From a founding member of the famous Esalen Massage program at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA, this book guides couples through a sensual and restorative massage exchange. This intimate practice can enhance communication, relieve stress and tension, and to bring more joy into readers lives thorough the healing power of touch.

Starting with a simple setting that can easily be accomplished with few special preparations, readers will learn, step-by-step, how to make a deep and meaningful connect with their partner's body. Using a combination of strokes from the most time-honored massage traditions, they will learn to be mindful of where their partner holds stress and tension. As the massage continues, readers will enter into a profound nonverbal dialogue with their partner, learning much from the simple act of contact with another body. All of the techniques are illustrated with black-and-white photographs. Elegant and refined, this book is a perfect gift for a special someone or a friend in love.

A behavioral scientist explores love, belongingness, and fulfillment, focusing on how modern technology can both help and hinder our need to connect. A Next Big Idea Club nominee. Millions of people around the world are not getting the physical, emotional, and intellectual intimacy they crave. Through the wonders of modern technology, we are connecting with more people more often than ever before, but are these connections what we long for? Pandemic isolation has made us even more alone. In Out of Touch, Professor of Psychology Michelle Drouin investigates what she calls our intimacy famine, exploring love, belongingness, and fulfillment and considering why relationships carried out on technological platforms may leave us starving for physical connection. Drouin puts it this way: when most of our interactions are through social media, we are taking tiny hits of dopamine rather than the huge shots of oxytocin that an intimate in-person relationship would provide. Drouin explains that intimacy is not just sex—although of course sex is an important part of intimacy. But how important? Drouin reports on surveys that millennials (perhaps distracted by constant Tinder-swiping) have less sex than previous generations. She discusses pandemic puppies, professional cuddlers, the importance of touch, “desire discrepancy” in marriage, and the value of friendships. Online dating, she suggests, might give users too many options; and the internet facilitates “infidelity-related behaviors.” Some technological advances will help us develop and maintain intimate relationships—our phones, for example, can be bridges to emotional support. Some, on the other hand, might leave us out of touch. Drouin explores both of these possibilities.

This sequel to Leil’s international top selling “How to Talk to Anyone” makes you a master communicator with 96 all new cutting-edge communication “Little Tricks” for big success in business and social relationships—in person, by email, and on the phone. It has been praised as the 21st century version of “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” and was nominated one of the five best books in psychology by “Books for a Better Life!” The author introduces the psychologically sound concept, “Emotional Prediction” or E.P. which you can employ with everyone. Here are the ten sections of the book: 7 Little Tricks to Make a Great Impression Before People Even Meet You 11 Little Tricks to Take the “Hell” Out of “Hello,” and Put the “Good” in “Good-bye” 12 Little Tricks to Develop an Extraordinary Gift of Gab 10 Little Tricks to Actually Enjoy Parties 5 Little Tricks to Handle the Good, the Bad, and the Bummers 12 Little Tricks to Avoid the 13 Most Common Dumb Things You Should NEVER Say or Do 13 Little Tricks to be a Cool Communicator 11 Little Tricks to Give Your E-Mail Today’s Personality and Tomorrow’s Professionalism 10 Little Tricks to Make an Impression on your Cell (A.K.A. “Phone”) 5 Little Tricks to Deepen the Relationships You Already Have

Discover a deeper connection with your partner through the healing power of massage There's nothing like the stress-relieving, mood-lifting comfort of physical touch to bring out the best in your relationship. Whether you are helping a partner with aches and pains or looking to foster intimacy, Massage for Couples will teach you time-honored techniques from around the world that have made massage a staple for relaxation and relationship longevity since ancient times. Begin by gaining confidence in using your hands to provide a healing touch. Then discover guided massage sequences to soothe, inspire, uplift, relax, or resolve a specific pain point. Support your partner's well-being and enjoy a healthy, enriching way to spend quality time together. Inside Massage for Couples, you'll find: Naturally healing together--Practice a holistic method of experiencing pleasure and providing relief from stress and fatigue. Body wisdom--Educate yourself on some light biology and anatomy lessons that will help you refine your skills and give truly transformative, bliss-inspiring massages. Comfort and connection--Master instructions for resolving specific aches and pains as well as tips for connecting with a partner emotionally. Learn the healing power of touch to promote wellness and heighten intimacy with Massage for Couples.

What if your church had more volunteers than you knew what to do with? Sound far-fetched? It doesn't have to be. Now consultant, pastor, and author Nelson Searcy unveils his secret to doubling your volunteer base in as little as one day. Yes, you read that right. This step-by-step guide shows church leaders how to create a culture that attracts, keeps, and grows volunteers. Taking a comprehensive approach to the often frustrating issue of finding and retaining volunteers, Connect gives leaders the practical insight and tools they need to effectively involve people in serving the local church. It details how to help people see the importance of serving, how to continually raise up new volunteers, how to really delegate, and even how to "fire" a volunteer. Every church leader who has struggled with getting and keeping people active in the church (and that's all of them) will love the practical, workable strategies found here.

Photography does more than simply represent the world. It acts in the world, connecting people to form relationships and shaping relationships to create communities. In this beautiful book, Margaret Olin explores photography’s ability to “touch” us through a series of essays that shed new light on photography’s role in the world. Olin investigates the publication of photographs in mass media and literature, the hanging of exhibitions, the posting of photocopied photographs of lost loved ones in public spaces, and the intense photographic activity of tourists at their destinations. She moves from intimate relationships between viewers and photographs to interactions around larger communities, analyzing how photography affects the way people handle cataclysmic events like 9/11. Along the way, she shows us James VanDerZee’s Harlem funeral portraits, dusts off Roland Barthes’s family album, takes us into Walker Evans and James Agee’s photo-text Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and logs onto online photo albums. With over one hundred illustrations, Touching Photographs is an insightful contribution to the theory of photography, visual studies, and art history.