Modern Friendship by Anna Goldfarb

 

Modern friendships can be painfully ambiguous. But they don’t have to be. Journalist Anna Goldfarb has your back. “It’s understandable if your friendships are floundering. You’re up against historically new forces that we, as a culture, have no precedent for navigating,” she says. With Modern Friendship, Anna shares a manual for understanding what is pushing our friendships to the brink and provides actionable advice for forming authentic, enduring connections today.

It’s never been easier to shed friendships, which is precisely why we need a new approach to keeping them strong. Anna argues that we need to update our approach to friendships in a way that accounts for the hyper-fluid society we live in. The key to forming a lasting bond is what Anna calls “Wholehearted Friendship”―proven strategies to enhance enthusiastic connection.

Blending keen insights, cutting-edge social research, and intuitive practical tools, she invites you to explore:

• Why modern friendships are so ambiguous―and how to get clarity
• How desire influences friend selection, why friendships fail, and how to hone your friendship intuition
• Mattering to others―establishing boundaries, being flexible, having fun, and setting up your friendships for success
• Tools for the tough times―exercises, prompts, scripts, and advice on keeping friendships active even when life gets hectic
• Practicing Wholehearted Friendship―how to be caring, curious, appreciative, and supportive to a friend in any situation
• Trying a 14-day Friendship Cleanse―two weeks of actionable advice to clarify your wishes in friendship and strengthen your connections, both old and new

Grasping the mechanics of friendships will liberate you from the prison of self-doubt. “Your friendships are precious. They’re vital. They matter. So let’s understand, cultivate, and harness their incredible power,” says Anna. With Modern Friendship, you’ll discover how to be a more self-assured and empowered friend to the most meaningful people in your life. Let Anna show you how.

Pick up your copy here...

Modern Friendship: How to Nurture Our Most Valued Connections: Goldfarb, Anna: 9781649632081: Amazon.com: Books

Author and journalist Anna Goldfarb has covered friendships extensively for the New York Times' Smarter Living section. Her reporting on friendship has also appeared in the Atlantic, TIME Magazine, Vox, Vice, The Cut and more. Her forthcoming book, MODERN FRIENDSHIP, will be out in June 2024. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and tripawd cat, Eleanor.

Open by Nate Klemp

 With the avalanche of information we get every day, closing down our minds and hearts seems to be the only way to survive. We close down to our inner experience by compulsively checking our devices. We close down to others by getting caught in echo chambers of outrage. But what if there’s another way? What if being more open to life is actually what brings us sanity and happiness? In this climate of distraction and division, Nate Klemp’s Open offers a path back to a way of living that is expansive, creative, and filled with wonder.

Drawing on new science, age-old practices, and personal stories, Klemp examines why we close down when faced with stressors or threats, then reveals how we can train ourselves to open up to the fullness that life offers―even when frightened, outraged, or heartbroken. Join him to explore:

• The uniquely modern challenges that make closing down easier and more tempting than ever
• Experiential stories of psychedelic-assisted therapy, opening to political adversaries, meditation, and other tools for opening the mind
• The Three Shifts of Opening―how to break the habit of mind wandering, approach instead of withdraw, and enlarge the size of your perspective
• The Open Toolkit―a treasury of meditations, investigations, and habit-changing practices to open your mind

Expanding the size of the mind may sound subtle ―yet the results can utterly transform our lives. “When we open to life,” says Klemp, “we’re no longer stuck in here fighting against our thoughts on the inside or a crazed world on the outside. We’re connected. Our minds and lives get bigger. There’s more room, more perspective, more possibility. This is what it means to be free.”

Pick up your copy here...

Open: Living with an Expansive Mind in a Distracted World: Klemp, Nate: 9781649631480: Amazon.com: Books

Here's a quick recap of the 40 or so years of my life.

I grew up in Boulder. I went to college at Stanford, where I got hooked on jazz and philosophy. There, I made the "pragmatic" decision to become a philosopher rather than a jazz musician in an attempt to learn how to live the good life.

I then got an MA at Stanford, followed by a PhD at Princeton in political philosophy. At the end of 10 years of intense philosophical training, I didn't exactly achieve my goal of realizing human flourishing through philosophy. Instead, I burned out.

I ended up working as an assistant professor at Pepperdine for four years, where I wrote The Morality of Spin, a book about the ethics of political rhetoric.

Then, I left my cushy tenure-track job in 2012 to continue exploring this crazy idea of philosophy as a way of life. That's when I met Eric Langshur, my cofounder at LifeXT, a mindfulness training company that brings optimal wellbeing to the workplace. After 8 years, we ended up merging with Mindful Magazine to become Mindful (the world's leading mindfulness media and training company).

Together, Eric and I also coauthored the NYT bestseller Start Here: Master The Lifelong Skill of Wellbeing.

In 2021, my wife Kaley Klemp and I wrote a book about relationships in the modern age called The 80/80 Marriage: A New Model for a Happier, Stronger Marriage. The book was published by Penguin Random House and was selected by the NY Times as an Editors' Choice.

You'll now find me writing a new book called OPEN: Living With an Expansive Mind in a Distracted World, which will be published by Sounds True Press in February, 2024.

You'll also find my on Instagram, where I'm exploring short videos on meditating in the wild, and on YouTube, where I'm offering mindfulness instruction.

When I'm not doing all that, you'll find me hiking in the hills of Boulder, meditating in odd places, and still playing a little jazz on the piano.

The Boundary Boss Workbook by Terri Cole

 Our culture is finally recognizing the importance of having and maintaining strong personal boundaries. But were you ever taught exactly how to set healthy boundaries? Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it out for yourself. Following on the runaway success of her book Boundary Boss, Terri Cole presents a practice-packed guide to help you establish the robust boundaries that are essential for an empowered and deeply satisfying life.

The Boundary Boss Workbook greatly expands on the transformational tools Cole introduced in her debut book. You’ll start with the essential truths about boundaries and how they operate, then dive straight into potent exercises―including assessments, scripts, mindfulness, embodiment, gratitude, celebration, and more. Here you’ll explore:
• The importance of boundaries and how they affect every part of your life• Self-assessment quizzes to identify your preferences, desires, limits, and deal-breakers• Your self-care tool kit―meditations, reflections, and empowering practices• Getting proactive―how to anticipate and prepare for boundary-setting situations• Boundary scripts―creating the right words in your own voice for asserting boundaries • Internal boundary practices to shift your self-talk, habits, and unconscious behavior• Establishing and upholding new rules for healthy, authentic, and lasting relationships

Boundary work takes intention and commitment―but the results are worth it. “Drawing healthy boundaries is one of the highest expressions of self-love,” says Cole. “When you do, every part of your life will blossom. You’ll become more empowered in all your relationships―especially the one you have with yourself.”

Pick up your copy here...

The Boundary Boss Workbook: The... by Cole MSW LCSW, Terri (amazon.com)

Terri Cole is a licensed psychotherapist and global relationship and empowerment expert.

For over two decades, Terri has worked with a diverse group of clients that includes everyone from stay-at-home moms to celebrities and Fortune 500 CEOs.

She has a gift for making complex psychological concepts accessible and actionable so that clients and students achieve sustainable change.

She inspires over 250,000 people weekly through her blog, social media platform, signature courses, and her popular podcast, The Terri Cole Show. For more, see terricole.com.

The Awesome Human Journal by Nataly Kogen

 

An unboring, burnout-healing, joy-inducing journal inspired by the book The Awesome Human Project

We’ve somehow been convinced that a life of busyness and struggle is our only option. Nataly Kogan offers a unique experiential guide that shows us another way is possible.

The bestselling author shows us how to make the tough days a little easier, savor the good days, and create a more supportive relationship with our thoughts and emotions, so we can live with more energy and joy.

“We are all AWESOME, because each of us has something unique and special to share and contribute,” explains Nataly. “We are also HUMAN, because none of us has unlimited energy, and we can’t do all things perfectly. The only way to fully unleash your awesomeness is by honoring your humanness.”

How do you honor your humanness? By strengthening your emotional fitness, which Nataly guides you to do in this interactive journal.

You’ll learn and practice how to:
• Use the 5 emotional fitness skills of acceptance, gratitude, self-care, intentional kindness, and the bigger why
• Edit your thoughts and quiet your inner critic
• Say “no” to things that drain your energy
• Make your joy a priority without guilt
• Reduce overwhelm and fuel your motivation
• Talk back to your brain when it holds you back with fear
And many more skills that will help you embrace your Awesome Human!

Filled with simple yet surprisingly powerful (and always science-backed!) practices, inspiring Notes to Self, and Nataly’s contagious enthusiasm, this engaging journal is like having a really great friend guide you to become a better friend with yourself.

Pick up your copy here...

Amazon.com: The Awesome Human Journal: A Tool Kit for the Tough Days, the Good Days, and All the Days in Between: 9781649631824: Kogan, Nataly: Books

Nataly Kogan is a leading expert in emotional fitness and leadership. After coming to the US as a refugee from the former Soviet Union, Nataly went on to have a successful career as a technology executive. But she suffered a debilitating burnout that led her to find a new way to work and live. Today, she helps hundreds of thousands of Awesome Humans struggle less and thrive more through speaking, leadership training programs, online courses, books, and The Awesome Human Podcast.

Want Your Self by Katie Horwich

  I'm not good enough. Not smart enough. Not talented enough. We all do it. Belittling who we are, what we do, what we stand for—often without realizing it. And it's stuck on a loop. Yet if shifting our toxic self-talk was as easy as repeating positive mantras, we'd have done it already. With Want Your Self, Katie Horwitch offers an approach for deep and lasting change—a guide for becoming fluent in an inner language for loving who you are while growing into the person you were meant to become.

In Want Your Self, you'll find step-by-step guidance for finding, being, and staying your Self in this increasingly chaotic and complex world. Horwitch shines a compassionate light on the seemingly everyday moments that define your narratives and unpacks your inherited emotional DNA—then shares invaluable practices like Truth Maintenance, The Planned Freak-Out, and The Fear-Less Equation to help you sift through years of pretending and perfecting to unearth the strength in who you were all along.

"Behind every person fighting against their Self is really a person who yearns to want their Self," says Horwitch. "And that is a journey worth going on." Want Your Self is the blueprint for that journey—a pragmatic and proactive alternative to the toxic positivity that keeps us disconnected from ourselves and each other.

Pick up your copy here...

Want Your Self: Shift Your Self-Talk and Unearth the Strength in Who You Were All Along: Horwitch, Katie: 9781649630742: Amazon.com: Books

Katie Horwitch is a nationally recognized writer, speaker, mindset coach, and activist who has spent over a decade working to shift the cultural self-talk paradigm. She has spoken across the country about self-confidence, living fearlessly, and shifting the stories and habits that help shape our negative self-talk patterns. Praised by CNN as a“woman empowering others around the world,” Katie is the founder of the multimedia platform WANT: Women Against Negative Talk and the host of The WANTcast: The Women Against Negative Talk Podcast. She’s spoken at SXSW, and has been featured on media outlets like The Cut, Romper, mindbodygreen, and Livestrong. As a leadership and mindset coach, she has worked with Fortune 500 companies on reshaping their internal culture, and coached executives on how to lead with integrity and purpose. She believes that shifting your self-talk is an essential part of shaping the world you actually want to live in—and is more important now than ever before. She lives in New York City with her husband and their dog-daughter, Frankie.

To learn more about Katie and her work, visit katiehorwitch.com and womenagainstnegativetalk.com. You can also find her on social media at @katiehorwitch.