Language As Social Action - Social Psychology and Language Use

Stephen Cope asked 25 yoga and meditation teachers to share their "tales from the path"--their thoughts on how the long-term practice of yoga and meditation has changed their lives. The result is a unique collection of stories offering insight and inspiration for everyone seeking a more satisfying life.

The other day, I was listening to the talk given by Shri Mataji on the occasion of Her birthday Puja celebrations at Sydney on 21st March 1990.

Expressing how overwhelmed She felt at the lovely messages, beautiful decorations, thoughtful gifts and letters of devotees not only from Sydney but from all over the world, She said that what had started off from a single point had now encompassed the whole world like an ocean of joy and fulfillment. What more could one ask for than ruminate over the sweetness and find out an occasion to return to that joy through loving gestures, caring actions and nice thoughtful words. She had expressed on that occasion that it would be a good idea to bring out a collection in the form of a book of all the nice things that can be said and done, provided it is done at the right time, right place and on the right occasion.

This book is an endeavor to put together a few of the introspective transformations that one can bring about in moments of thoughtless awareness to brighten up one's own life as a part of the evolutionary process that we are all undergoing. And what better gift could be than to present this creative endeavor at the holy feet of our Dear Mother who has given us so much all in a span of one life time and that too actualizing it for us. I hope you will enjoy reading it and picking up the right flower from the garden of this collection and presenting it to the right person on the right occasion as we so often have found our beloved Mother taking all the care in the world to do so for us.

In this distinctive guide to the craft of writing, author Laraine Herring shows us how to tune into our bodies and connect with our emotions so that our writing becomes an expression of our full beings, rather than just an intellectual exercise. With warmth and wisdom, Herring offers a path to discovering "deep writing"—prose that is unique, expressive, and profoundly authentic. Lessons and imaginative exercises show you how to: stay with your writing when your mind or body starts to pull you away; explore the five senses in your writing; and approach your writing without judgment.

Writing Begins with the Breath will open up a whole world of creativity for people who may not have considered themselves writers before, while also providing keen insights into the craft for seasoned writers.

But what if everyone is wrong?

When psychologist Richard E. Nisbett showed an animated underwater scene to his American students, they zeroed in on a big fish swimming among smaller fish. Japanese subjects, on the other hand, made observations about the background environment -- and the different "seeings" are a clue to profound underlying cognitive differences between Westerners and East Asians. For, as Professor Nisbett shows in The Geography of Thought, people actually think about -- and even see -- the world differently because of differing ecologies, social structures, philosophies, and educational systems that date back to ancient Greece and China and that have survived into the modern world. As a result, East Asian thought is "holistic" -- drawn to the perceptual field as a whole and to relations among objects and events within that field. By comparison to Western modes of reasoning, East Asian thought relies far less on categories or on formal logic; it is fundamentally dialectic, seeking a "middle way" between opposing thoughts. By contrast, Westerners focus on salient objects or people, use attributes to assign them to catergories, and apply rules of formal logic to understand their behavior.

The Geography of Thought documents Professor Nisbett's groundbreaking international research in cultural psychology, a series of comparative studies both persuasive in their rigor and startling in their conclusions, addressing questions such as:

• Why did the ancient Chinese excel at algebra and arithmetic, but not geometry, the brilliant achievement of such Greeks as Euclid?

• Why do East Asians find it so difficult to disentangle an object from its surroundings?

• Why do Western infants learn nouns more rapidly than verbs, when it is the other way around in East Asia?

• What are the implications of these cognitive differences for the future of international politics? Do they support a Fukuyamaesque "end of history" scenario or a Huntingtonian "clash of civilizations"?

I'VE TRIED AND FAILED TOO MANY TIMES TO COUNT.

Why are you still smoking, even though you want to quit? Based on twenty years of research and hands-on work with countless smokers in his clinics at Columbia University and New York Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Daniel F. Seidman understands that people smoke -- and quit -- for different reasons and what works for one smoker might not work for another.

Are you a Situational Smoker? Monitoring your reactions in different situations is a step toward permanently losing interest in cigarettes.

Are you a Worried-about-Weight Smoker? Properly using treatments like Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) can help you quit and get healthy in all aspects of your life.

Are you an Emotion-Triggered Smoker? Scheduling your smoking breaks and sticking to a rigid "smoking schedule" helps break the link between stressful situations and craving cigarettes.

In a comprehensive, 30-day program, Dr. Seidman explains how to retrain your brain, take advantage of all the tools at your disposal, and end the month smoke-free and feeling stronger than ever!