Deschene - Tiny Buddhas guide to loving yourself : 40 ways to transform your inner critic and your life

PRAISE FOR TINY BUDDHA'S GUIDE TO LOVING YOURSELF

Loving yourself is the foundation for finding inner peace, happiness, and the ability to love others. In this wonderful book, Lori Deschene does something remarkable. She makes the topic of loving yourself come alive in a way that is both highly entertaining and very practical. This is one book that shouldn't be missed.

JONATHAN ROBINSON, founder of FindingHappiness.com and the author of Communication Miracles for Couples

You have to love yourself to love other people and your life. In this powerful collection of stories and insights, Lori Deschene and other Tiny Buddha contributors share how they overcome shame, insecurity, and perfectionism to help you do just that. I highly recommend Tiny Buddha's Guide to Loving Yourself to anyone who needs a little help recognizing their worth and potential.

KAREN SALMANSOHN, bestselling author of Prince Harming Syndrome

This wonderful collection of personal stories and words of wisdom will help you become kinder and more compassionate to yourself, and ultimately show you how to lead a happier and more fulfilling life.

KRISTIN NEFF, author of Self-Compassion, Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind

We can all feel broken, wounded, and alone at times, but never while reading this beautiful, wise guide to taking good care of ourselves. Some of us need permission to do that. All of us can find inspiration and powerful lessons in Tiny Buddha's openhearted, generous community of teachers. I'm so grateful to have found them.

PRISCILLA WARNER, author of Learning to Breathe: My Yearlong Quest to Bring Calm to My Life

Reading Lori Deschene's wonderful new book, Tiny Buddha's Guide to Loving Yourself, is like listening to a good friend who reminds you of who you are when you need to hear it the most. Deschene and her contributors write about real-life situations with real-life solutions and they do it with the same unflinching honesty that has made TinyBuddha.com so popular. If you are ever hard on yourselfand who isn'tyou need to read this book.

AMANDA OWEN, author of The Power of Receiving

PRAISE FOR TINY BUDDHA, SIMPLE WISDOM FOR LIFE'S HARD QUESTIONS

How can we find happiness and peaceright now, right here? In her engaging, thought-provoking book Tiny Buddha, Lori Deschene explores this enormous question to help readers grapple with challenges like money, love, pain, control, and meaning, in order to find greater happiness.

GRETCHEN RUBIN, author of The Happiness Project

Lori is one of a kind. Her amazing heart and wisdom shine through in everything she writes! I am a HUGE fan of Tiny Buddha, and I'm constantly inspired by Lori and her work.

MASTIN KIPP, founder of The Daily Love (thedailylove.com)

There's nothing tiny about the extra-large dose of awesome stuffed into Lori's writing. Read it and feel good about the world.

NEIL PASRICHA, founder and author of 1000 Awesome Things and The Book of Awesome

Few people in our time have more passionately or more creatively applied wisdom teachings to a new digital generation than Lori Deschene. I am continually inspired by her writing, and also by her sincere dedication to learning, growth, and wisdom. I feel tremendously fortunate to have had the chance to get to know her work through Tiny Buddha, and to know her as a person. Both embody the same essential truths.

SOREN GORDHAMER, founder and author of Wisdom 2.0

Lori Deschene doesn't claim to be anybody's guru. But it's that lack of pretense and her total candorhow she tells her own often-wild story without flinchingthat is so magnetic, inviting a sense of ease with our own wrinkles, too, and fostering a sense of personal possibility. As she asks: Are you ready to be free?

MARGARET ROACH, author of And I Shall Have Some Peace There

Tiny Buddha is a moving and insightful synthesis of evocative stories and ancient wisdom applied to modern life. A great read!

JONATHAN FIELDS, author of Uncertainty

I spent months retweeting posts from a mystery handle called @tinybuddha. I wasn't the only one: Hundreds of thousands of people followed the daily messages. I was intrigued and made it a point to meet the woman behind the message. Today, Lori Deschene is a friend and fellow author who spreads truth and inspiration throughout the twittersphere, her blog, and now her new book! Lori has shifted the energy of the Internet with her loving daily posts and now she is sharing more with the world throughout her incredible book!

GABRIELLE BERNSTEIN, author of Add More ing to your Life and Spirit Junkie

First published in 2013 by Conari Press, an imprint of

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

665 Third Street, Suite 400

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2013 by Lori Deschene

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Deschene, Lori.

Tiny Buddha's guide to loving yourself : 40 ways to transform your inner critic and your life / Lori Deschene.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-57324-627-9

1. Self-acceptance. 2. Criticism, Personal. I. Title.

BF575.S37D47 2013

158.1--dc23

2013016513

Cover design by Nita Ybarra

Cover photograph of Buddha, suvijakra/shutterstock; photograph of calligraphy,
rodho/shutterstock

Interior by Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Typeset in Perpetua and Futura with Cowboy Western

Printed in the United States of America

C

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).

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In loving memory of Jeanne Grambo Santoro.

You weren't just loveable; you were love, in its purest, rarest form.

FOR EVERY BOOK, THERE ARE INNUMERABLE PEOPLE TO THANK, but in this one there are forty times as many. First and foremost, thank you to all of the contributors who shared their stories and insights. I'm inspired by your honesty and vulnerability, and grateful to have learned from you. Thank you also to all of the family members, friends, and teachers who have touched your lives and helped shape you into the beautiful people you are.

To my family, including but not limited to Kevin, Marianne, Tara, Ryan, Pauline, Cassie, Pat, Jim, and Justin, who will live on in all of our hearts (and my many aunts, uncles, and cousins, both Deschene- and Santoro-descended), thank you for being kind, supportive, generous, funny, and always entertaining. I'm grateful that from the east to the west, I'm surrounded by laughter and love. To Jan, Pat, Susie, Vanessa, and the rest of the team at Conari, thank you for all your efforts in making another Tiny Buddha book come to life. To Joshua Denney of Think Web Strategy, thank you for not only being a gifted designer, but also for being available for around-the-clock Skype chats, whether related to Tiny Buddha or not.