Generous Exchange: How Attention to Beauty, Goodness and Excellence Restores Us and Our World

In a series of insightful and intimate essays, Maria Sirois explores how our ability to appreciate beauty, goodness and excellence can elevate and inspire our days, stimulating us to cultivate health in ourselves and in the natural world around us. Lyrically weaving together story and science, Dr. Sirois offers practical guidance on how to participate in a generous exchange of goodness and nourishment, providing pathways through the thickets of banality, pain, or darkness that may at times surround us. The Generous Exchange is a work of hope, grounded in the pragmatic consideration of the restoration possible for ourselves, for those living around us, and those yet to come.

“This profound book is a gift to you and to our shared future.”
—Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D., author of Happier, No Matter What

“Let Maria Sirois lead you on a journey of inner and outer discovery. There is no better guide to beauty, goodness, and excellence.”
—Dan Tomasulo, Ph.D., Academic Director, Spirituality Mind Body Institute, Columbia University, author of Learned Hopefulness

“The magic of this book is the way it softly, kindly, stops you in your tracks, opens your eyes, and gently steers you — spiritually, philosophically, and practically — towards a new horizon that, only a few pages ago, was hidden and dark. This book changed me, it will change you.”
—David Bott, Co-founder, The Wellbeing Distillery

Maria Sirois, Psy.D., is a resilience expert, positive psychologist and international consultant, known for her authenticity, wisdom and compassion. She is the author of two other books: A Short Course in Happiness After Loss (And Other Dark, Difficult Times) and Every Day Counts.