If you have been told to "just try meditation" and found it vague, intimidating, or impossible to fit into your week, this is the book that finally makes it doable. Eight short weeks, a chair, a few minutes a day, and a notebook you will actually open. No incense, no jargon, and no pressure to practice any particular length of time or even every single day...unless you want to.

Most meditation asks you to try harder. This one asks you to be kinder. When your mind wanders, you bring it back without the verdict, and that small act of mercy, repeated, turns out to be the whole practice. It is the rare word a Christian, a Buddhist, and a thoroughgoing skeptic can each say and mean.

Mercy is the practice, not just a soft coating you add to a practice.

FOUR DOORWAYS: Every week’s practice comes through the door that fits you: Secular, Buddhist, Christian, or Integrative. Walk one door all the way through, mix doors week by week, or keep it simple straight down the middle. You never have to convert to anything, or leave your own faith behind, to learn to sit.

EIGHT WEEKS: Settle the body, find the breath, watch the wandering mind, meet what is hard, and carry the practice into an ordinary day. Each week is short by design, with a step-by-step sit, a small daily plan, what to expect when it goes sideways, and a line or two for your notebook. Off-ramps for overwhelming moments, and a beginning-again chapter for the lapses that come with being human.

INCLUDED GUIDED AUDIO: Every week of the book has a companion recording in Kim’s voice, free to readers. Open the audio page and enter the access word printed in the back of your book.