Discover the Intricate Dance of Passion and Well-being In a world where health and desire often seem at odds, this compelling book offers a fresh perspective that brings them into harmonious balance. Sensual Synergy: The Intersection of Health and Desire takes you on a transformative journey into the heart of sexual well-being, unlocking the intimate connection between your deepest desires and your overall health. Dive into the fascinating history of sexual desire, from ancient wisdom to modern dynamics, and uncover the science behind sexual energy that fuels not just passion, but life itself. This enlightening guide dissects the myriad influences on your sexual health–emotional wellness, mental clarity, social norms, and even the foods you eat–and empowers you with practical strategies for enhancing your vitality. Whether you're exploring the invigorating effects of exercise, seeking the tranquillity of spiritual connection, or discovering the healing power of open communication, every chapter is designed to enrich your understanding and appreciation of your own sensual landscape. The book does not merely educate; it inspires a journey of personal growth and acceptance across the lifespan, encouraging you to embrace your evolving sexual identity. As you explore innovative therapies and creative expressions, you'll also learn the importance of setting boundaries and nurturing intimacy in an increasingly digital age. By integrating these insights into your daily life, you embrace a pleasure-positive mindset and establish a supportive community, ensuring your sexual wellbeing is both personal and interconnected. Embark on a path of exploration and rejuvenation, achieving true synergy where health and desire meet. Let this book be your guide to finding bliss in the delicate balance of your sexuality and wellness.

Bridging the gap between cultural studies, performing arts, and anthropology, performance studies explores myriad ways in which performance creates meaning and shapes our everyday lives.

The Theory and Practice of Group Therapy is the definitive resource for group therapists, educators, students, and practitioners with a passion for and a keen interest in practicing group therapy. This cutting-edge book is written by leading scientists from diverse niche areas of health sciences, mental health, health psychology, and allied psychology. It addresses themes such as theories of group therapy, Yoga, and music therapy.

With audacious dexterity, David Howes weaves together topics ranging from love and beauty magic in Papua New Guinea to nasal repression in Freudian psychology and from the erasure and recovery of the senses in contemporary ethnography to the specter of the body in Marx. Through this eclectic and penetrating exploration of the relationship between sensory experience and cultural expression, Sensual Relations contests the conventional exclusion of sensuality from intellectual inquiry and reclaims sensation as a fundamental domain of social theory. David Howes is Professor of Anthropology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec.

Africa’s art of cooking is a key part of its history. All too often Africa is associated with famine, but in Stirring the Pot, James C. McCann describes how the ingredients, the practices, and the varied tastes of African cuisine comprise a body of historically gendered knowledge practiced and perfected in households across diverse human and ecological landscape. McCann reveals how tastes and culinary practices are integral to the understanding of history and more generally to the new literature on food as social history. Stirring the Pot offers a chronology of African cuisine beginning in the sixteenth century and continuing from Africa’s original edible endowments to its globalization. McCann traces cooks’ use of new crops, spices, and tastes, including New World imports like maize, hot peppers, cassava, potatoes, tomatoes, and peanuts, as well as plantain, sugarcane, spices, Asian rice, and other ingredients from the Indian Ocean world. He analyzes recipes, not as fixed ahistorical documents,but as lively and living records of historical change in women’s knowledge and farmers’ experiments. A final chapter describes in sensuous detail the direct connections of African cooking to New Orleans jambalaya, Cuban rice and beans, and the cooking of African Americans’ “soul food.” Stirring the Pot breaks new ground and makes clear the relationship between food and the culture, history, and national identity of Africans.

A hilariously deadpan, wincingly funny take on one office innocent's workplace coming-of-age.

Embodying Voice: Singing Verdi, Singing Wagner articulates the process of developing an operatic voice, explaining how and why the training of such a voice is as complex and sophisticated as it is mysterious. This book illustrates how putting together a voice, embodying a sound, and creating a character are vital to an audience’s emotional involvement and enjoyment. Moreover, it addresses an imbalance of power between the opera director and the orchestra conductor – ultimately, it is the communicative power of the singer’s voice that brings life to an opera, a fact well known by Verdi and Wagner. Embodying Voice highlights the singer’s creative agency to be co-creator of the composer’s music. It explores the ways in which vocal performance is constructed and controlled, connecting layers of mind and bodily engagement that allow operatic singers to achieve expression beyond the text itself. Further reading, listening, and performance lists are provided at the end of each chapter, complemented by musical examples throughout.