My Pocket Meditations for Self-Compassion by Courtney E. Ackerman is a small but complete book of meditations that help you develop self-compassion for yourself. The meditations are short and easy to follow. If you have never meditated before, there is a brief overview at the beginning to help you prepare.
The first chapter is on self-acceptance. In the span of 15 pages, you get 14 different meditations that help you to cultivate self-acceptance on your past, present, and future self. It also dabbles in accepting reality, mourning, practicing acceptance of others, and accepting that we’re all doing the best we can.
Other chapters include:
- Self-Appreciation
- Meeting Your Emotions
- Self-Forgiveness
- Body Positive
- Accepting Love
- Giving Love
- Being Receptive
- Being Present
- Self-Care
Of all the chapters, I found the chapter on self-forgiveness to be the hardest. I’ll be the first to admit I hold grudges, especially against myself when I slip up. I had to take a break reading the meditations in this chapter because it just got to be too emotional for me.
Self-Acceptance was another chapter that was hard for me. Not because of the meditations themselves, but because I suffer from depression and it’s hard for me to accept that some days. Sometimes I pretend it’s all a bad dream and I’ll wake up a normal person without all the crazy emotions that well up inside me on a daily basis. Then my alarm goes off to take my meds and I realize it’s not a bad dream.
Unsure of where to start? Skip the table of contents and head to the index instead.
Indexes are generally useful but in this book, it’s even more so. If you have a particular emotion you want to work on just look it up and it will guide you to the right meditation. The index gives all the various topics covered and it’s very useful if you are unsure of where to start your meditation practice.
For a retail price of $14.99, you really can’t beat My Pocket Meditations for Self-Compassion. It gives you easy to follow meditations and the book itself can fit in a small bag (which I almost always have with me).
Disclaimer: GeekMom was given a review copy.
