A guide on how to free yourself from your self-inflicted distress.

• Provides meditative practices and exercises that help recognize how you cause your own distress.

• Explores the dynamics of the mind and how it sets the stage for anguish.

• Explains how mental states of distress are created and how you can control your mind to stop these patterns of thought and assumptions.

Most of us believe that suffering is inevitable. Anxiety, shame, depression, sadness, loneliness, frustration, the feeling that life is incomplete—every negative experience contributes to the emotional and psychological pain that hinders our ability to live happy, fulfilling lives. But what if most suffering could be avoided? Is there an antidote to inner turmoil that can be learned and applied in daily life?

In this groundbreaking work, Peter Ralston reveals how to free yourself from mentally created distress. He explains how most creatures do not experience suffering as we do. They do not worry or panic, do not fear the future, and do not imagine themselves to be somehow superior or inferior to what they should be. Exploring the dynamics of the mind that sets the stage for anguish and gets us into trouble, he explains how mental states of distress are created, how to recognize when you are causing them, and how to stop the patterns of thought and beliefs that cause distress.

He shares meditative practices and exercises to help you end your inner turmoil and cultivate growth, awareness, and freedom, providing an empowering way to create a more complete, powerful, and peaceful life experience.