Real-World Enlightenment: Discovering Ordinary Magic in Everyday Life

“In Real-World Enlightenment, Susan Kaiser Greenland offers wisdom and practical advice for living a more meaningful, purposeful, and joyful life.”—Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO, Thrive Global

50 practical tools from mindfulness, psychology, science, and time-honored traditions to help you ease anxiety, overwhelm, and stress.

Beloved mindfulness teacher, best-selling author, and longtime Buddhist practitioner Susan Kaiser Greenland explores time-honored themes that tap into the enduring sense of love, connection, and well-being that is with us regardless of our circumstances. These universal themes—including Change, Humility, Interdependence, Concentration, Joy, Kindness, and Discernment, among many others—help us find emotional and psychological freedom by lessening our reactivity, broadening our perspectives, and deepening our relationships.

Drawing from science, psychology, Buddhism, wisdom traditions, and personal stories, Kaiser Greenland gives us strategies to shift from a narrow survival-driven frame of mind to one that is grounded and expansive. She offers valuable methods to apply these themes daily, including:
• Robust tools to manage stress and develop attention, like tapping into sensory pleasures or focusing on a single image or phrase.
• Catchy slogans that promote emotional balance when you feel overwhelmed, like “drop the baggage,” or “don’t play the scene before you get there.” These and other phrases can interrupt spiraling thoughts and move you back into your comfort zone.
• Accessible meditations to experience greater equanimity, slow down your thinking process, and heighten awareness of the natural movement of your mind.
• Time-tested life hacks to care for yourself and others with greater kindness and compassion.
• Strategies that bring greater ease and effortlessness into your life and relationships by helping you remain flexible and creative, even in challenging situations.
• And much more.