Adventure In Zanskar: a young woman’s solitary journey to reach physical and metaphysical heights

In 1983, twenty-one-year-old Amy Edelstein set out on a 500-kilometer journey in Zanskar, India, the highest valley in the world. She walked alone by foot, crossing passes above 16,000 feet, sleeping in caves, meeting high lamas, and exploring a culture that had remained virtually the same for thousands of years — a culture that was about to change irrevocably. Drawn by the seeker’s quest for wisdom, what Amy found shaped her life. Readers in our stressed and troubled times can now share the fruits of her adventure, and grow lighter and happier in the process.

The Conscious Classroom: the Inner Strength System(TM) for transforming the teenage mind shows educators, parents, and everyone concerned about our youth a sound, illuminating, and uplifting way to educate our kids today for their well-being in the world of tomorrow. The Inner Strength System is currently being used by over a dozen high schools in the inner city of Philadelphia to support thousands of teens to realize their higher potentials. In this evidence-based program, she uniquely pairs the best of her 35 years experience with mindfulness tools with the art of systemic and developmental thinking. Given how rapidly our world is changing, our teens urgently need skills that help them rise above emotional as well as practical upheaval. The guidance offered in this book gives educators both the understanding and the tools to work with challenging classrooms today. It empowers teachers to train our adolescents with education that will prepare them both inwardly and outwardly to be wise and compassionate stewards of our shared future.

The Inner Strength Teen Mindfulness Program is the only adolescent mindfulness program to incorporate evidence-based and trauma-sensitive mindfulness techniques for whole person wellness, with systems thinking, positive psychology, and social emotional learning. The 12-lesson curriculum deftly weaves together perspectives from 300 million years of brain development, evolutionary theories and latest insights of adolescent neuroscience, and a perspective on large-scale cultural shifts over hundreds of years. Students learn to see their experience in perspective, depersonalizing challenges and catalyzing interest and inner strength. In this detailed course manual, teachers will find lesson plans for the 12-lesson Inner Strength Teen Mindfulness Program. This manual accompanies the 80-hour teacher training program. Instructions for teachers include overview explanation, additional resources and readings, and a clearly delineated set of Goals, Objectives, and Skills for each section. (110 pages)

Amy Edelstein’s first volume of poems is a hauntingly moving collection of vignettes about the land, about cultural issues, and about intimate family moments. Like a box of photographs, this volume lets us sift through fleeting memories and reflections, coming away with the impression that through her words we have discovered a thought-provoking montage of our own. WIth a voice that is distinct, strong, and penetrating, Amy’s poems speak to a generation of readers looking for signposts that will direct us to our own depths.