Self-Development Audiobooks - page 2

Prior to 1990, fewer than five percent of domestic infant adoptions were open. In 2012, ninety percent or more of adoption agencies are recommending open adoption. Yet these agencies do not often or adequately prepare either adopting parents or birth parents for the road ahead of them! The adult parties in open adoptions are left floundering. There are many resources on why to do open adoption, but what about how? Open adoption isn't just something parents do when they exchange photos, send emails, share a visit. It's a lifestyle that may feel intrusive at times, be difficult or inconvenient at other times. Tensions can arise even in the best of circumstances. But knowing how to handle these situations and how to continue to make arrangements work for the child involved is paramount. This book offers readers the tools and the insight to do just that. It covers common open-adoption situations and how real families have navigated typical issues successfully. Like all useful parenting books, it provides parents with the tools to come to answers on their own, and answers questions that might not yet have come up. Through their own stories and those of other families of open adoption, Lori and Crystal review the secrets to success, the pitfalls and challenges, the joys and triumphs. By putting the adopted child at the center, families can come to enjoy the benefits of open adoption and mitigate the challenges that may arise. More than a how-to, this book shares a mindset, a heartset, that can be learned and internalized, so parents can choose to act out of love and honesty throughout their child’s growing up years, helping that child to grow up whole.

An entertaining and insightful pageturner about modern marriage and a tight-knit group of friends navigating their 30s and beyond. It's tradition that on everyone's birthday, the three couples gather to celebrate. They've toasted each other's big life milestones, and been there for each other through loss and disappointment, too. Nathan is the first to turn 40, and when the cake arrives, he makes a shocking announcement. The birthday ritual, and the group of friends, will never be the same again. Confessions follow, and secrets get revealed. One couple's crumbling marriage forces the other two couples to reexamine their own marriages, and the fault lines that lurk beneath. Will their bonds be strong enough to survive issues like infidelity, infertility, and waning passion, plus a series of crises that push each relationship to the brink? The answers may prove surprising. A year after Nathan's big declaration, as the group gathers for the year's final birthday celebration, every person and every relationship will be fundamentally changed. Perfect for fans of Emma Straub, J. Courtney Sullivan, and Rebecca Serle, Reservations for Six is a deeply satisfying novel full of wisdom, humor, and heart. It shines a spotlight on the phase of marriage when the fabric has started to fray, and deftly observes how couples cope, grow, and eventually thrive-together or apart.

Winner of the 2015 COVR Award for Best Self-Help Book! Blamestorming outlines the reasons why our daily conversations go wrong, explains how to respond when they do and provides tips on how to stop them going wrong in the first place. Based on his experience as a highly respected communications coach for international companies and business professionals, Rob Kendall provides a practical guide to achieving more rewarding and effective interactions with everyone in your life - from your boss to your partner. Rob's techniques have been proven to be effective for thousands of people from all walks of life and are presented in an illustrated step-by-step format that makes them easy to put into practice from Day One. Underpinning the book's approach to consistently having better interactions is an explanation of the warning signals that indicate when a conversation is going off track.

Become a Writing Hero A creative writing mentor in inspirational book form. Imagine having your own personal mentor―someone encouraging yet honest, supportive yet empowering, who could help you set and achieve your goals, turn your moments of doubt and fear into sources of strength, and discover what you’re truly capable of when you’re at your best. Kendra Levin is that mentor. And with The Hero is You , she’s here to help you do the best writing of your life―and live your best life while doing it. A motivational self-care book for writing aficionados. Using a fresh new approach to Joseph Campbell’s archetypal Hero’s Journey, Levin reveals how to be a hero in the narrative of your own process. She weaves together wisdom drawn from her years as a life coach for writers and an editor at the world’s biggest publishing house with behind-the-scenes stories from a panoply of best-selling authors and career entertainers. With over thirty exercises designed to help you reinvent your creative process from the inside out, this book will show you how to: Identify your biggest challenges and render them powerless Start a project that you love―and stick with it Design a structure for writing regularly Great motivational book for anyone dealing with writer's block or other writing obstacles. Whether you’re a first-time writer with a brand-new project or a seasoned pro, you’ll reach the end of this book feeling fulfilled, inspired, and ready to mentor the next writer on their creative journey. Readers of self-help books and personal development books for writers and creatives like The Artist's Way , Bird by Bird , The Artist's Way Workbook , and Big Magic will be inspired and encouraged by The Hero is You .

Give your best friend more purr and pounce with this whiskers-to-tail guide to the good life! One reason we’re wild for cats is that our cats are still wild at heart. On our laps, they’re purring lovebugs, but on the prowl, they’re fearsome hunters—with territorial instincts to match. The Handbook for a Happy Cat takes us inside the feline mind to decode what our cats really want in life and how they try to tell us. You’ll learn: Why a bigger water bowl does away with “whisker stress” How to move like a mouse for maximum fun at playtime Skills to teach your kitten for a lifetime of easy vet visits, grooming, and more Subtle signs of stress such as excessive scent-marking and lip-licking How to tell frolic from fighting in the multi-cat household (and how to give frenemies a fresh start) What makes a scratching post so tempting that your sofa will be spared How to reassure a spooked cat with the “slow blink” Why it’s pointless to “punish” a cat—but training is possible! Certified behaviorist Liesbeth Puts traces every feline mystery to cats’ natural behavior and needs. A happy cat is a cat who can be herself!

With the constant connectivity of today’s world, it’s never been easier to meet people and make new friends—but it’s never been harder to form meaningful friendships. In Frientimacy, award-winning speaker Shasta Nelson shows how anyone can form stronger, more meaningful friendships, marked by a level of trust she calls “frientimacy.” Shasta explores the most common complaints and conflicts facing female friendships today, and lays out strategies for overcoming these pitfalls to create deeper, supportive relationships that last for the long-term. Shasta is the founder of girlfriendcircles.com, a community of women seeking stronger, more fulfilling friendships, and the author of Friendships Don’t Just Happen. In Frientimacy, she teaches readers to reject the impulse to pull away from friendships that aren’t instantly and constantly gratifying. With a warm, engaging, and inspiring voice, she shows how friendships built on dedication and commitment can lead to enriched relationships, stronger and more meaningful ties, and an overall increase in mental health. Frientimacy is more than just a call for deeper connection between friends; it’s a blueprint for turning simple friendships into true bonds—and for the meaningful and satisfying relationships that come with them.

Dead foods—devoid of any microscopic life—are causing us to feel sick, tired, and depressed. In A Gut Instinct: Conquer Your Sweet Tooth by Tuning Into Your Microbiome, Heather Wise takes you through her personal journey uncovering a hidden inner world of microflora that shapes our mood, physical health, sweet cravings, and even genes. Sweet Palate gives practical steps in rebalancing and healing our gut microbial balance to relieve stress, digestive upsets, inflammation, bloat, excess belly fat, and improve our mood. Wise offers a much sought after alternative to the complex world of fad diets and calorie counting in this easy, evidence-based guide for wellbeing. Rooted in scientific research and providing a number of healthy sweet fixes high in prebiotics and probiotic foods that support the growth of healthy gut flora, this book is a practical guide to help heal our relationship with food and tune into what our gut has been trying to tell us.

Blending Families responds to the need for a book that explores step-parenting by starting with the marriage as the central relationship in a new blended family unit. Just as you are better able to help your child in an airplane emergency if you put your oxygen mask on first, you are better able to blend two families if you take care of the marriage first. Starting with a discussion of attachment styles, the authors explore how those styles translate into the new family unit when trying to forge a new marriage while parenting tween and teen children in a family unit that is new to them as well. They provide parenting guidance premised on the fact that parenting occurs within a context, and in this case, a context that is unfamiliar territory for everyone involved. Using true stories throughout, they explore the variety of challenges that may arise, such as sibling rivalry, puberty, dating, emotional and intellectual differences, and preferential treatment, and offer suggestions for overcoming obstacles to fully blending. By focusing the light on the marriage as the most important source of stability, the authors encourage readers to develop a style of parenting that works for everyone and brings a sense of unity and strength to the household.

Today more than ever, everyone must be her or his own healer, and this is especially true in the management of anxiety and depression. In the first major conceptual leap in mental health care in forty years, Mind Easing's Three-Layered Healing Plan harmonizes wellness approaches, therapy, and, when needed, medicine into a safe and effective plan tailored to the needs and wishes of the individual. Written by noted psychiatrist Bick Wanck, MD, one of the founders of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and an experienced clinician, writer, and educator, Mind Easing shows how to relieve and often resolve anxiety and depression by assisting the mind's natural ability to heal. Along with non-medicinal healing methods, Mind Easing shows how to use psychiatric medicine (if needed) safely and effectively as part of a mindfully constructed healing plan. Because some psychiatric medicines can blunt feelings and dull thinking, they can impede the flow of healing and interfere with the pleasures of living. Mind Easing suggests when and how psychiatric medicines may be stopped when they are counterproductive to healing. Mind Easing presents a comprehensive Three-Layered Healing Plan for anxiety and depression. Some readers will find all they need in Layer One: Enhancement of Healing without needing the help of a professional. Others will benefit from Layer Two: Guidance which describes how psychotherapy, body and energy work, and spiritual guidance may be used to assist healing. Those readers who experience severe anxiety and depression will find helpful information in Layer Three: Restoration of Healing. where Dr. Wanck explains the concepts of "soft" and "hard" anxiety and depression. Soft anxiety and depression are generally caused by stressful current life events or past genetically inherited conditions or by physiologic hardening of symptoms resulting from persistent or severe adversity or trauma.

Everything you need to know about love, life, relationships, sex, men, and being a badass Advice from girl bosses of all kinds: Women are, far and away, the Oral Sex. Women’s Studies scholar Becca Anderson has gathered the wisdom from a chorus of fabulous femmes for this one-of-a-kind advice book. From housewives to Hollywood starlets, from standup comedians to startup entrepreneurs, these badass women offer unvarnished and unabashed opinions and share their frank and forthright thinking on the wild world of relationships. A sassy collection of woman wisdom: This delightfully dishy gathering of gal pals is like having a heart-to-heart with 200 of your closest friends. Garrulous girls and loquacious ladies from every walk of life unleash their wicked wit in this humorous and enlightening compilation and tell it like it is. Topics include What the World Needs Now, Love Hurts, Lost Love, and Are Men Really Necessary. Learn and laugh at the real stories of the amazing women you love: true tales about wild women of yore that entertain as much as they enlighten. From Anais Nin, Lily Tomlin, Amy Bloom, Dorothy Allison, Drew Barrymore, Chrissy Teigan and beyond, there's no shortage of sass, sarcasm, or sizzle and a few shocks along the way! In Badass Women Give the Best Advice , readers will find: Wisdom about sex, dating, break ups, weddings, the prerequisites for the perfect kiss, and more! Quotes and true stories from famous women and girl bosses Quizzes, love and sex bucket lists and topics like “Size Really Does Matter,” and “Cry Me a River, The Weepiest Romantic Movies Ever” that will spice up your sex and love life Be enlightened with these no nonsense takes on dating, love life, sex, self-love, and more!