Radical Compassion

Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of RAIN by Tara Brach is a deeply practical and heart-centred guide to healing inner pain and creating greater emotional resilience. 

As a meditation teacher and psychologist, Brach introduces RAIN, an acronym for Recognise, Allow, Investigate, Nurture, which she feels is the core meditation process for working with difficult emotions, limiting beliefs, and inner wounds. This makes it a perfect book to consider when healing from an abusive relationship. 

The first part of the book explains how paying attention to what is present, instead of pushing it away, helps break the cycle of self-judgment and opens a space for compassion. Later sections show how you can bring that compassion into your life and relationships, as well as guiding you through releasing shame, facing fear, forgiving yourself and others, and recognising the basic goodness in yourself and those around you. 

The book includes personal stories and step-by-step practices. It’s a great roadmap for new ideas and directions you can consider for your healing.