Finding Freedom in Illness

A Guide to Cultivating Deep Well-Being Through Mindfulness and Self-Compassion

By: Peter Fernando

Narrated by: Roger Clark

Buddhist wisdom for finding freedom and insight through spiritual practice in the midst of illness and pain.

"Let your illness be your spiritual teacher!"

Make a statement like that to someone who's struggled for years with, say, rheumatoid arthritis, and be prepared for an eye roll (at best). To Peter Fernando's credit, he makes that statement, and no such impulse arises. We believe him because he's been there himself and because he backs up the statements with his own real experiences and with real wisdom from Buddhist teachings. Peter starts by defusing the pernicious belief that anyone is somehow responsible for their illness: You're not "wrong" for being sick. Then, having gotten past self-blame, one can begin to learn self-kindness.

From there one moves to mindfulness practices and cultivating body awareness - even if body awareness is distasteful when the body isn't behaving the way you like. Further topics include getting intimate with dark emotions (fear, despair, the scary future, frustration, grief, etc.), learning equanimity (rejoicing in the good fortune of those who don't share your suffering), cultivating healthy relationships in the midst of everything, and practical advice for living with pain. Each chapter comes with one or more practices or guided meditations for putting the teachings into practice.

©2016 Peter Fernando (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Great book, wrong narrator

This is the best book I’ve read on living life with a chronic illness. The author really goes in-depth with the challenges that long-term illness brings up in one’s emotional, psychological and spiritual life. Experience with meditation definitely helps one to understand the content of this book.
The narrator is wonderful but, I feel, not the right narrator for this book. His voice is regal and dramatic. He is a very good narrator for a different type of book. My opinion is that this book would have been better with a more neutral voice and intonation. Personally, I found this mismatch distracting but it is still really worth listening to this book!

SO INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL FOR THIS LIFE-CHANGING BOOK

This book exemplifies exactly what makes audiobooks perfect for those of us who are sick & spend a great majority of our time in bed. Listening puts me into a transformative meditative state & helps me change the crazy & depressing thoughts that often eat up the space in my mind & therefore, put my body in a more contracted state. This book has helped me to experience the openness that is possible when we open our hearts to the compassion they deserve & our minds to the gentleness that then positively affects the whole body. This book is a "listen-more-than-once" book for sure!

Amazing book!

It was inspirational, not only for working with illness but also with difficult emotions.