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Bay Area author wins gold at 2026 Nautilus Book Awards
He joins a list of past Nautilus honorees that includes the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Brené Brown and Eckhart Tolle.
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Malvika Choudhary - Wed, 03, Jun 2026
- 17:41 EDT
- 36
Ishan Shivanand / Compassion Unites
Indian-origin yogic scholar and mental health researcher Ishan Shivanand won a Gold award at the 2026 Nautilus Book Awards for his memoir The Practice of Immortality, his second international literary honor within a year.
The Nautilus Book Awards, established in 1998, recognize books that promote spiritual growth, social change and conscious living.
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Shivanand's memoir received the Gold award in the Spirituality of Eastern Thought category, placing him among past Nautilus honorees including the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Brené Brown and Eckhart Tolle.
Published in May 2025, The Practice of Immortality traces Shivanand's journey through yogic traditions and his efforts to make meditation and breathwork practices accessible to a wider audience.
The memoir was released in the United States by Hachette Book Group and in the United Kingdom and India by Penguin Random House. It became a USA TODAY national bestseller and reached No. 1 on Amazon India within a week of its launch.
The book is currently available in 15 countries and seven languages: English, Italian, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi and Marathi.
Shivanand is the founder of Bay Area-based Yoga of Immortals (YOI), a meditation and breathwork program, and Compassion Unites, a cross-sector mental health alliance. According to the organization, YOI's clinically validated protocols are used by more than 100,000 people worldwide each day, including at Google and Rutgers University.
The program has been evaluated in six PubMed-indexed studies conducted in collaboration with researchers at the University of Cincinnati, the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and Rutgers University. The studies reported reductions of 72 to 82 percent in anxiety, depression and insomnia after eight weeks of practice.
Commenting on the growing demand for mental health tools amid rapid technological change, Shivanand said leaders are facing unprecedented challenges as artificial intelligence reshapes workplaces.
“Many executives built their careers in environments where experience was a dependable guide. AI is changing the pace and shape of work so quickly that old playbooks don't always hold. The result is a fatigue that comes from leading through a transformation they do not understand. The only way to succeed is by staying anchored, strengthening the practices that sustain clear judgment, and leading with steadiness and integrity even as conditions change,” Shivanand said.
The Nautilus recognition follows Shivanand's Literary Titan Gold Book Award in December 2025, marking his second international literary award in less than 12 months.
Born into a family with a 21-generation yogic lineage, Shivanand serves as adjunct faculty at the Center of Excellence for Holistic Wellbeing at IIT Ropar, and maintains research affiliations with Stanford University. He has previously been recognized by the U.S. Congress, received by the U.K. Parliament and invited to the White House to advise on the opioid crisis.
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