When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (20th Anniversary Gift Edition) (Shambhala Classics S.) (Shambhala Library)

by Pema Chodron

Pema Chödrön's perennially best-selling classic on overcoming life's difficulties cuts to the heart of spirituality and personal growth--now in a newly designed 20th-anniversary edition with a new afterword by Pema--makes for a perfect gift and addition to one's spiritual library.

How can we live our lives when everything seems to fall apart—when we are continually overcome by fear, anxiety, and pain? The answer, Pema Chödrön suggests, might be just the opposite of what you expect. Here, in her most beloved and acclaimed work, Pema shows that moving toward painful situations and becoming intimate with them can open up our hearts in ways we never before imagined. Drawing from traditional Buddhist wisdom, she offers life-changing tools for transforming suffering and negative patterns into habitual ease and boundless joy.

• ISBN10: 1611803896
• ISBN13: 9781611803891
• Publish Date: 7 June 2016 (first published 24 December 1996)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Shambhala Publications Inc
• Edition: 20th Anniversary ed.
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 176
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781611803891

Reviews

[Hillary]

I heard about Pema Chodron while reading the Desire Map. I am in Love with Danielle Laporte so anything she says to read I will, even if it is just the back of a cereal box. So when I saw her talking about reading Chadron, I went to the library e-book website, and this is the only book they had by her.

Recently I have become interested in spirituality. I am reading up on Buddhism and Reki and all of that. Funny story. I first started reading about Buddhism and it sounded familiar. Then I realized that the stuff they teach you how to deal with Shizoeffective disorder IS Buddhism! All the detach from you emotions and respond from a place of safety, and all of that is all Buddhism. I guess telling people to give it all up to God is not detailed enough to tell people. I thought it was really interesting.

When I first saw the title of this book, my first thought was, but my life is not falling apart. I decided to read it anyway and It was a good book. Chadron talks about the ending of her marriage and how everything in her life fell apart so she started practising Buddhism and was put back together. This hit me to my core. This is exactly how I feel. I felt that when I had my psychotic break in 2007 I exploded into a million pieces and it took a decade to put myself back into a functional human being. I feel like I am whole again I still got cracks that explode under enough pressure. I read book such as this in the hopes of healing those cracks in my psyche.

I wish I had read this book a long time ago. It would have been helpful. Or maybe I wasn't ready, and now I am. Before I would have made fun of such advice as to transcend your ego and respond from a place of peace, love and safety. That was because I lacked all three, so I lashed out, and the universe gave it right back to me. After a decade and some strong pills, I feel like I can have enough distance from my emotions to take a breather and calm down and respond from a better place. I am still in the process of doing this ALL THE TIME, but I am better than before.

 This review was originally posted on Adventures in Never Never Land