Great books have the power to reconfigure and manipulate our entire understanding of reality – and our place within it. Whether you’re looking for guidance or are in need of deep contemplative reflection, these top five mind-altering and consciousness-raising books will undoubtedly fulfill your expectations.

In no particular order…

Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert

Daniel Gilbert is a famous Harvard psychologist, specializing in the everyday flaws and biases of the human mind. According to Gilbert, humans are guilty of incorrectly judging others, inaccurate about what makes people happy, and even where you’re happy right here, in this moment.

Throughout the course of the book, Gilbert proves that happiness has little to do with what happens to us in our lives, and more to do with our outlook or our interpretation of things.

The reason? We each have a “psychological immune system,” that is responsible for explaining away our past experiences, future projections, or even current situations to ensure we maintain a baseline and steady level of happiness. It’s when this psychological immune system becomes weak that we fall into depression or experience mental breakdowns.

The True Believer, by Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer, by the end of this novel, proves to the reader why we believe in extremist ideologies, fundamentalism and fanaticism. Rather than beating around the bush, Hoffer helps readers understand everything from why they give up their identities for insane causes to how wars and revolutions are brought about and concluded.

This page turner is nothing short of brilliant, helping individuals understand how history came to be – and more importantly – our individual and important role in shaping the future.

Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, by Nassim Taleb

This book is chock full of life-changing, world-affecting ideas sure to rattle your entire existence and outlook. This may sound like a lofty claim, but within the confines of this book, for instance, Taleb proves: Continue reading →

Sleep in an incredibly important process that our bodies need in order to properly reset and recharge. Sleep is one of those things that either comes easily to you, or it doesn’t. Those who do not get enough sleep have probably battled with issues related to insomnia for their entire lives. This is in comparison to the people who can pretty much fall asleep standing up – I think we all know one!

If you are one of those people who needs to catch up on a few Zs, take a look at our sleep time recommendation below.

During the Day:

1. Exercise: Exercising during the day can not only improve you health, but it also improves your sleep patterns by reducing stress. However, try not to exercise 3 hours before bed because the adrenaline will keep you awake.

2. Avoid drinks: Limit your intake of caffeine and alcohol because they both make it difficult for you to fall asleep.

3. No naps: Sleeping during the day makes it difficult to fall sleep at night. If you absolutely must, limit naps to a power nap of 20 minutes.

Evening:

1. Food: Opt for a light meal over a heavier one. The heavier the meal, the more difficult it is for your body to digest, and indigestion can make it difficult to fall asleep. However, hunger can also keep you awake, so it’s a balance. Continue reading →

Forests cover nearly one third of the world’s land area, with nearly all forests inhabited by indigenous and rural communities. Beyond the importance of them as living quarters, forests are sacred to our overall ecosystem, environmental biome, animal habitat, and spiritual relief – to name a few.

With the threat of deforestation and environmental degradation, the stakes of reflecting and contemplating all that forests give to us, both on an individual and community level, are high.

In no particular order, here are the top ten reasons why forests truly matter…

They Absorb and Store Carbon

Forests are an integral member of the earth’s climate system. By growing trees in vast numbers, dangerous CO2 is effectively absorbed from the atmosphere and stored in their trunks, leaves, roots and forest soil. In effect, keeping humans alive and the natural ecosystem vital.

Provide Jobs and Livelihood

In the world, over 1.6 billion of the population depends on forests in some fashion for their livelihood, with a whopping 60 million indigenous people wholly dependent on forests for basic survival needs.

To boot, roughly 10 million of the world’s population is employed by forest management and conservation.

Affords Wood for Furniture, Firewood, and Other Products

In total, roughly 30 percent of the world’s forests are used for the production of wood and non-wood products. Evidently, wood is an integral element to the upkeep of lifestyles throughout the world – both in imminent necessity, such as medications, to utilitarian purposes, such furniture and firewood. Continue reading →

Meteor showers are one of those bucket list items that most people try to check off while sitting in a grass field with a blanket and perhaps a glass of red wine. Well, there is one meteor shower that is believed to be one of the most significant in history. It was so expansive that most people who witnessed the event believed their world was coming to an end.

Nov. 12th, 1833 the sky was full of shooting stars from the Leonid Meteor shower. It was associated with the comet Tempel Tuttle and was named Leonid because it looked like it was shooting from the Leo constellation.

Every November:

The Leonid meteor shower happens every November, but is extremely noticeable every 33 years. The Tempel Tuttle comet revolves around the sun every 32 ½ years. The Earth passes through the comet’s orbit every year, but it’s closest to the Earth every 33 years when it passes closest to the sun.

It was such a spectacular sight in 1833 that many people thought the world was coming to an end. The “night the stars fell” is mentioned in several stories, and there are several witness accounts from the apocalyptic night.

The Wall’s:

A story was written about the Wall family in 1933 that also mentioned this magical night. Edward and Behethelen Wall moved their family of 11 from Kentucky to Lexington on Nov. 13th 1833. They could not cross the Missouri River on the boat that day and so they ended up camping under the stars at Slusher Farm. This was of course, the night the stars fell. Continue reading →

The way we use the word ‘sorry’ has a whole lot of different meanings nowadays. It goes together with a meaningful intonation. It varies from sarcasm, to pointing out rudeness and also from asking someone to repeat themselves to showing sympathy. But of course, it’s mainly for apologizing.

Being able to say sorry is not as easy for everyone as most would think. This word can allow you to be forgiven by another person or it may help resolve a conflict. This all with the help of a sincerely meant five letter word.
Some people, however, are too apologetic.

They tend to say ‘sorry’ for the tiniest little things. If meant or not, it doesn’t particularly matter. It has become a force of habit, one which is not easy to stop. Over apologizing may seem polite but is just unnecessary.

Listed below are 16 things you should never apologize for. When presented in a similar situation, next time you can keep that sorry to yourself without feeling guilty.

Otherwise it is merely a waste of breath and often a way to make feel uncomfortable for no good reason.

You do not ever have to apologize for:

1. A situation which is not your fault
You do not have control over everyone and everything. Things happen. Even though sometimes you feel you want to apologize, it is not your responsibility to do so. Take a deep breath and just go on with your day. You have better things to focus on.

Continue reading →

Sound therapy and balancing has the power to embark a revolutionary perspective on the mind, energy, memory and soul. Sound healing has emerged into the therapeutic landscape, striking a revolutionary balance between science, sound and spirituality.

Energetic disturbances and imbalances are highly malleable through auditory stimuli. In fact, sound and vibrational therapy has been documented to impart consistent, predictable, and oftentimes immediate relief from a number of issues, including pain, insomnia and migraines.

Controlling the human energy field, through auditory motivations, can be nothing short of life changing – providing your body with the means to strike a healing balance between body, mind and soul.

Understanding Sound Healing Treatment

Sound therapy, also known as brain-wave entrainment, is both a passive and participatory experience. In one respect, you enter a mellow state of passive relaxation with limited external sensory distractions and with a more sedated breath rate. In doing so, you become a space of tranquil stillness and receiver of sound.

This is followed up with the participatory platform to become more open, wide, and aware of the sounds and audio stimuli.

Sound proves to be the perfect pathway to mindful awareness and still reflection – the same way that a meditation mantra would. Continue reading →