Beyond Wellness - by Liz Bucar (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In the chaos of today's world, we're all searching for meaning. The wellness industry has sold us a promise that we can find it if we just buy the right products, attend the right retreats, and follow the right celebrity gurus. But is this true? Or are we picking and choosing from a self-care salad bar in ways that satisfy our hunger but don't truly nourish us? When we approach practices like yoga and ayahuasca as fitness routines and life hacks, we miss out on the sacred wisdom they have to offer us. But by digging into the real and often ancient religious traditions behind these practices, from Buddhism to Christianity and beyond, we can make them more meaningful, ethical, and effective-without the often unpleasant baggage of joining an organized religion. In this engaging and deeply personal book, award-winning scholar and writer Liz Bucar embarks on a quest to get to the heart of "spiritual but not religious" activities from detox diets to sound baths. As she tries out each practice for herself, she asks how we can get more out of it by tuning out the hype and taking the religious meaning behind it seriously-with emotionally profound and often surprising results. Whether it's as simple as setting an intention for a yoga asana or as complex as reevaluating what a "higher power" is, it's time to understand, experience, and simply get more out of our spiritual practices. It's time to dig deeper with Beyond Wellness"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Go deeper than superficial self-care with the religious secret sauce you didn't know you were missing

"An emotionally and intellectually honest alternative for people who are seeking meaning beyond generic spirituality"--Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, author of Real Self-Care

In the chaos of today's world, we're all searching for meaning. The wellness industry has sold us a promise that we can find it if we just buy the right products, attend the right retreats, and follow the right celebrity gurus. But is this true? Or are we picking and choosing from a self-care salad bar in ways that satisfy our hunger but don't truly nourish us?

When we approach practices like yoga and ayahuasca as fitness routines and life hacks, we miss out on the sacred wisdom they have to offer us. But by digging into the real and often ancient religious traditions behind these practices, from Buddhism to Christianity and beyond, we can make them more meaningful, ethical, and effective--without the often unpleasant baggage of joining an organized religion.

In this engaging and deeply personal book, award-winning scholar and writer Liz Bucar embarks on a quest to get to the heart of "spiritual but not religious" activities from detox diets to sound baths. As she tries out each practice for herself, she asks how we can get more out of it by tuning out the hype and taking the religious meaning behind it seriously--with emotionally profound and often surprising results. Whether it's as simple as setting an intention for a yoga asana or as complex as reevaluating what a "higher power" is, it's time to understand, experience, and simply get more out of our spiritual practices. It's time to dig deeper with Beyond Wellness.

Review Quotes

"Beyond Wellness provides an emotionally and intellectually honest alternative for people who are seeking meaning beyond generic spirituality. As a scholar of religion and certified yoga instructor, Liz Bucar is the perfect person to provide insight into the deeper meaning and purpose of popular wellness practices."
-- Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, MD, psychiatrist and author of Real Self-Care

"There is such a need for this book, and Liz Bucar is the perfect person to write it as a leading scholar of popular religious practices and one of the most prominent practitioners and proponents of bringing scholarly expertise into public spaces. More than that, Bucar has a way of bringing herself into the narrative in a way that is at once incisive and inviting."
--Kristin Kobes Du Mez, New York Times bestselling author of Jesus and John Wayne

"Bucar turns the oft-repeated 'I'm spiritual but not religious' on its head, showing us in her characteristic engaging style that we ought not to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. In fact, the data show that when we understand the ancient religious traditions behind many spiritual practices, we make them more meaningful, ethical, and effective."
--Dan McClellan, New York Times bestselling author of The Bible Says So and cohost of Data Over Dogma

"Without the understanding this book offers, yoga, meditation, fad diets, and psychedelics might make you feel better, Bucar argues, but they won't make you well. These practices, it turns out, work better if we go beyond just doing them to understanding where they come from, mining their roots in wisdom traditions and moral communities."
--Stephen Prothero, New York Times bestselling author of Religious Literacy

"This book is bound to become an essential read for anyone taking their spirituality, health, and wellness seriously."
--Simran Jeet Singh, national bestselling author of The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life

"The 'spiritual but not religious' movement is everywhere, often tied to promises of not just happiness but inner and outer well-being. Bucar moves through the claims of these ubiquitous movements not as a cynic but as one who cares enough to critique. This is a book that deserves the widest readership."
--Omid Safi, author of Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition

"Consider this the next time you hear someone describe themselves as 'spiritual but not religious.' As Liz Bucar reminds us in Beyond Wellness, nearly every new meditation technique or holistic practice sold in today's spiritual marketplace is actually borrowed from one of those stodgy old religions these seekers think they left behind. Stripping those spiritual practices from their religious context, she argues, may even be hazardous to their own well-being."
--Don Lattin, national bestselling author of Harvard Psychedelic Club

"If the spiritual salad bar has started to feel like quick dopamine with thin nutrition, this book offers substance. Read it if you want your spiritual practice to do more than lower your stress. Bucar has absolutely changed the way that I approach spiritual traditions."
--Britt Hartley, atheist spiritual director and author of No Nonsense Spirituality

"Thoughtfully breaking down the slippery realm of 'spirituality, ' Bucar illuminates how all of these secular products and practices are historically rooted in religion, how they have been stripped of this context, and why that deracination serves no one. Rigorous and fun--just like Bucar's dispatches on TikTok--Beyond Wellness is a book we sorely need."
--Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, author of Fit Nation and host of Welcome to Your Fantasy

"I'm fond of saying religion is always in the room, and this book proves my point. We are living through a crisis that centers 'me' over 'we.' Mass market mystics capitalize on this polarizing way of living to our detriment. Bucar gets at the heart of this with her accessible scholarship and engaging analysis. This book reminds us that as humans we will never be able to be fully divorced from our need for meaning making systems."
--Liz Kineke, writer, TV producer, and journalist

About the Author

Liz Bucar is a religious ethicist and professor of religion at Northeastern University, as well as a certified intenSati and Kripalu yoga instructor. Her popular writing has appeared in The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, Teen Vogue, and The Wall Street Journal, and she is the author of four books, including the award-winning Stealing My Religion and Pious Fashion. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts. For more about how religion shapes us all, even if we don't believe, subscribe to Liz's newsletter at LizBucar.com.