Kindness Now: A 28-Day Guide to Living with Authenticity, Intention, and Compassion

by Amanda Gilbert

Cultivate an open heart and deepen your kindness and compassion response with this accessible, 28-day program of meditation and mindfulness exercises for a new generation of meditators.

You’ve heard about all the ways meditation can help improve your overall health and wellbeing. You’ve probably even tried it once or twice and are thinking, “Now what?”

Maintaining a meditation practice can seem like a daunting task, but Kindness Now will introduce you to the basics of mindfulness meditation and guide you into a deeper practice intended to promote personal growth and connection to your authentic self. Meditation teacher Amanda Gilbert introduces the traditional Buddhist heart practices known as the Brahma-Viharas– Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Appreciative Joy, and Equanimity–as the foundation for a successful meditation practice. Gilbert will instruct you on how to bring these heart practices into your life through her 28-day guided meditation program aimed at helping you become a kinder, more compassionate, and radically loving person. With each daily practice, you will learn how to be more resilient in the face of common stressors, including anxiety, feelings of depression, “imposter” syndrome, and social media comparison effects, and ultimately make meditation an essential part of your life and self-care practice.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Personal Growth, Spirituality

257 pages, Paperback

Published June 22, 2021

Reviews

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kindness Now is truly a transformative book that has allowed me to deepen my meditation practice by working through the 4 heart practices (the Brahmaviharas). Amanda is an incredibly open and compassionate teacher and it comes through in her writing. The mantras throughout the book brought me a sense of peace of solace. I would DEFINITELY recommend this book to others, especially now during these uncertain times.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grateful to have found this lovely book. I’d still call myself a beginner meditator, and I found it very approachable end-to-end. I appreciated that Amanda was teaching and being vulnerable about her own journey. I have found myself saving phrases from the book and looking back at them regularly. The only suggestion I have is that it would be helpful to have accompanying daily audio for meditations for those of us that are newer on this journey. Thank you for this beautiful book!

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautiful book is the perfect roadmap for navigating these uncertain times and beyond by leading with kindness, love, joy and compassion. The 28 day meditation and mindfulness program is helpful and accessible for both the beginner meditator learning heart work and the advanced practitioner looking to deepen their practice. I’m so glad I read it and I know I will come back to it again and again.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is excellent for those who are ready for it. It will take courage and a willingness to be very vulnerable. Also don’t expect it to only take 28 days. I encourage you to take as long as you need with each “day” as there can be some pretty weighty stuff that comes up to be dealt with, if you’re open to it.

[Val Badger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book was very well written, and I think it could do a lot of good for someone who is in need of meditation. I read through the entire book, and meditated for the first week/two weeks, but as my life got busier, I wasn't able to keep up with it anymore. There is a lot in the book that makes you stop and think, and this book actually helped me feel more comfortable with writing down how I feel at the end of every day, and expressing my feelings on paper instead of just bottling it in.

Me personally, I did find some help with this book. As I am trying to heal from a somewhat toxic relationship, this book helped me learn how to stop what I'm doing and take a deep breath to recenter myself and know that I am in control.

I do recommend this book to anyone who is willing to give a new type of healing a try. Meditation is not for everyone, but hopefully you will be able to take something out of it like I did. I hope you are willing to be a little more kind to your heart because of it.

[Linda Bond · Rating 5 out of 5]

We all seem to sense that we need a little more kindness right now. In Amanda Gilbert’s book, we learn how we can gain our “kindness awareness” in about four weeks. Based on the practice of meditation and readings that guide us ever deeper into understanding ourselves, plus some writing prompts to help us focus on the words we need to draw forth from our hearts, we are gently led forward to a brighter, kinder personal life that we can share with others. In her Introduction, the author opens with a quote from Cleo Wade: “Be kind. It shakes the world.” Now that’s something worth reaching for.

I met this book at Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane, WA

[Celeste DiMilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a long-time loving-kindness practitioner and I still found so much value in this book. Not only did Gilbert teach me some modern ways to shake up my loving-kindness practice, but she also opened me up to additional heart practices including compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity. I especially love the appreciative joy practices and have been using them every day with much benefit!

[Kelsey Nicole C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most incredible and helpful guided book I’ve ever read. Literally got it from Five Below and was a huge turning point in my life last year. Would like to re-read/practice the meditations again in the new year.

[Talon Crist · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and the challenge of meditating for 28 days very much. I learned a lot and was able to find out how to incorporate kindness into my daily practice!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped heal me

[Curran · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a lovely guide to deeper meditation and practicing kindness towards myself, others, and the world at large.

[Jeannelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing. It has started an avenue on my spiritual journey. parts of this book have become part of my daily routine. Amanda Gilbert is absolutely amazing.

[Patricia Makatsaria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just not my cup of tea.

[Natalie Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book thinking it would be about ways to understand kindness better, but it was actually a Buddhism-based meditation book. Definitely not my personal approach and did not enjoy the book. But if you like Buddhism and meditation, it would be the book for you.

I personally couldn’t even finish it. I threw it away after a couple pages, couldn’t get through it.