Profound essays that cut through the messiness of life to help you get the good from the bad—by famed therapist Phil Stutz, the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Tools and subject of the Netflix documentary Stutz “Is there another way? Can you live life with its conflicts, uncertainties, and disappointments and somehow feel good about yourself? You can. But it requires a completely new orientation.” There are issues, and there are issues—love, loss, success, failure, hope, regret, life, death. How can we even begin to think clearly about dilemmas so universally confounding? Phil Stutz has spent his life pondering the big challenges that we all face, and this profound book puts the conclusions he’s reached at your fingertips. Stutz has been writing these remarkably insightful short essays since the late 1990s, which are collected here for the first time, along with new insights specific to the unique challenges of today. Each one will change the way you think, but taken all together, this book becomes something far more than the sum of its parts: a compendium of human experience and knowledge that will reframe your worldview. There are hard truths here—the acknowledgment that life is full of pain and not a single one of us is special enough to escape it—but we need to understand and accept them in order to realize our full potential. While The Tools explains the general concepts and five specific practices that Stutz employs in treatment, Lessons for Living addresses real-world circumstances, such as the needs of children, rising above envy, defeating your bad habits, the positive side of anger, and facing insecurities, offering a new way to think about life itself.

An “intriguing” study of how early Christianity caught on and converted much of the world, rooted in archaeological and statistical evidence (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).How did the preaching of a peasant carpenter from Galilee spark a movement that would grow to over two billion followers? Who listened to this “good news,” and who ignored it? Where did Christianity spread, and how? Based on quantitative data and the latest scholarship, this book presents startling new information about the rise of the early church, overturning many prevailing views of how Christianity grew through time to become the largest religion in the world. Drawing on both archaeological and historical evidence, Rodney Stark provides hard statistical evidence on the religious life of the Roman Empire to discover surprising facts:Contrary to fictions such as The Da Vinci Code and the claims of some prominent scholars, Gnosticism was not a more sophisticated, more authentic form of Christianity but an unsuccessful effort to paganize ChristianityPaul was called the apostle to the Gentiles, but mostly he converted JewsPaganism was not rapidly stamped out by state repression following the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine in 312 AD—it gradually disappeared as people abandoned the temples in response to the superior appeal of ChristianityThe “oriental” faiths—such as those devoted to Isis, the Egyptian goddess of love and magic, and to Cybele, the fertility goddess of Asia Minor—actually prepared the way for the rapid spread of Christianity across the Roman EmpireContrary to generations of historians, the Roman mystery cult of Mithraism posed no challenge to Christianity to become the new faith of the empire— it allowed no female members and attracted only soldiersBy analyzing concrete data, Stark challenges the conventional wisdom about early Christianity, offering the clearest picture ever of how this religion grew into what it is today.

As human beings, we possess one common desire: the need for happiness and a meaningful life. According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the ability to find true fulfillment lies within each of us. Now, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, Nobel Prize winner, and bestselling author helps readers begin the path to enlightenment in a very special book -- an easy-access reference for daily practice as well as stunning illumination of the timeless wisdom of His Holiness. How to Practice will guide you toward opening your heart, refraining from doing harm, maintaining mental tranquility, and more. Divided into a series of distinct steps that will lead spiritual seekers of all faiths toward enlightenment, this accessible book is a constant and daily companion in the quest to practice morality, meditation, and wisdom. The Dalai Lama shows us how to overcome our everyday obstacles, from feelings of anger and mistrust to jealousy, insecurity, and counterproductive thinking. Imbued with His Holiness' vivacious spirit and sense of playfulness, How to Practice offers the Dalai Lama's own sage and very practical insight into the human psyche and what binds us all together.