Books published by North Atlantic Books

A comprehensive resource for yoga teachers, pilates instructors, and movement therapists--exercises, ergonomic adjustments, and daily-living activities for back pain, scoliosis, disc disease, and 18 other spinal conditionsSafe Movement for All Spines is an essential guide for all movement therapists and teachers. With ready-made exercises and easy adaptations, yoga instructors, pilates teachers, and fitness instructors will learn: How to distinguish among different common spinal pathologies and mechanical dysfunctions--plus appropriate interventions and adjustments for eachAll about osteoporosis, spinal stenosis, hypermobility syndromes, and moreGuidelines for appropriate movement and injury preventionHow to work safely and effectively with both pre- and post-surgical clientsTargeted programs for specific back-pain issuesAccessible and easy to understand, the lessons and practices from Safe Movement for All Spines are appropriate to share with clients practicing at home or in the studio. Each condition is clearly explained with detailed illustrations and real-life examples, making for an empowering and educating experience. An invaluable resource, Safe Movement for All Spines is an up-to-date must-have for every yoga or pilates teacher’s reference library.

Perspectives from QTBIPOC, fat, and disabled trainers, bodyworkers, and coaches on reimagining fitness for all bodies.For readers of Belly of the Beast, Care Work, and The Body is Not an ApologyFit is subjective. Who our society designates as fit--and who gets to be fit in our society--is predefined by the coaches, gyms, and systems at large that uphold and reproduce the Fitness Industrial Complex for their own structural and material gain.The Fitness Industrial Complex uplifts some bodies while denigrating others. Bodies that are Black, Brown, queer, trans, poor, fat, and disabled--bodies that don't conform, that resist and disrupt--are excluded from being "fit." Through the stories and experiences of activist trainers, coaches, and bodyworkers of diverse identities and experiences, this anthology interrogates:The ideas and beliefs we’ve internalized about health, fitness, and our own and others’ bodiesHow to deconstruct and re-envision fitness as a practice for all bodiesThe fitness industry’s role in upholding and reinforcing oppressionExclusivity, unsafety, and harm in mainstream fitness spacesHow to empower ourselves and our communities to push back against the FICSpeaking directly to sick, queer, trans, disabled, and BIPOC readers, Deconstructing the Fitness Industrial Complex is part urgent inquiry, part radical deconstruction, and part call to action: to build spaces that welcome and work for all; to reclaim movement as a vital and liberatory practice; and to embody a model of joy and community care outside the mainstream fitness culture.

A galvanizing call to end family-based anti-female violence, shaming, and shunning--stories and practices for healing from Family Mobbing.“Family Mobbing” is a strategic process of power and control. When daughters are mobbed, they’re not just shunned, attacked, or slandered: they’re also subjugated by a system of family rules that reinforces patriarchal oppression. What makes mobbing so insidious--and so under-reported--is that here, family itself is the site of violence, trauma, and shame.Family violence against girls and women is still legal--even in America, and even now. Across cultures, girls and women may be shunned or shamed, emotionally mistreated, or physically attacked by their families to maintain status, social conventions, and the family’s own standing within their community. Family Mobbing tactics can include slander, gossip, rejection, beatings, anti-Queer violence, and even honor killings, child marriages, and forced abortion.Author Stephanie Sellers--herself a survivor--explores the global phenomenon of Family Mobbing, revealing the secrets and patterns that play out behind closed doors and remain unseen, unacknowledged, and unaddressed. She discusses:Why families and communities alienate members of their groupsWhy women, girls, and LGBTQIA2S+ people are at higher risk of mobbingThe ramifications of raising daughters to be submissiveHow (and why) mothers and grandmothers perpetuate cycles of Family Mobbing against their daughtersHow to move on after being mobbed, shunned, or shamedFirsthand accounts from people all over the world who were mobbed by their familiesHow different religious worldviews inform the practice and perpetuation of Family MobbingSellers offers stories, definitions, and solutions to help women, girls, and people of all genders who have been mobbed by their families. She remembers and honors vast, ancient traditions that recognize female sanctity and personhood as paths forward to healing, with a focus on the practices and worldviews of Mother-first cultures that can illuminate the path toward honoring, valuing, and respecting daughters.

For readers of The Wild Edge of Sorrow and Crying in H-Mart--a profound and searching memoir of life, loss, grief, and renewal from one of American Buddhism’s most vital new voices. How do we grieve our losses? How can we care for our spirits? one long listening offers enduring companionship to all who ask these searing, timeless questions.Immigrant daughter, novice chaplain, bereaved friend: author Chenxing Han (Be the Refuge) takes us on a pilgrimage through the wilds of grief and laughter, pain and impermanence, reconnecting us to both the heartache and inexplicable brightness of being human.Eddying around three autumns of Han’s life, one long listening journeys from a mountaintop monastery in Taiwan to West Coast oncology wards, from oceanside Ireland to riverfront Phnom Penh. Through letters to a dying friend, bedside chaplaincy visits, and memories of a migratory childhood, Han's startling, searching memoir cuts a singular portrait of a spiritual caregiver in training.Just as we touch the depths, bracing for resolution, Han’s swift, multilingual prose sweeps us back to unknowingness: 不知最親切. Not knowing is most intimate. Chinese mothers, hillside graves. A dreamed olive tree, a lost Siberian crane. The music of scripts and silence. These shards--bright, broken, giddy, aching--are mirrors to our own lives in joy and sorrow.A testament to enduring connection by a fresh and urgent new literary voice, one long listening asks fearlessly into the stories we inhabit, the hopes we relinquish, and what it means simply to be, to and for the ones we love.

An inspirational guide to the 6 core qualities of healthy communities, for anyone looking to build community as a source of connection and a vehicle for social changeAfter two years meeting with different communities in the US, psychologist Lisa Kentgen identified 6 key traits of vibrant, healthy communities that we can all apply to our own lives and networks:Commitment to careAcceptanceDiversitySkillful conflict resolutionBonding ritualsHospitalityEach chapter focuses on one of these traits, highlighting a particular community as a case study of how it can be put into practice. You’ll learn about a wide range of successful community models, including a tiny-home village for people who had been chronically houseless in Austin, Texas; a study circle to build connection between Native and non-Native people in a small town in South Dakota; a 500-member community choir in Columbus, Ohio; and a Buddhist center in Barre, Massachusetts committed to bringing greater diversity to the Dharma.Throughout the book, you’ll reflect: How can we cultivate these traits of vibrant community in our own lives? What would it look like to prioritize caring and acceptance in our interactions with others? How can we create a climate of true inclusivity, one where our differences both challenge and strengthen us? How can we learn to feel more comfortable with tension and acquire the skills to move through conflict toward creative solutions? What would happen if we incorporated meaningful rituals into our communities and made a point of celebrating each other? With intention and practice, we can transform our social relationships and build communities that appreciate difference, encourage authentic expression, and foster an environment of belonging and mutual care. This book will inspire you to make the transformative leap from “me” to “we,” creating communal, loving spaces in which to connect--and thrive--together.

Discover the healing power of expressive arts with this hands-on guide to using creative mindfulness to reduce stress, find presence, and unlock self-knowledge Expressive arts educator Rachel Rose weaves together mindfulness practice and art therapy to demonstrate how tapping into your own innate creativity can help you find peace in a stressful worldThis self-directed guide teaches ten key principles of mindfulness through ten creative invitations, along with a series of simple exercises and guided prompts to help you start noticing and flexing your creative mindfulness muscles: Anchoring your practice with ritual Setting intentions Honoring your impulses Trusting the process Non-striving Letting goRequiring no prior experience of the arts or mindfulness meditation, Creating Stillness provides tools to explore difficult emotions and find insight into personal struggles and traumatic wounds.In each chapter, Rose draws from her personal experience as a teacher and facilitator of creative mindfulness to share stories and examples that help ground exercises like sketching, creative writing prompts, and more.Rose carefully walks through the process each time, explaining how to set intention and arrive in the present moment before embarking on your mindful art session; how to use objects and thoughts as creative prompts; how to return your attention to your work as you move forward; and how to distill the wisdom you have found in the process. For seasoned artists, creative mindfulness offers a chance to slow down and rediscover the transformative power that art can offer when it is detached from the need to produce something beautiful or useful. For those coming to expressive arts with existing mindfulness practices or engaged in a therapeutic process, a mindful arts practice may reveal a passion for creation you didn’t know existed. And for everyone, creative mindfulness can help us make sense of our feelings and find new ways of expressing ourselves--in art and in life.

"Reading Kuni makes me want to dive into rural Japan...this book reminds me that leaders emerge when and where you least expect it."- ALICE WATERS, founder of Chez Panisse restaurant, activist, and author A guide to reviving and revitalizing forgotten places and communities through the Japanese principles of kuniKuni offers a unique model for the revitalization of rural and deindustrialized lands and communities--and shares lessons in citizen-led regeneration for all of us, regardless of where we live. "Kuni" is both a reimagining of the Japanese word for nation and an approach to reviving communities. It shows what happens when dedicated people band together and invest their hearts, minds, and souls back into a community, modeling a new way of living that actually works.A kuni can be created anywhere--even a hamlet on the verge of extinction--and embodies 7 key principles:Everyone is equal in a kuniKuni is equipped with a regional management organization--a democratic organization that takes care of small public servicesKuni is a link between residents and repeat visitorsLife in a kuni is circular--consumption and production are in balanceKuni embraces the whole personKuni can be a place for young people who seek interconnectednessThe time for kuni is nowKuni offers a compelling vision of regenerative relationships that can take root in the United States...and anywhere. With spare and beautiful prose, a black-and-white photo insert, and useful principles for reviving rural places, this book addresses our longing for a hopeful revolution of everyday life.