Provides illustrated instructions and guidelines for starting a new meditation practice or enhancing and existing one.

“Ross shows us that meditation doesn’t have to mean sitting still. You can turn within to find inspiration and guidance, even when you are dancing.”—Misty Copeland, principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre, New York Times bestselling author Lead Instructor of Yoga and Meditation for Peloton Ross Rayburn offers a new and accessible take on mindfulness and the art of meditation through the practice of introversion, which is a method of self-exploration for finding authenticity, joy, and calm in our hectic, extroverted world.​ As New York Times bestselling author Robin Arzon says, “Turning Inward provides the tools to befriend yourself. In sharing his mindfulness TIPs, Ross provides a path for even the most novice meditator. Herein lies many entry points back to oneself.” Building off his popular Peloton meditation and yoga classes and his years of teaching and spiritual study, Ross Rayburn offers a new way to look at meditation. Rather than a purely esoteric practice, meditation is, Ross argues, simply “turning in,” which anyone can learn how to do through the practice of introversion. Billy Porter, award-winning actor, singer, director, composer, and playwright, commented, “Ross Rayburn is one of those rare people who understands how to help us access our inner depths. I’m proud to call him both my teacher and my friend.” Because we spend most of our time “turned outward” in order to function in society, introversion offers both a respite and a source of insight. The practice of introversion leads to a happier, calmer life and a truer sense of yourself and your path—something many crave in our chaotic and often polarized world. With the easy and enjoyable techniques in this book, and a surprisingly simple and straightforward way of thinking and seeing, you can begin introverting with more intention and with more structure and regularity, for even greater benefits. You’ll learn how to handle life’s difficulties with less anxiety and greater perspective, and you’ll have the tools to remember who you really are, especially during those times it’s easiest to forget. Through these practical exercises, guided visualizations, opportunities for contemplation, breathing techniques, and more, you will discover that everything you need to be is already who you are. It’s inside you. All you have to do is turn inward to find it.

Western society has never been more interested in interiority. Indeed, it seems more and more people are deliberately looking inward—toward the mind, the body, or both. Michal Pagis’s Inward focuses on one increasingly popular channel for the introverted gaze: vipassana meditation, which has spread from Burma to more than forty countries and counting. Lacing her account with vivid anecdotes and personal stories, Pagis turns our attention not only to the practice of vipassana but to the communities that have sprung up around it. Inward is also a social history of the westward diffusion of Eastern religious practices spurred on by the lingering effects of the British colonial presence in India. At the same time Pagis asks knotty questions about what happens when we continually turn inward, as she investigates the complex relations between physical selves, emotional selves, and our larger social worlds. Her book sheds new light on evergreen topics such as globalization, social psychology, and the place of the human body in the enduring process of self-awareness.

Wheels Turning Inward is a rich collection of over fifty poems, following a poet's mythic and spiritual journey that begins and ends in Christ, but crosses easily onto the paths of many other contemplative traditions. Ultimately, this is a journey of discovering a keen sense of spiritual community through a meditative dialog with the Divine. Each poem is a reflection and a remembrance of this dialog, arising out of a conversation that is deep and true, a conversation grounded in a sacramental practice of stillness, silence, peace, and unity celebrating the holiness of all creation.Through the poet's voice and eyes, we catch sight of the clear longing of God for all humankind, and the true value of relationships through which we come to know and become known by this mystery. Every poem will gently guide the reader on a journey that leads to an awareness of the sacred calling out to life. Celebrating life in the first breath of an infant, in the bright smile of a little girl, and in the light of creation reflected within the innocent eyes of a small boy. It may also appear in the complex song of a mockingbird mending together the deepest sorrows of the world, or in the angels we give birth to every day. These poems touch and awaken the compassion inherent in every human heart, and remind us that God's presence, however, we may imagine God, may be found within our own breath. In each single breath we take. Breathe Deeply. Turn Inward.