self-compassion

Politics as a spiritual practice

It’s hard not to get overwhelmed by what's going on in the world. Politics is polarizing, the news cycle fuels…

February 20, 2026

Join me in “As the World Falls Apart”

I am launching a major new course for 2026, on the topic of how we deal with political turmoil. Here's…

January 6, 2026

“This is just how things are right now”

I've been practicing and teaching self-compassion for a long time now. My book on that topic, "This Difficult Thing of…

December 2, 2025

Books and cats

It was lovely to receive this photograph the other day. This is Mara, one of the people who wrote an…

August 29, 2025

Democracy and spiritual practice

Because of the alarming political situation in the US, which has parallels with events in other countries, I've been writing…

July 1, 2025

Self-love, self-kindness, and non-self

Someone wrote to me recently and asked two questions, which boiled down to: Did the Buddha teach self-love? Is loving…

March 7, 2025

Self-compassion for troubling times

At the moment lot of people are suffering more than usual. They are anxious, exhausted, and overwhelmed about the awful…

February 24, 2025

Create a space of compassion, and live from it

In the immediate aftermath of the US presidential election, most people I know were shocked. Since then they seem to be…

November 26, 2024

Chinese translation of “This Difficult Thing of Being Human”

It took a while to get a copy of this book from the Chinese publisher, not just because of the…

October 21, 2024

New translations of “This Difficult Thing of Being Human”

I was delighted to discover recently that "This Difficult Thing of Being Human" — my book on self-compassion — has…

September 20, 2024