A review by erinrouleaux
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chödrön

5.0

I finally understood more about Buddhist teaching through this book. She is very good at explaining these techniques/philosophies/truths to the Western mind.

There was definitely a period of reading this where I felt annoyed by the "coldness" of it all and soon after she mentioned that this "emptiness" ideal isn't meant to be a cold, isolated approach but yet a very warm one. Once she articulated all of that I was able to better understand and definitely relate more to the whole idea.

I think the title is misleading as really this could be read by anyone at any stage in their life. I wish I would have read this years ago as a helpful approach to deal with everyday life situations:)

I definitely appreciated her honesty about her own situations and I found myself laughing on two of her examples:)

I feel like I will keep this in close reach as a reference book to read whenever I need a change of attitude. And I would definitely recommend it to everyone as a guide for practicing compassion, especially on ourselves:)