A thoughtful, down-to-earth look at helpful ways to lessen human suffering. This book takes you on a lively, sometimes light-hearted, journey through nine Buddhist practices that can bring "blessed relief" to a wide range of human suffering-and teaches you skills to reduce suffering in the long term for yourself and others. • The practices help you: Loosen the grip of suffering • Engage and question limiting views, thoughts and opinions • Deconstruct ten common assumptions • Be present in each moment • Survive emotional storms • Develop peaceful communication skills • Deepen communication with your partner • Appreciate mortality and the preciousness of life • Cultivate compassion
As you read the chapters and engage in each practice, you will work with your own stories of suffering-stories in which you have felt abandoned, deprived, subjugated, defective, excluded or vulnerable-and you will learn how to release yourself from suffering by investigating it with curiosity and kindness.