Heartwork: The Path of Self-Compassion 9 Practices for Opening the Heart

by Radhule Weininger, Jack Kornfield (Foreword)

Nine simple mindfulness practices anyone can use to generate compassion--toward oneself, others, and the world--and to live from that place of intelligent kindness in the face of life's difficulties.Compassion is the urge to understand and alleviate the suffering of another being. And if that being happens to be you, then the technique called self-compassion can be the greatest of blessings—for the compassion you learn to apply to yourself naturally extends to all the other people in your life. With the nine simple mindfulness practices she presents here, Radhule Weininger provides a step-by-step course in self-compassion. Using stories drawn from her own life and those of others she shows that, with the right intention and practice, we can all deepen our capacity to respond skillfully to our own suffering and thus to that of others and our world.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Buddhism

267 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 4, 2017

Reviews

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This very engaging book teaches us how to use specific meditation practices to open our hearts and ease our specific types of suffering. Meditations including basic mindfulness practice, self-compassion, compassion for others, and forgiveness are all addressed in a step-by-step instruction on creating your own meditations with intention. She teaches us how to "write" our own practical meditations with compassion for our own personal trauma and experiences. The practices create a healing of the heart that has changed my perspective on myself, the people in my life, and the way I experience the world.

Radhule is warm and engaging as she tells her story of her childhood traumas after being placed in an orphanage as in infant and then growing up in post-war Germany with her Catholic family. Her story draws us in telling how she stumbled into a monastery in Shri Lanka where she first learned about meditation, her journey discovering Buddhism and how it shaped her life today as a clinical psychologist and meditation teacher. She is raw and honest, unafraid to expose her deepest self with the reader. The stories along the way, as well as a section with 9 personal stories, prove to be examples of how people not only ended their suffering but enriched their lives and relationships giving us hope and courage to practice the meditations in our own lives.

Thoroughly understandable and enjoyable reading. This is a book I will go back to over and over whenever my heart needs healing from what is disturbing me.

[Lorilin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartwork teaches how to practice compassion toward yourself and others through mindfulness meditation. There are a lot of personal stories in here, many from the author's life---so much so that I would label this book as memoir. That's not a bad thing, especially since, personally, I found Weininger's stories to be interesting. But if you're looking for straight instruction, you'll want to look elsewhere.

Part 1 is all memoir. Part 2 teaches meditations that focus on pausing, stating intent, practicing self-compassion, and showing compassion to others. Each chapter in Part 2 begins with a story as an example and then gives step-by-step instructions for how to complete the meditation. The chapters end with journaling activities. Part 3 is a collection of real-life stories from Weininger's clients who have used the meditations to help work through a variety of issues (e.g., money problems, work conflict, anger, self-hate, and family drama).

Overall, I liked this book. I could have done with less of Weininger's personal story---interesting as it was---but I still found her instructions for the different meditations to be helpful. I especially liked the Mindful Pause practice. That one brought me the most peace.

I also really appreciated the emphasis on how connected we all are to each other. She says our own health and well-being can't be separated from the health and well-being of others, so it's important to send love and healing out to everyone if we want to feel calm and happy within ourselves. It's a message that makes sense to me, and it was nice to learn some practical ways to make that happen.

[ABW · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful