"The Quest for Quiet: Cultivating Mindfulness and Solitude in a Noisy World" is an essential guide for those seeking to find balance, inner peace, and personal growth in the face of the challenges presented by modern society. It is an insightful exploration of the importance of quiet moments for introspection, reflection, and personal growth in today's fast-paced and interconnected society that provides readers with practical guidance on how to create space for solitude and mindfulness in their daily lives, amidst the distractions and demands of modern life. Drawing on a diverse range of disciplines, including mindfulness practices, meditation techniques, and psychological research, the author, Josh Luberisse discusses the effects of constant connectivity on mental well-being and the ways in which solitude and mindfulness can help individuals navigate the complexities of the contemporary world. Josh addresses the challenges posed by technology and offers practical solutions for reducing screen time, setting boundaries, and cultivating more meaningful connections with ourselves and the world around us. In "The Quest for Quiet," Josh examines the benefits of mindfulness for personal growth and well-being, highlighting the healing power of spending time in nature, the therapeutic effects of journaling, and the role of minimalism and decluttering in creating a serene environment. He also offers guidance on incorporating mindfulness practices into daily routines and establishing consistent rituals to support personal growth and well-being. "The Quest for Quiet" is a comprehensive resource for individuals seeking to prioritize solitude and mindfulness in their lives. By providing practical guidance and evidence-based insights, "The Quest for Quiet: Cultivating Mindfulness and Solitude in a Noisy World" empowers readers to embark on a transformative journey towards greater self-awareness, resilience, and appreciation for the simple pleasures of life.

Finding the Quiet Mind is a practical approach to beginning meditation that will lead the reader step-by-step into finding more calmness and reaching inner resources of joy and power for daily life. It synthesizes teachings from both Eastern and WEstern philosophies in contemporary language appropriate for all modern readers, regardless of their religion or worldview, and assumes that most people can benefit from meditation without relying on an external teacher. Included are tips on body posture, breath, and mantras, as well as a chapter on mediating for the wellbeing of others. Author Robert Ellwood is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Religion at the University of Southern California.

An inspiring collection of canoe journeys, packed with bits of regional history and environmental concern. As she flows through the Adirondacks, Duvall guides readers towards a fuller appreciation of water and a need for deepened advocacy; "water" evolves into a sacred entity.

Have our noise-soaked lives driven us mad? And is absolute silence an impossible goal—or the one thing that can save us? A lively tale of one man’s quest to find the grail of total quiet.--- “ I don’t know at what point noise became intolerable for me,” George Michelsen Foy writes as he recalls standing on a subway platform in Manhattan, hands clamped firmly over his ears, face contorted in pain. But only then does Foy realize how overwhelmed he is by the city’s noise and vow to seek out absolute silence, if such an absence of sound can be discovered. Foy begins his quest by carrying a pocket-sized decibel meter to measure sound levels in the areas he frequents most—the subway, the local café, different rooms of his apartment—as well as the places he visits that inform his search, including the Parisian catacombs, Joseph Pulitzer’s “silent vault,” the snowy expanses of the Berkshires, and a giant nickel mine in Canada, where he travels more than a mile underground to escape all human-made sound. Along the way, Foy experiments with noise-canceling headphones, floatation tanks, and silent meditation before he finally tackles a Minnesota laboratory’s anechoic chamber that the Guinness Book of World Records calls “the quietest place on earth,” and where no one has ever endured even forty-five minutes alone in its pitch-black interior before finding the silence intolerable. Drawing on history, science, journalistic reportage, philosophy, religion, and personal memory, as well as conversations with experts in various fields whom he meets during his odyssey, Foy finds answers to his questions: How does one define silence? Did human beings ever experience silence in their early history? What is the relationship between noise and space? What are the implications of silence and our need for it—physically, mentally, emotionally, politically? Does absolute silence actually exist? If so, do we really want to hear it? And if we do hear it, what does it mean to us? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 30 million Americans suffer from environment-related deafness in today’s digital age of pervasive sound and sensory overload. Roughly the same number suffer from tinnitus, a condition, also environmentally related, that makes silence impossible in even the quietest places. In this respect, Foy’s quest for silence represents more than a simple psychological inquiry; both his queries and his findings help to answer the question “How can we live saner, healthier lives today?” Innovative, perceptive, and delightfully written, Zero Decibels will surely change how we perceive and appreciate the soundscape of our lives.

What is silence? Where can it be found? Why is it now more important than ever? In 1993, Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge spent fifty days walking solo across Antarctica, becoming the first person to reach the South Pole alone, accompanied only by a radio whose batteries he had removed before setting out. In this book. an astonishing and transformative meditation, Kagge explores the silence around us, the silence within us, and the silence we must create. By recounting his own experiences and discussing the observations of poets, artists, and explorers, Kagge shows us why silence is essential to sanity and happiness—and how it can open doors to wonder and gratitude. (With full-color photographs throughout.)

In the visionary tradition of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, One Square Inch of Silence alerts us to beauty that we take for granted and sounds an urgent environmental alarm. Natural silence is our nation’s fastest-disappearing resource, warns Emmy-winning acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton, who has made it his mission to record and preserve it in all its variety—before these soul-soothing terrestrial soundscapes vanish completely in the ever-rising din of man-made noise. Recalling the great works on nature written by John Muir, John McPhee, and Peter Matthiessen, this beautifully written narrative, co-authored with John Grossmann, is also a quintessentially American story—a road trip across the continent from west to east in a 1964 VW bus. But no one has crossed America like this. Armed with his recording equipment and a decibel-measuring sound-level meter, Hempton bends an inquisitive and loving ear to the varied natural voices of the American landscape—bugling elk, trilling thrushes, and drumming, endangered prairie chickens. He is an equally patient and perceptive listener when talking with people he meets on his journey about the importance of quiet in their lives. By the time he reaches his destination, Washington, D.C., where he meets with federal officials to press his case for natural silence preservation, Hempton has produced a historic and unforgettable sonic record of America. With the incisiveness of Jack Kerouac’s observations on the road and the stirring wisdom of Robert Pirsig repairing an aging vehicle and his life, One Square Inch of Silence provides a moving call to action. More than simply a book, it is an actual place, too, located in one of America’s last naturally quiet places, in Olympic National Park in Washington State.