From a recovering addict, musician, and tattooed indie culturist: a guidebook for today’s generation of spiritual misfits who crave a dogma-free path. Brutally honest and radically unconventional, Chris Grosso’s collection of stories and musings about his meandering journey of self-inquiry, recovery, and acceptance shows what it means to live a truly authentic spiritual life. Set amongst the backdrop of Grosso’s original music (includ­ed for download via QR codes in the text), Indie Spiritualist encourages you to accept yourself just as you are, in all your humanity and imperfect perfection.

"After years of heavy addiction, Chris Grosso found himself at the age of 25 literally on his knees utterly lost and broken. If he was going to live, he needed to find a new way to approach life. But he battled with how to wrangle a spiritual path with his alternative, eclectic lifestyle. Drawing upon his punk rock roots and question everything mindset, Grosso offers a collection of stories and musings on his own no bullshit exploration of spirituality that are brutally honest, and many times, bitingly humorous. A guidebook for today's generation of non-religious spiritual misfits, who crave a truly dogma-free path. Through his own self-inquiry and meandering journey, Grosso shows readers that spirituality is not something that only happens on meditation cushions or yoga mats, in sanghas, churches, mosques, temples, or synagogues. It's not always peaceful and quiet. A tattooed, independent culturist, recovering addict, spiritual aspirant, and musician, Grosso wanted more than what conventional religious or spiritual doctrine could provide. Rejecting the trappings, hypocrisies, and judgements, Grosso empowers readers to accept themselves as they are, in all their humanness and imperfect perfection"--

“I’m not a yogi from the Himalayas, a preacher from the pulpit, or a guru with dollar signs in my eyes,” says Chris Grosso. “The truth is, as a result of years of heavy drug and alcohol addiction, I’ve been to some extremely dark places that resulted in a literal life-or-death search for something more.” With Everything Mind, this emerging voice of the spiritual counterculture presents a riveting and insightful book about meditation, the search for deeper meaning, and the life-changing (and life-saving) process of waking up. “Everything Mind” means it’s all part of the path—dark and light, sacred and profane, serious and goofy, tragic and joyous. Each experience is unique, each has something profound to teach us if we open ourselves and let it in. Sharing hard-won wisdom and the spiritual practices that helped him through his darkest times, Chris invites you to discover: • Spirituality—how something that doesn’t fix your problems or change who you are can still revolutionize your life • Why well-worn ideas like “love everyone” and “anything is possible” are much more than just wishful bullshit • The perils of railing at fundamentalism—how to put down the pitchfork and practice compassionate spiritual discernment • The mystery of “interbeing”—convincing your head, heart, and gut that you’re actually connected to everything • Expressing your truth through service, meditation, sports, relationships, punk rock, skateboarding—or just about anything done with love Finding our own spirituality is both liberating and terrifying. Liberating because we no longer have to be tied down by dogma or march off to war just because a guy in a fancy hat says so. Terrifying because it’s now totally on us to find out what’s true, what’s holy, what really matters to each of us. “Cultivating a spiritual lifestyle may be the most challenging undertaking you’ll ever face,” says Chris Grosso. “But if you stick with it, you can learn to meet allof life with an open heart—which, when you get down to it, is pretty fucking amazing.”

Chris Grosso invites us to sit in on conversations with beloved luminaries and bestselling authors such as Ram Dass, Lissa Rankin, Noah Levine, Gabor Mate, and Sharon Salzberg to discover why people return to self-defeating behaviors—drugs, alcohol, unhealthy eating, sex, media—and how they can recover, heal, and thrive. In his recovery from drugs and alcohol, Chris Grosso has stumbled, staggered, and started all over again. In an effort to understand why he relapses, and why many of us return to the myriad of other self-defeating behaviors despite our better judgment, he went to bestselling authors, spiritual teachers, psychologists, doctors, and more, and asked them why we tend to repeat mistakes in our lives, even when we know these actions will harm us and the ones we love. In Dead Set on Living, Chris shares these intimate conversations and the practices that have taught him to be more loving, compassionate, and forgiving with himself as well as new meditation and healing techniques he learned through his journey. Unabashedly honest and inspiring, Dead Set on Living is essential reading for anyone seeking a path towards triumph over adversity, understanding the human condition, and rebuilding relationships after promises have been broken.

A case for friendship as a radical practice of love, courage, and trust, and seven strategies that pave the way for profound social change. Grounded in the Buddha’s teachings on spiritual friendship, Radical Friendship shares seven strategies to help us embody our deepest values in all of our relationships. Drawing on her experiences as a leading meditation teacher, as well as personal stories of growing up multiracial in a racist world, Kate Johnson brings a fresh take on time-honored wisdom to help us connect more authentically with ourselves, with our friends and family, and within our communities. The divides we experience within us and between us are not only a threat to our physical and emotional health—they are also the weapons and the outcomes of structural oppression. But through wise relationships, it is possible to transform the barriers created by societal injustice. Johnson leads us on a journey to becoming better friends by offering ways to show up for our own and each other’s liberation at every stage of a relationship. Each chapter ends with a meditation or reflection practice to help readers cultivate vibrant, harmonious, revolutionary friendships. Radical Friendship offers a path of depth and hope and shows us the importance of working toward collective wellbeing, one relationship at a time.

Tip over your sacred cows of belief, dump your personal prejudices and biases, and begin to rebuild a spiritual lifestyle that really works. Wife, mother, and award-winning producer of the sleeper hit What the Bleep Do We Know!? Betsy Chasse thought she had it all figured out...until she realized she didn’t. She didn’t know anything about happiness, love, spirituality, or herself...nothing, nada, zilch. In a book that’s anything but quiet, Chasse takes readers on a playful romp through the muddy fields of life and spirituality. Witty, yet unflinching, Chasse exposes her own experience tipping sacred cows and dissects the fragile beliefs we all hold so dear. Because the truth is, we each have a choice to believe the stories we tell ourselves or create new ones. A candid, no-nonsense confession, Chasse’s story gives readers the freedom to break free from their old patterns and gleefully frolic through fields, cow tipping at will and in the process, create a new reality for themselves.