A New You For the New Year

As the new year approaches many people find themselves taking stock of their past year, analyzing their accomplishments and failures and deciding on new goals and resolutions for the coming year. For many it's a surprisingly tough part of the year, as all the stress of the holiday season melts away and finds us at our most introspective and self-critical. We criticize ourselves for the sweets we ate at Christmas, the choices that didn't yield quite the results we expected, or the relationships that ended. Self-introspection can be a powerful (and, indeed, necessary) thing, but we have to engage in it in a way that yields positivity and proactivity.

At Cosimo our motto is "Be inspired. Be informed." Our motto is not just about understanding the world around us, however--it's also about the importance of understanding ourselves and inspiring ourselves (and our readers) to be stronger, better people. With that in mind, we'd like to recommend a few spirituality and personal development titles that we love, and which help the reader generate positivity and understanding both outwards to others and inwards towards the self. We think they're the perfect companion to a New Year's resolution, and guidebooks to a New You in the New Year.

Mystic Journey: Getting to the Heart of Your Soul's Story, by Robert Atkinson
Mystic Journey is an award-winning work on the process of "soul-making," helping the reader understand themselves and connect to others. It asks the reader to recognize the "patterns of transformation" that unfold in our lives, and how we all share a spiritual heritage. Mystic Journey is a wonderful text for those interested in practicable soul-making and self-actualization. Mystic Journey is available via Google Books, Amazon (for Kindle and Paperback), Barnes & Noble (for Nook and Paperback), and is available for digital download at a special December price of just $4.99 at reKiosk.

The Joy of Ritual: Spiritual Recipes to Celebrate Milestones, Ease Transitions, and Make Every Day Sacred, by Barbara Biziou
Our September Book of the Month, Biziou's Joy of Ritual is a recipe book for fortifying the soul. Biziou's recipes integrate ritual and spiritual practices into our daily lives to help us cope with transitions and changes. By integrating the sacred into our lives, rituals allow us to stabilize our lives and transform the ordinary into moments of reflection and self-understanding. This easy-to-use recipe book provides practicable ceremonies the reader can use in their daily life to center themselves, or to honor special occasions and milestones. The Joy of Ritual is available in various digital formats, including for the Kindle, as well as in paperback. Be sure to check out Biziou's new website, with weekly vlogs and affirmations.

The Self-Inquiry Process: Using Powerful Questions to Awaken Awareness, by Linda Brierty
Brierty's Self-Inquiry Process is an experiential workbook for the reader seeking to understand themselves through an active questioning of the self. The Self-Inquiry Process guides the reader through a journey of self-discovery through the positing of questions, from simple and direct to more complex questions like "What is the difference between surrender and giving up?" The workbook is meant to help the reader better understand--and love--themselves. The Self-Inquiry Process is available in Paperback via Amazon and B&N, for Kindle, Nook, and other eReader formats.

The Book of Balance, by Yasuhiko Genku Kimura
"The Tao Eternal is beyond definition. / No name given can capture its eternality."
Translated from Tao Teh Ching, by Lao Tzu, The Book of Balance provides a foundation for the reader to gain spiritual insight and character development. Lao Tzu is often considered the founder of philosophical Taoism, and this translation is considered a particularly artful translation, maintaining the poetics of the text without sacrificing its complexity. The Book of Balance is a challenging yet rewarding read, available as a Google Book, for Kindle, and in Paperback via B&N and Amazon.

Everything You Want to Know About TM--Including How to Do It, by John White
TM, or Transcendental Meditation, is a powerful form of meditation that helps reduce stress and create a state of relaxed awareness. White provides a comprehensive history of TM and other forms of meditation, allowing the reader to understand the deep history of the process they are about to undertake. White's history and analysis of TM provides a helpful background to the TM user, who can then use the chapter "How to Do TM" to begin practicing TM themselves. White's work is available in Paperback and for Kindle via Amazon, for Nook and in Paperback via B&N, and in various digital formats at reKiosk.