Real-World Enlightenment: Discovering Ordinary Magic in Everyday Life

Wisdom and encouragement from mindfulness, psychology, science, and time-honored traditions.

Featuring 50 practical tools to ease anxiety, overwhelm, and stress by recognizing the enduring sense of love and well-being that’s with us regardless of our circumstances.

Enlightenment isn’t a lofty and unattainable goal. Real-world enlightenment is always here, and you can find it any time in life’s highs, lows, and everything in-between.

Beloved mindfulness teacher, best-selling author, and longtime Buddhist practitioner Susan Kaiser Greenland explores time-honored themes that tap into a 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--emphasize attitudes and mindsets that lead to emotional and psychological freedom by lessening our reactivity, broadening our perspectives, and deepening our relationships.

Kaiser Greenland draws from science, psychology, Buddhism, wisdom traditions, and personal stories to give us a view of ＂real-world enlightenment＂-- where we shift from a narrow survival-driven frame of mind to one that is grounded and as vast as the sky. When we cultivate this expansive worldview from the inside out, we become more resilient, and that’s just the beginning. A view as vast as the sky charts the course for kind, resilient people to build a kinder and more resilient world.

To help us do this, she offers valuable methods and takeaways that allow you to apply these life-changing universal themes every day. They include:

• Practical ways to recognize the basic goodness within and around you by tapping into sensory pleasures like music or nature.
• Robust tools to manage stress and develop attention by focusing on a sight, sound, image, word, or phrase.
• Catchy slogans that promote emotional balance when you feel overwhelmed, like ＂right now, I’m okay,＂ ＂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 meditation methods to experience life with greater equanimity by slowing down your thinking process to heighten awareness of the natural movement of your mind.
• Time-tested life hacks to care for yourself and others with greater kindness and compassion.
• Insightful 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.

SUSAN KAISER GREENLAND ​developed the Inner Kids mindful awareness program and teaches secular mindful awareness practices to children, parents, and professionals around the world. In 2000, she established the Inner Kids Foundation with her husband, author Seth Greenland, to bring mindful awareness to underserved schools in Los Angeles. Her work has been covered by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Public Radio, and CBS Morning News.