Radical Self-Acceptance

When the difficulties and losses of life feel overwhelming, is there someplace we can turn for the safety, nurturing, and peace that we long for? Most of us are strongly conditioned to react with fear and confusion, falling back on strategies of judgment, control, addictive behaviors, and anger. Yet there is another way. “In any moment, no matter how lost we feel, we can take refuge in presence and love,” teaches Tara Brach.

When we seek comfort and relief from stress, Tara Brach teaches, we often unconsciously turn to false refuges such as material wealth, approval from others, or a preoccupation with the past and future. Yet by cultivating true refuge in this moment, not only can we find shelter from the storms of life but we also open ourselves up to fully experiencing joy and fulfillment. Here, Tara Brach guides a meditation using the therapeutic R.A.I.N. process for releasing fear and healing through self-compassion.

Despite our best intentions, we often have trouble dealing effectively with strong emotions. What if you had a conscious, skillful way to respond in times of anger, fear, jealousy, shame, and other powerful emotions? Meditations for Emotional Healing gives us a collection of insights and practices for bringing compassion, clarity, and understanding to our emotional lives-instead of expressing or repressing them in unhealthy ways.

A profound transformation can occur just by training your attention in awareness - a practice sweeping the country with its capacity to decrease stress, cultivate inner calm, and expand wisdom and creativity. Clinical psychologist and meditation teacher Tara Brach has been at the forefront of mindfulness-based therapy since its inception, and here offers a traditional loving-kindness meditation with a neurologically-based relaxation technique known as "smiling yoga".

What is love? Sharon Salzberg believes that love is a powerful healing force for us all and that modern associations with romance and adoration are limiting. By redefining love, she helps us to recognize our desire for happiness and enhance our connections with each other. Real Love is a creative toolkit of mindfulness exercises and meditation techniques that can help you to truly engage with your present experience and create deeper love relationships - with yourself, your partner, friends and family, and life itself.

Why does it feel so natural to be compassionate and kind to those we care about - yet so hard to treat ourselves the same way? "Our culture teaches us to use self-criticism for motivation and to build self-esteem by constantly measuring ourselves against everyone else," says Dr. Kristin Neff. "We need to re-learn the essential skill of being genuinely nurturing and supportive toward ourselves."

When does enlightenment come? At the end of the spiritual journey? Or the beginning? In After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, Jack Kornfield brings into focus the truth about satori, the awakened state of consciousness, and enlightenment practices today. The result is this extraordinary look at the hard work we all must do - the laundry - no matter how often we experience ecstatic states of consciousness through meditation and other disciplines.

On Nonviolent Communication, this renowned peacemaker presents his complete system for speaking our deepest truths, addressing our unrecognized needs and emotions, and honoring those same concerns in others. With this adaptation of the best-selling book of the same title, Marshall Rosenberg teaches in his own words.

Start Where You Are is an indispensable handbook for cultivating fearlessness and awakening a compassionate heart. With insight and humor, Pema Chödrön presents down-to-earth guidance on how we can "start where we are" - embracing rather than denying the painful aspects of our lives.

In this recorded retreat, based on the program Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change held at Omega Institute, Pema Chödrön and her teaching assistant, Meg Wheatley, provide a wealth of wisdom for learning to step right into the river: to be completely, fearlessly present even in the hardest times, the most difficult situations. It's the secret of being fully alive.

'True belonging doesn't require us to change who we are. It requires us to be who we are.' Social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW has sparked a global conversation about the experiences that bring meaning to our lives - experiences of courage, vulnerability, love, belonging, shame and empathy. In Braving the Wilderness, Brown redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarisation.

The Buddha said many times that just as the great oceans have but one taste, so do all the true teachings of the dharma: the taste of freedom. Jack Kornfield's The Roots of Buddhist Psychology is an invitation to drink deeply of these teachings; to taste the wisdom that flows from the heart of Buddhism's most useful ideas on the interior life and what brings awakening, freedom, and happiness. Jack Kornfield opens this eternal view of the mind for all listeners in this collection.

In The Meditation Summit: Volume II, Sounds True publisher and founder Tami Simon speaks with 10 leading meditation teachers about their personal understanding of this practice - each with a complete guided meditation. Practitioners of all levels will benefit from the abundance of insight and guidance provided by these diverse voices.

Jack Kornfield's A Path with Heart has been acclaimed as the most significant book yet about American Buddhism, a definitive guide to the practice of traditional mindfulness in America today. On this audio edition, Kornfield teaches the key principles of Buddhism's cherished vipassana (insight) tradition and puts them into direct service, with the unique needs of the contemporary seeker in mind.

Have you ever looked at your career, your relationships, or your role in life and wondered, "Is this why I’m really here?” If so, then you are ready for your “midlife crisis" - the pivotal time when you have the opportunity to become the person your soul seeks to be.