Living With & Open Heart

Delightful and beautifully written everyday lessons on compassion.

Everyday lessons in cultivating compassion in your life

In recent years, western scientists have gained an important understanding of what Buddhist science has taught us for thousands of years: consciously cultivating compassion has a positive impact on our brains and this improves our sense of wellbeing.

This beautifully written book blends ideas and techniques drawn from Buddhist and western psychology and clearly explains the importance and benefits of cultivating compassion. It also offers easy-to-follow guidance on how to develop it in your daily life.

Living With an Open Heart is a handbook for daily living. The brief chapters contain discussions, reflections and contemplations for you to digest as you go about your day. You will read personal stories and learn specific techniques for developing compassion in your own life. Each chapter will provide you with the inspiration and tools to cultivate compassion in your own life.

Russell Kolts is a clinical psychologist and professor at Eastern Washington University. He specialises in treating depression, anxiety, trauma and personality disorders. Thubten Chodron is founder and abbess of Sravasti Monastery in Newport, Washington. She teaches Buddhist meditation and philosophy worldwide.

Living with an Open Heart contains brief readings which blend Buddhist and western psychology. It thoughtfully presents ideas and techniques drawn from Buddhism, western psychological approaches, as well as the authors' personal experiences in working to develop compassion in their own lives and in their work with others.

Designed to be easy to dip into, this fascinating book is organised into brief chapters to include discussions, reflections and contemplations, personal stories, and specific techniques for deepening compassion.

Each chapter provides fuel for thought and contemplation as the reader goes through his or her day, inspiring their motivation to be compassionate, helping them to understand compassion, and giving them specific methods for applying it in their lives.