After surgery and surviving prostate cancer, I decided to embark on my "Camino" and also bring awareness of this nasty cancer to others. This disease kills many men across the World every year some 270,000. This journey lets you rethink your life and looks to change the future; it is a spiritual engagement with life and people without the trappings of our modern society. I found that most pilgrims whatever colour, creed or nationality wanted the violence in the world to stop. Maybe a Pilgrims walk is what the world should be. Any returns from this book will be donated to prostate cancer research.

In Talking With Cats, Nichols takes us on a personal journey that enriches the spirit, informs the mind and becomes a map for healing and finding true inner happiness. The author does talk with cats; one of them is wise and thoughtful. Another is sarcastic, rude and funny. He is even ambushed by a horse, anxious to join him on his pilgrimage. On another day, he is attacked by a large German shepherd dogwith a very different outcome than expected. More importantly, he talks with the people who have come to the Camino de Santiago to heal their spirit and find a meaningful life. This Story is written with a sense of wonder and reverence for nature, earth and all life. Discover the real heart, soul and spirit of the Camino as you meet the people who walk it, the warm hospitality of the volunteers who care for it, and the rich culture and history of the Spanish people who have inherited the unique DNA of pride and service. During 500 miles, walk with Nichols through the Basque country, the Spain of Old Castile and Leon, and the ancient, proud Celtic tribes of Galicia. Savor the wines, learn about the cuisine, and hear the stories of mystical northern Spain. Talking With Cats is not a guide to a place or a destination. It is a guide to our hearts, walking, and the spiritual journey that heals, instructs, and returns us to an authentic life and a sustainable earth.

Are you curious about the Camino? What is it; what secrets does it hold; where does it start and end; what to take; where to sleep; how difficult it’s to walk; and what preparation and equipment are needed to succeed? You may have done day or multi-day walks in the past and have now heard what is often referred to as “the call of the Camino.” I’ve done the research, walked the walk, and can help you successfully prepare for the Camino Frances and similar long-distance ancient pilgrims’ pathways. From the dozens of things to know I have chosen nine key topics based on my own experience: 1. Boots vs. blisters. Or no blisters. Choosing the right footwear (boots) for long-distance walking. 2. Walking as a ”system.” It’s not just putting one foot in front of the other. 3. Clothes for sun, rain, and cold. Choosing the right clothes and outerwear. 4. A get fit program. To be physically and mentally prepared. 5. Are you a greaser or a strapper? Protecting your feet each day; avoiding blisters; choosing socks. 6. Weight creep-a killjoy. Your backpack and contents. 7. Water: why, where, and when. It isn’t just about sipping. 8. Trekking or walking poles. Why, what, and how. 9. Sundry useful tips. SIM cards, keeping valuables safe, rain gear, free Wi-Fi, offline maps, overcoming fear, companies providing services, Camino forums in many countries. In addition to these subjects, the appendices contain two articles by fellow pilgrims who commented on an early draft and suggested other topics to help people with their first Camino. The first is on albergues, “What to expect and how to manage”; the second is all about bed bugs with a focus on avoiding them and, if you can’t avoid them, how to treat the bites and avoid carrying them home! The most important thing: Just love the “time out” from the daily routine along with the many challenges along the way. It’s therapeutic walking through fields and forests, over hills and mountains, breathing fresh air. I didn’t know what “eco therapy” was until I experienced it: a sense of peace through being away from cities and immersed in nature. It’s as though our genetic roots are being reawakened and we are reinvigorated. The information in Camino Ready. Backpacks, Boots, and (no) Blisters will get you Camino ready so you can be prepared not only physically but also mentally for an amazing journey. It will be a journey where you’ll likely experience exhilaration, exhaustion, self-doubt, joy, fear, tears, pain, and a great sense of achievement (maybe all on the same day!) together with companionship and new friendships. It can change your life.

Exciting new scientific studies reveal the brain's life long capacity to change its structure and function - depending upon how we use it. Yet similar studies tell us that the mind is more than the sum of the brain's physical parts. With our mind, we create our world. It is our mind that regulates our present and our future. Do you imagine a happier world with better health? More vitality? More success with the ability to fulfil your potential when it comes to sport, business, relationships, healing and peace of mind? Modern research is confirming ancient wisdom. Truly it is The Mind That Changes Everything and this book tells you how to do it. Full of evocative stories, practical wisdom and 48 techniques that range from the simple to the profound, Ian Gawler is an authentic authority on the mind and its potential.

Pilgrims with Credit Cards Saintly Queen Isabel of Portugal walked the Camino de Santiago in 1306. Seven hundred and twelve years later, Princess Asifa gave it a shot. When husband David invited her to walk the Camino del Norte with him, she laid down the conditions. "No hostels. Only private rooms with ensuite bathrooms," she decreed. "And a team of sherpas please, to carry my backpack." If only! She cast aside her tiara, laced up her hiking boots, grabbed her credit card, and walked. Out of nowhere, footfalls with no footprints began to walk with her in step. Who could it be? With irreverence and compassion, Asifa's stories immerse us in a quirky world of Camino history and mysteries, ham bocadillos and dust, aching feet and transcendence. Killer cows, Mary Poppins moments and stone boats guided by angels are only part of the story. Enjoy the magic and feel the pain that only walking the Camino can bring. Come with her on a pilgrim's journey.

This open access textbook represents a vital contribution to global health education, offering insights into health promotion as part of patient care for bachelor’s and master’s students in health care (nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiotherapists, social care workers etc.) as well as health care professionals, and providing an overview of the field of health science and health promotion for PhD students and researchers. Written by leading experts from seven countries in Europe, America, Africa and Asia, it first discusses the theory of health promotion and vital concepts. It then presents updated evidence-based health promotion approaches in different populations (people with chronic diseases, cancer, heart failure, dementia, mental disorders, long-term ICU patients, elderly individuals, families with newborn babies, palliative care patients) and examines different health promotion approaches integrated into primary care services. This edited scientific anthology provides much-needed knowledge, translating research into guidelines for practice. Today’s medical approaches are highly developed; however, patients are human beings with a wholeness of body-mind-spirit. As such, providing high-quality and effective health care requires a holistic physical-psychological-social-spiritual model of health care is required. A great number of patients, both in hospitals and in primary health care, suffer from the lack of a holistic oriented health approach: Their condition is treated, but they feel scared, helpless and lonely. Health promotion focuses on improving people’s health in spite of illnesses. Accordingly, health care that supports/promotes patients’ health by identifying their health resources will result in better patient outcomes: shorter hospital stays, less re-hospitalization, being better able to cope at home and improved well-being, which in turn lead to lower health-care costs. This scientific anthology is the first of its kind, in that it connects health promotion with the salutogenic theory of health throughout the chapters. the authors here expand the understanding of health promotion beyond health protection and disease prevention. The book focuses on describing and explaining salutogenesis as an umbrella concept, not only as the key concept of sense of coherence.

The smartphone is often literally right in front of our nose, so you would think we would know what it is. But do we? To find out, 11 anthropologists each spent 16 months living in communities in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America, focusing on the take up of smartphones by older people. Their research reveals that smartphones are technology for everyone, not just for the young. The Global Smartphone presents a series of original perspectives deriving from this global and comparative research project. Smartphones have become as much a place within which we live as a device we use to provide ‘perpetual opportunism’, as they are always with us. The authors show how the smartphone is more than an ‘app device’ and explore differences between what people say about smartphones and how they use them. The smartphone is unprecedented in the degree to which we can transform it. As a result, it quickly assimilates personal values. In order to comprehend it, we must take into consideration a range of national and cultural nuances, such as visual communication in China and Japan, mobile money in Cameroon and Uganda, and access to health information in Chile and Ireland – all alongside diverse trajectories of ageing in Al Quds, Brazil and Italy. Only then can we know what a smartphone is and understand its consequences for people’s lives around the world.