Book excerpt: In challenging times (like the ones we're living in right now), spiritual practice isn't a luxury, it's an absolute necessity. Now, expert teacher Philip Goldberg offers a hands-on guide based on his decades of scholarship and practical experience, giving readers a wide range of tools and techniques-from meditation to cognitive reframing to "spiritual space management"-to relieve their minds and refresh their souls. Thorough, nuanced, and substantive, and at the same time concise, breezy, and easy to digest, Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times is chock full of instructions, guidelines, exercises, and recommendations. But no one-size-fits-all formulas. The book respects spiritual independence and aims to help readers make discerning choices when navigating the spiritual marketplace. It draws from authoritative texts and teachers from every spiritual tradition, especially the empirical methods of the yoga tradition. It also brings in contemporary experience, psychological insights, and scientific research. Effective spiritual practices provide not only refuge and healing in crazy times, Phil explains. They also give us a solid foundation for robust action to manage-and combat-the madness. At the moment this book hits the shelves, many readers may feel an acute, specific need for the relief it brings. But the resources it offers will sustain us long past that, through all the crazy times to come.