Three Steps to Courage

Working Compassionately with Difficult Emotions

By: Pema Chödrön

Narrated by: Pema Chödrön

Length: 3 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

In the midst of fear, anger, or sadness it may seem impossible to find our ground. Yet, the feelings we want to avoid the most can open the way to fearlessness, our basic goodness, and true freedom.

Beloved Tibetan Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön has a unique gift for helping those of all faiths to work with their most difficult inner and outer challenges. In this supportive series of talks, listeners will join her at her best - showing us the way back to our wisest and most heartful selves.

Here, Pema shares three simple, time-honored steps to practice when we are in pain or crisis:

• Finding the stillness and space within our inner storms so that we can act rather than react
• Using all of our felt experiences - positive and negative - as a direct path not only to immediate relief, but to real courage, nurtured through compassion
• Transforming our emotions and welcoming them as friends

The feelings that we want to run from, Pema tells us, offer us the very fuel we need to grow our strength and self-acceptance. With Three Steps to Courage, you will learn how to do just that - with welcome support and inspiration along the way.

Program Highlights

Session 1: Refraining from Emotional Reactivity

• The three steps to courage
• Guided Practice: Feeling Our Feelings
• Facing debilitating insecurity and feeling with kindness
• "Recognition" and the ability to refrain
• Releasing our storylines and softening into experience
• Emotions and intimacy

Session 2: Emotions as Paths of Awakening

• Melting the ice cube: becoming intimate with your experience
• The mindful gap, letting go, and clear seeing
• Q&A topics: holding space, recognizing wisdom, empathy, and basic goodness

Session 3: Transforming Emotions

• Working with grief and loneliness
• Courage, ignorance, and the "qualities" game
• Cultivating spaciousness with tonglen practice
• Q&A topics: karmic seeds, shenpa, patience, loneliness, optimism, regret, virtue, and the healing power of love

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Pema Chödrön (P)2020 Sounds True

Guidance for Life

Excellent instruction on the steps to take to face and feet and release the power of old, denied emotions. It takes courage and it clears the soul of suffering. One step at a time. This takes patience, too, for as Pema says, this work takes a lifetime. Priceless guidance in how to move forward.

Note on other reviews

I am in the midst of listening to this book- so I cannot fully recommend it in it’s entirety. However, I wanted to write a review because the other 2 reviews I found to be misleading.
This is a recording of Pema’s sessions with people at a meditation retreat. Some of the people who ask questions may have problems that you do not have- or may have opinions you do not share. But there is much to learn from others for those who look to learn and grow.
If you have never listened to Pema or read any Buddhist literature- this may not be the best book for you to begin-but (at least so far as I am still listening) there is good and helpful instruction here on working with our inner thoughts and habitual patterns. However, if this is the first you have heard about meditation it may be transformative and send you further down the path feeling inspired. In any case, in my opinion, if you are familiar with this genre- this is a good and helpful set of recordings of pemas teachings on cultivating courage to grow and inspiration to practice dealing with our difficult feelings and thought patterns.

If this book makes you angry or feel validated towards judging others - I would encourage you to look inward- what a great opportunity to grow! - I would recommend one of the many books on meditation as a good beginning.

Additionally, one review, I believe is misattributed to this book. There is no British narrator. These are recordings of Pema giving instruction at a retreat.

With great love and affection
From one human to another,
Maya

Not for Courage- for playing the victim

All right I’ll admit I come from a different fabric, I’m always looking for ways to improve and I thought this would be a good way to have some type of Zen look on how to get some points on courage. I’m a Marine Infantry squad leader and my regret and the reason I returned those was primarily due to the audience and their constant whining about being the victim and that just doesn’t sit well with me. One even was ashamed of her nation and quite frankly listening to this shows me exactly the type of people that would need to listen to this but I’m not that person. So if you’ve always been mistreated and nothings your fault and you need people to feel sorry for you this is a great audio book for you but for me it’s one of the few that I have returned. And nothing against the author I thought she actually did an OK job

Disappointed

I am a big fan of Pema Chodren , but this book just doesn’t cut it. The narration by a woman with a British accent is truly awful. She speaks way too fast to allow the listener to absorb the content. Her speech is expressionless. The narration is so bad that the content gets totally lost.
Suggestion: Deep 6 this Edition and have Pema Chodren read her own book.
I hate to give anything by Pema a bad review, but this is just plain not good. The book may be better in print, but there is no way I can recommend the audible edition.

This is a retreat not audiobook

The problem with this book, is that it is a retreat and not audiobook.

This means that there is no real valuable information, most of the time the author answers questions from the participants.

This is a disappointment.

I wouldn't recommend it.