"Integral Life Practice (ILP) starts where all practice starts — with inspiration, a yearning to grow, to become all that you can be," write Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, Adam Leonard, and Marco Morelli in this ambitious work which charts various techniques used to promote physical health, emotional balance, mental clarity, and spiritual awakening. The authors have been developing ILP for more than 30 years; it is "ancient and modern, Eastern and Western, speculative and scientific, and yet something beyond those dichotomies."

Throughout this paperback are experiential practices in two formats: Gold Star Practices and 1-Minute Modules. ILP is the ultimate in cross-training, working synergistically with body, mind, and spirit in self, culture, and nature. It is also customizable, letting you engage the many dimensions of your being and interests. It has four core modules (Body, Mind, Spirit, and Shadow) and additional modules (Integral Ethics, Integral Sexual Yoga, Work, Transmitting Emotions, Integral Parenting, Integral relationships, Integral Communication). The practices are designed for those who have made a commitment to bring awareness, care, and presence to every moment of life.

After looking at the four quadrants which represent the dimensions of being — I, We, It, Its — the authors take a hard look at shadow (any part of ourselves that we repress or deny). This involves inner work on exploring our relationship with our emotions. Next comes a chapter on the mind module (increasing your capacity to take more nuanced, complex, and accurate perspectives) and a lengthy one on the body module with practices for the causal, the subtle, and the gross body. The spirit module contains exercises and practices on the three faces of Spirit, devotion, meditation, integral inquiry, and compassionate exchange.

After a chapter on integral ethics (moral intuition, values, karma, self-compassion), the authors spin off into multiple arenas of living your life as practice. Here is plenty of excellent material on navigating the Practice Life, including this sound advice:

• be discerning and flexible
• refresh and recalibrate yourself
• spend time in good company
• work with a teacher
• take responsibility
• free your energy and attention
• experience good and bad days
• don’t waste time beating yourself up
• integrate your practice
• let love open the door
• allow paradox to expand you