Be Kind to Yourself

"'The only true gift is a portion of oneself,' writes Ralph Waldo Emerson, and this, to me, is an apt description of what Cindy has done in the book you hold in your hand. She has shared with us generous portions of herself—her own story, her honest struggles, and the practices that have helped her endure and find joy in the midst of it all. Since all of us have our own stories that include joy and pain, gladness and sadness, this is something we all need."

-From the foreword by Ruth Haley Barton, founding president of the Transforming Center

"Be Kind to Yourself is a lovely gift of grace. I love that it is filled with practices to help act as antidotes for difficult times. This really is a sweet treasure to reach for when life is feeling especially unkind; it's guaranteed to inspire a new perspective."

-Christine Valters Paintner, poet and spiritual director, author of Earth, Our Original Monastery

"'What's bugging you? What's bringing you joy?' With these two simple questions, Cindy Bunch, like an experienced mariner, masterfully steers us through the choppy seas of negative self-talk and disheartening feelings that we all know so well. Each chapter of Be Kind to Yourself is a testimony to an important insight: by responding to God's grace with classic spiritual practices, we can anchor our lives in a peaceful harbor resplendent with joy and free of frustrations. This is wise and practical spiritual formation at its best!"

-Albert Haase, OFM, author of Becoming an Ordinary Mystic: Spirituality for the Rest of Us 

"For some time I have been contemplating writing a book that would offer support for life's ordinary days. Now I won't have to write it because my dear friend Cindy Bunch has written an inviting, creative book of reflection and noticing. All too often we are focused on the highs and lows of life, which may be less than 20 percent of our days. But how can we enjoy the plain, old, routinely typical day? Thanks, Cindy, for inviting us to see and know the presence of God in the ordinary days of our lives and helping us to hold on to the 'unforced rhythms of grace.' May Be Kind to Yourself become a go-to for all who long to stay awake to the beauty and revelations of life."

-Juanita Campbell Rasmus, spiritual director, copastor of St. John's United Methodist Church, Houston, and author of Learning to Be: Finding Your Center After the Bottom Falls Out 

"The beauty of Cindy Bunch's book Be Kind to Yourself is its simplicity and balance. With just two questions, What's bugging you? and What's bringing you joy? Cindy presents a daily framework for a disciplined but tender spiritual life. Be Kind to Yourself is both practical and confessional. An array of old and new practices helps the reader to mine and illumine those two questions. Stories of her own faithful but flubbed spiritual life encourage us to be gentle with ourselves in the challenging work of prayer and devotion. What Cindy offers is an honest, doable, and shameless way to connect to God and self."

-Sybil MacBeth, author of Praying in Color and The Season of the Nativity