's book is delightful. Those suffering from "frozen attention" will laugh at ourselves." --Fr. Robert Kennedy, Roshi. Founder, Morningstar Zen. Life presents inscrutable challenges daily that are impossible to figure out. In the world of Zen, these ancient dilemmas and questions were called koans. They cannot be answered in the usual way. And yet a response must be made! Your very life depends on it. ZEN PLAY connects these ancient koans with your everyday life. It shows how daily dilemmas are none other than koans that life is presenting to you now. In the book you will discover the Zen way of working with koans, and how to approach your challenges that way as well. As you stop trying to figure things out and jump into Zen Play you will gain access to the enormous riches, wisdom and joy within. Then what you have previously viewed as a problem will become an adventure, bringing aliveness and strength. Along with anecdotes and discussion, there are specific guidelines and enjoyable exercises which allows you to apply the material directly to your everyday life. Written by a psychologist, and long term Zen practitioner Zen Play presents a new path, offering the power of simple moments.

Being Alive

Being Alive
Author: Tim Ingold
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2011-04-19
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1136735437

Anthropology is a disciplined inquiry into the conditions and potentials of human life. Generations of theorists, however, have expunged life from their accounts, treating it as the mere output of patterns, codes, structures or systems variously defined as genetic or cultural, natural or social. Building on his classic work The Perception of the Environment, Tim Ingold sets out to restore life to where it should belong, at the heart of anthropological concern. Being Alive ranges over such themes as the vitality of materials, what it means to make things, the perception and formation of the ground, the mingling of earth and sky in the weather-world, the experiences of light, sound and feeling, the role of storytelling in the integration of knowledge, and the potential of drawing to unite observation and description. Our humanity, Ingold argues, does not come ready-made but is continually fashioned in our movements along ways of life. Starting from the idea of life as a process of wayfaring, Ingold presents a radically new understanding of movement, knowledge and description as dimensions not just of being in the world, but of being alive to what is going on there.