Mental Health and Wellness at OCAD U

In this gorgeous and contemplative New York Times bestselling picture book, legendary author-illustrator Tomie dePaola reminds us that mindfulness--being quiet, still, and present with one another--is a very special thing. Everything is in such a hurry, busy as busy can be. The birds are flying so fast, the dragonfly is zooming over the water--even the trees are waving their leaves. So what if we sit here, you next to me...and we can just be?

This little book is packed with over 100 quick exercises, each dealing with a different situation, to help you get calm, collected, and balanced. So if you feel like life is moving too fast and you're struggling to keep up with constant demands and commitments, don't let anxiety and worry get the better of you -- integrate these mindfulness exercises, practices, and reflections into your daily life and get in control and feel more confident, calm, and present. By progressing through the pocketbook, you will develop mindful ways of thinking and doing that will benefit a wide range of situations in your personal, social, and work life. Slow down, take a deep breath, and take that step toward an easier and more manageable life. [...] Mindfulness Pocketbook is the take-with-you guide to receptive, constructive thinking.

IntheFlow - Taking Mindfulness to Work is an uplifting, eloquent and enlightening book that provokes us to wake up and notice the small stuff so that we live more fulfilling lives. The book is packed with enthusiasm about how we can change our lives for the better by providing us with tools, tips and practices that can impact our personal and professional lives. It offers anecdotes, principles, processes and philosophies that are accessible, simple and very powerful. IntheFlow has the capacity to enhance the way we perceive - and experience - our lives, the way we work as teams, and as a result, our overall productivity and levels of performance. It explains six 'prompts' that awaken us to the ordinary - yet special - moments of our lives, by paying attention, on purpose, to these moments.

Why should mindfulness and meditation be taught at universities? What impact could the establishment of such programs have on students and on the education system itself? Andreas de Bruin showcases the remarkable results of the first ten years of the Munich Model »Mindfulness and Meditation in a University Context« - a program started in the year 2010 in which 2000 students have already participated. Through meditation-journal entries featured in the book, students describe the effects of mindfulness and meditation on their studies and in their daily lives. In addition to an overview of cutting-edge research into mindfulness and meditation, along with in-depth analyses and explanations of key terms, the book also contains numerous practical exercises with instructions.

This book explores mindfulness, approaching it in such a way as to relate specifically to the many roles or challenges librarians face. Coinciding with the increased need to juggle a variety of tasks, technologies, ebooks, and databases, the new Association of College & Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy, and the challenges faced by solo librarians in school libraries which have suffered cutbacks in help in recent years, the time is exactly right for this publication. [...] The topic of mindfulness is not new; it has been connected to various religious traditions in a wide variety of ways for centuries, most notably Buddhism. In the latter part of the 20th century, however, a secular version was popularized largely by the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn and his work on MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) at the University of Massachusetts's Medical School. The medical benefits and the overall quality of life improvements from its adoption have exploded in recent years, in particular, the last two decades which have seen mindfulness traditions incorporated into education to a greater degree and with very positive results.

Mindful Thoughts for Walkers explores how walking is an opportunity to deepen our levels of physical and spiritual awareness. Mindful walking can help us face the existential questions of 'Who am I?', 'Where have I come from?', What am I doing here?' and 'Where am I going?' Through a series of 25 succinct meditations on walking, Adam Ford presents an enlightening guide to how mindfulness and walking can help us improve our conscious living, including:   * Taking time to breathe * Finding your rhythm * Being aware of your surroundings ­ * Long-distance walking * Walking with others * Walking by night, by rivers and canals, and exploring the city From a gentle daily stroll to a brisk hike across the mountaintops, this is a powerful reading companion for rural and urban walker alike.

You are more than you think. With this evidence-based guide, you'll learn to break free from the self-critical stories you've created about yourself, and develop the self-compassion and self-acceptance you need to reach your full potential. We all have stories we've created about ourselves--some of them positive and some of them negative. If you suffer from low self-esteem, your story may include these types of narratives: "I'm a failure," "I'll never be able to do that," or "If only I were smarter or more attractive, I could be happy."  Ironically, at the end of the day, these narratives are your biggest roadblocks to achieving happiness and living the life you deserve. So, how can you break free from these stories--once and for all? Grounded in evidence-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), this workbook offers a step-by-step program to help you break free from self-doubt, learn to accept yourself and your faults, identify and cultivate your strengths, and reach your full potential. You'll also discover ways to take action and move toward the life you truly want, even when these actions trigger self-doubt. Finally, you'll learn to see yourself in all your complexity, with kindness and compassion.

Open Mind, Open Heart Millions have found mindfulness to be a powerful practice for reducing stress, enhancing attention, and instilling tranquility. But it can offer so much more--it can transform you, make you more fully awake, alive, and aware of your connection to all beings. In Japanese, the character that best expresses mindfulness, 念, consists of two parts--the top part, 今, meaning "now," and the bottom part, 心, meaning "heart." Using stories from his own life as the son of an Irish father and a Japanese mother, a professor in Japan and America, a psychotherapist, a father, and a husband, Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu describes eight "heartfulness" principles that help us realize that the deepest expression of an enlightened mind is found in our relation to others.

Happiness at Work: Mindfulness, Analysis and Well-being tells you what to apply, how to apply and why it works. It is utterly simplistic to wish away external stressors. However, are you taking the best decisions about them? Everyone gets some of their decisions wrong, aver the behavioral economists, as universal distortions are always at work. We can deploy some decision-making paradigms to minimize these distortions. We are beset with individual distortions too, as we are wired with certain tendencies and default modes. As soon as you understand the source and dynamics of these individual distortions, you would begin to heal. Your everyday errors, interpersonal interactions, nighttime dreams and body language, all give useful clues to this wiring. On top of this insight, you can build a fine temperament of mindfulness about your body, mind and interactions as well as your entire life. This would lead to peak emotional and mental wellness. Even as professionals leading busy lives, you would see the signs of progress yourself, in weeks and months. This is what 'happiness at work' is all about.

The first book to present mindfulness and yoga-based treatment for dysregulated, consumption-oriented disorders. [...] Although numerous texts have examined these approaches for treatment of depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, this is the first to address mindfulness and yoga-based approaches as embodied tools for reducing dysregulation associated with self-destructive and consumption-oriented behaviors. [...] Tapping into the concept of a "hungry self" within the context of consumerism, the book advocates mindfulness and yoga approaches as alternate pathways toward a contented, regulated, and authentic experience of self. It addresses various aspects of the consumptive self and defines related syndromes such as disordered eating, compulsive shopping, substance use, and gambling. Creating a context for using alternative and complementary approaches, the book describes the challenges of traditional therapies. It then covers the conceptual aspects of mindfulness and yoga and describes specific protocols that facilitate behaviors associated with a healthy experience of the self for a variety of disorders.