—In the introduction to the Healthy Pregnancy and Successful Childbirth CD, Belleruth Naparstek suggests, “Try not to have a fixed idea of how you think the labor and delivery should go. The more flexible you can be, the better off you are.”

Over the weekend, I did what I sometimes do––I worried myself into a state that made everything seem overwhelming and impossible, then beat myself up for getting there. I’m usually pretty good about remembering that it passes, observing from a slight distance, etc., but this one had me blind. So I unwrapped Getting Unstuck by Pema Chödrön, a spoken-word CD, and listened.

With a new book out this year, Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness, a brand-new CD set to complement the book, and a January workshop at Mount Madonna Center through Omega Institute, it’s a wonder mindfulness guru John Kabat-Zinn finds time to watch a single thought drift by.

If you’ve ever wondered why some seemingly mundane interactions leave you drained and others give you a boost––and what you can do to control the phenomenon––then Judith Orloff’s new CD set, Positive Energy Practices is for you. A follow-up to her wonderful book, Positive Energy: 10 Extraordinary Prescriptions for Transforming Fatigue, Stress, and Fear into Vibrance, Strength, and Love, Orloff, a clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA and professional intuitive, fills the two-and-a-half-hour audio program with tools, techniques, guided meditations, and insights. The goal here is: “How to Attract Uplifting People and Combat Energy Vampires.”

Having trouble sleeping? Try listening to Super Sleep, a CD put out by the Monroe Institute that uses a technology called hemi-sync (short for hemisphere synchronization) to help you generate deeply relaxing delta brain waves. The increasingly popular technology can also be used for everything from staying focused for an exam to calming down and reducing pain before, during, and after surgery

If those ubiquitous sleep-inducing tips like “use your bed only for rest” and “draw a hot bath” are not helping, the zYoga program, comprised of DVDs and CDs, promises to knock you out with ease. zYoga, The Yoga Sleep Ritual, is 40-minute posture and breathing DVD to unwind your body and slow your mind—the accompanying zYoga Lullaby CD is an actual bedtime song that is supposed to seal the deal. It’s all taught and sung by Ann Dyer, a faculty member and teacher at Rodney Yee’s studio in California. In addition to being an Iyengar yogini, she studied the yoga of sound (nada yoga) for ten years. Her website (which is actually relaxing just to look at), sleepgarden.com, has sells her full line of sleep-inducing and stress-relieving products.