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  • Published: 28 December 2010
  • ISBN: 9780834827349
  • Imprint: RH US eBook Adult
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 256

What Really Helps

Using Mindfulness and Compassionate Presence to Help, Support, and Encourage Others




Most of us, at one time or another, would like to help a friend, family member, or acquaintance through a challenging time. But do we really know how to give meaningful support and guidance? And why do our best efforts at helping others often come up short? Here is a practical guide that will be of special interest to helping professionals—and anyone who wants to make a positive difference in the lives of people they care about.

To be truly helpful to others, Karen Wegela explains, we must begin by focusing on ourselves. We must develop greater awareness, steadiness of mind, fearlessness, and self-compassion. Only then we can extend these qualities to the people we’d like to help. Drawing on her experiences as a psychotherapist and on her longtime study of Buddhist meditation, Wegela emphasizes the benefits of mindfulness, or learning to become fully present in our moment-to-moment experience. Through mindfulness we develop a fearless, compassionate presence in our daily lives—and we become better listeners, take wiser actions, and give more valuable, effective guidance to the people we’d like to help.

  • Published: 28 December 2010
  • ISBN: 9780834827349
  • Imprint: RH US eBook Adult
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 256

About the author

Karen Kissel Wegela

Dr. Karen Kissel Wegela has been a professor at Naropa University for twenty-seven years. She teaches classes in Buddhism and psychology at the master’s level. Dr. Wegela also has a private psychotherapy practice. She holds a PhD in Counseling, Psychology, and Experiential Learning. In addition to her book How to Be a Help Instead of a Nuisance, Dr. Wegela has written articles for professional journals and she is a columnist for the Shambhala Sun magazine.

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