Cultivate an open heart and deepen your kindness and compassion response with this accessible, 28-day program of meditation and mindfulness exercises for a new generation of meditators.

You've heard about all the ways meditation can help improve your overall health and wellbeing. You've probably even tried it once or twice and are thinking, "Now what?"

Maintaining a meditation practice can seem like a daunting task, but Kindness Now will introduce you to the basics of mindfulness meditation and guide you into a deeper practice intended to promote personal growth and connection to your authentic self. Meditation teacher Amanda Gilbert introduces the traditional Buddhist heart practices known as the brahma-viharas-- Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Appreciative Joy, and Equanimity--as the foundation for a successful meditation practice. Gilbert will instruct you on how to bring these heart practices into your life through her 28-day guided meditation program aimed at helping you become a kinder, more compassionate, and radically loving person. With each daily practice, you will learn how to be more resilient in the face of common stressors, including anxiety, feelings of depression, "imposter" syndrome, and social media comparison effects, and ultimately make meditation an essential part of your life and self-care practice.
Kindness Now: A 28-Day Guide to Living with Authenticity, Intention, and Compassion; Amanda Gilbert; Shambhala; Paperback; 288 pp; $17.95

Amanda Gilbert is a professor of mindfulness at the University of Southern California, a meditation teacher, speaker, author. She has been a meditator for over 17 years and now leads meditation for top companies like NBC, Paramount Pictures, The W Hotels, Merrill Lynch, Macy's and YouTube. Before dedicating herself to teaching full-time, Amanda was Center Director for The Aging Metabolism and Emotions Center at the University of California San Francisco, conducting scientific research and publishing investigations on the biological and psychological effects of mindfulness and meditation. She is now an emerging expert in the field of teaching meditation, mindfulness, and the contemplative sciences. Her formal meditation training has been with UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center, in Primordial Sound Meditation with Deepak Chopra, and the Insight Meditation tradition.