Healing America: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Recapture the American Spirit (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781401955885)

From one of this country's most thoughtful and committed leaders, this optimistic, pragmatic guide--now revised and updated to reflect the current political climate--offers a timeless practice to inspire hope for our country's future.

Congressman Tim Ryan brings a unique perspective to today's political and social reality: he's an established figure in the mindfulness movement and an all-American guy from the heartland who's now in his eighth term in Congress. In this revised edition of A Mindful Nation--which garnered major media attention when it first hit the shelves--he presents us with an inspiring and hopeful view of our country's future and a roadmap for how to get there.
We need this book now more than ever. Across America, people are feeling anxious, exhausted, and running faster and faster while falling farther behind. The economy continues to leave many behind, conflicts rage on, and our principles come under fire. Despite this bleak outlook, there are strands of quiet hope and confidence. People are taking action in a new way: they are slowing down, paying attention, and gaining awareness of the inner resources at their disposal.
This new way is based on the timeless and universal practice of mindfulness, the natural capabilities of our brains and minds, and the core American values of self-reliance, stick-to-it-iveness, and getting the job done. And it's manifesting in every sector of our society--it's helping sick people work with their pain, school children improve their learning, veterans heal from trauma, and CEOs become more inclusive and effective leaders. All these benefits--and more--are supported by scientific research on mindfulness that is regularly reported by the mainstream media.
In A Mindful Nation, Congressman Tim Ryan takes this story to the next level. He connects the dots between what's happening with mindfulness in classrooms, hospitals, boardrooms, research labs, and army bases across the country by sharing his interactions with experts in education, defense, health care, criminal justice, and the environment. A Mindful Nation paints a picture of emerging solutions that support us on many levels: it shows how the benefits of mindfulness apply to the challenges that affect each of us in our own lives and in our communities, and thus have implications for our society as a whole. With a hard-nosed understanding of politics, government budgets, and what it takes to get something done--combined with a folksy, warm, and encouraging voice--Ryan tells us there is something we can do, right here and right now, to help our country and ourselves.