The Seven Circles: Indigenous Teachings for Living Well

In this revolutionary self-help guide, two beloved Native American wellness activists offer wisdom for achieving spiritual, physical, and emotional wellbeing rooted in Indigenous ancestral knowledge.

When wellness teachers and husband-wife duo Chelsey Luger and Thosh Collins founded their Indigenous wellness initiative, Well for Culture, they extended an invitation to all to honor their whole self through Native wellness philosophies and practices. In reclaiming this ancient wisdom for health and wellbeing--drawing from traditions spanning multiple tribes--they developed the Seven Circles, a holistic model for modern living rooted in timeless teachings from their ancestors. Luger and Collins have introduced this universally adaptable template for living well to Ivy league universities and corporations like Nike, Adidas, and Google, and now make it available to everyone in this wise guide.

The Seven Circles model comprises interconnected circles that keep all aspects of our lives in balance, functioning in harmony with one another. They are:

Food

Movement

Sleep

Ceremony

Sacred Space

Land

Community

In The Seven Circles, Luger and Collins share intimate stories from their life journeys growing up in tribal communities, from the Indigenous tradition of staying active and spiritually centered through running and dance, to the universal Indigenous emphasis on a light-filled, minimalist home to create sacred space. Along the way, Luger and Collins invite readers to both adapt these teachings to their lives as well as do so without appropriating and erasing the original context, representing a critical new ethos for the wellness space. Each chapter closes with practical advice on how to engage with the teachings, as well as wisdom for keeping that particular circle in harmony with the others.

With warmth and generosity--and 75 atmospheric photographs by Collins throughout--The Seven Circles teaches us how to connect with nature, with our community, and with ourselves, and to integrate ancient Indigenous philosophies of health and wellbeing into our own lives to find healing and balance.

Thosh Collins is a photographer, board member for the Native Wellness Institute, and co-founder of Well For Culture. He is On Akimel O'odham, Seneca-Cayuga, and Osage, born and raised on the Salt River Reservation. He serves on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Land Board, and remains politically and culturally active within his community. He and Chelsey Luger live in Arizona and have two daughters.

Chelsey Luger is a writer and wellness advocate originally from North Dakota, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa; also from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She got her undergraduate degree at Dartmouth College in Native American Studies and History and later earned an M.S. at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. She is the co-founder of Well For Culture. Her writing has appeared in the Atlantic, Huffington Post, Yes! Magazine, and other outlets.