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I'm almost finished listening to Emotional Alchemy by Tara Bennett-Goleman.

I had previously recommended a book to someone then found for that person some triggers in some of the content, so I've been cautious about sharing since. I'd been actively reducing my sensitivity to triggers in order to heal my relationship with my husband but also to keep those triggers from rippling into other aspects of my life. So the content of that particular book made sense to me and I felt bad about my lack of sensitivity that it might be a bit of a rough read/listen for someone who was just embarking on the healing path.

However, this book had some profound insights for me as an active trigger disarmer. Having dealt with anxiety from the time I was a toddler having witnessed violence, alcoholism, and other forms of mental illness-sourced abuse, I found mindfulness pointers to be extremely helpful. This will be a book I listen to on repeat as I internalize and work to remove some of those buttons my FOO installed decades ago.

Thanks k8la - I will have to look for this. Bonus points if my local library can get it. Otherwise Amazon here I come.

This book and the practices it offers are based on what's called schema therapy

(Jeffrey Young) and (traditional) buddhist psychology. Both of them using mindfulness which is the basic buddhist meditation. You can find the instructions in the suttas as taught by the Buddha himself. It is called satipatthana sutta. Anyway, Tara was a student of Young and she also practised Dharma. It was her that put the to two traditions, the western and the buddhist one, together.

I'm also a practising buddhist (but not born). Buddhist psychology and dharma give you a lot of tools to cope with life's adversities and overcome suffering. Actually the attainment of mental well-being is the goal of buddhist dharma. It's not a "religion" in Western or theistic sense but a spiritual way of life that aims at liberating you from suffering through psychology. From my experience, it is important to go slowly and gradually with the practice. Therefore, I wouldn't suggest this book for someone new to the Dharma. A better book is "The wise heart" by Jack Kornfield.

[This message edited by QuitOrNotToQuit at 4:57 AM, February 26th (Friday)]

And there is an excellent series of lectures called "The roots of buddhist psychology". Also by Jack Kornfield.