Malcolm Stern is one of the UK’s leading influential thinkers in the well-being and spiritual sector. Slay Your Dragon’s With Compassion is an accumulation of ‘psychospiritual’ wisdom that he has gained from working with the world’s leading spiritual leaders as co-founder of Alternatives, from 30 years of holding intense group psychotherapy work and the grief experienced after his daughter Melissa’s suicide in 2014.
This beautiful and profound book has already received high-advance praise from global best-selling authors, Eckhart Tolle, Elizabeth Gilbert and British singer, songwriter Craig David. Gilbert calls it ‘an inspiration, a practical, yet infinitely humane, method of saving your own life from the darkness.’ While David says: ‘With deep heartache and tragedy comes the possibility of deep growth physically and spiritually… This intuitive wisdom of being gentle in difficult times was actually his greatest power.’
Stern reveals ten key practices that we can all learn from and engage in our lives in order to create our own more meaningful, happy and fulfilling existence.
These practices include: building a support system, (what the Buddhists call a sangha) of like-minded others to support us on our life’s journey, practising authenticity in our relationships, when necessary, speaking uncomfortable truths to ourselves and others but always with compassion and developing real self-knowledge, so we can access wisdom rather than reactivity. Each practice is illustrated with real, moving and transformational stories from the therapy room and Stern’s own life.
Stern advocates that in order to thrive, we must confront our resistances, fears and self-doubts and view the challenges that block our way as dragons, which we are called to slay with compassion. If we can meet and navigate our darkest moments in this way, we can discover the gold that lives within each of us.
This standout book will live forever on our bookshelves, where we will draw on the easy practices that the author teaches us to help us face our demons and build emotional muscle, so that when the inevitable storms blow across our path, we have the power tools to draw on to support ourselves.
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