What is the place of suffering in human experience and how can we learn to be with it? This book answers the question by acknowledging that discontent and unhappiness are inevitable parts of our human experience. By becoming present, accepting and kind, we may enfold what hurts us in a more expansive and meaningful way.

There is something about everything that makes it not quite satisfactory. Even things we really love are spoilt by not being quite enough or – the opposite – going on too long. People entering psychotherapy want to feel better – more authoritative, less anxious or depressed, more whole – and although it can help, an enormous amount of difficult and painful emotions continue to arise. After years and years of therapy, many of us feel as mad as ever. There is no 'happy ever after'. This all begs the question; what is the place of suffering in human experience and how best can we be with it? This book picks up this question and answers by saying that discontent and unhappiness are inevitable parts of our human experience but there are ways to avoid adding further unnecessary suffering. By becoming present, accepting, and kind, we may enfold what hurts us in a more spacious and meaningful way. Cultivating our ability to be present with emotions felt in the body, we may get a glimpse of how emotions dissolve in the open space of awareness.Present with Suffering: Being with What Hurts will have global appeal to psychotherapy professionals as well as general readers who may be grieving, have an interest in Buddhism, or want to become more present and mindful.

1.Introduction, by Nigel Wellings and Elizabeth Wilde McCormick2.Suffering in loss and bereavement, by Elizabeth Wilde McCormickAttachment and impermanenceLiving in a human bodyThe heartMind the gap3.Emptiness, by Nigel WellingsA meditation on the pain of emptinessA meditation on the delight of emptinessWorking with emptiness