Several years ago I was experiencing an abundance of stress and I was constantly tired. My wife and I had a beautiful new daughter who, despite her best efforts, couldn’t sleep through the night, and a major project I had spent years working on fell apart and I found myself out a lot of time, effort and money.

Every day was confusing and chaotic. I made so many unhelpful choices it was easy to see the negative effect it was having on me and everyone around me. I felt like I had hit a hard bottom, like I had no personal values worth having.

Until one day when a psychologist and personal friend told me “you should try to see yourself as you really are”. I had no idea what this meant so I turned to Google. I typed in “see yourself as you really are” and was rewarded with a link to the book “How to See Yourself as You Really Are”, by the 14th Dalai Lama. When I read the title I got that gut feeling that this was the perfect book to kickstart my journey. The title of the book was exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks to this book (and many other resources like this subreddit) I began to study and practice the Four Noble Truths, the Eight-Fold Path, the many Suttas and their commentaries, the four foundations of mindfulness, and calming and insight (Madhyamaka) meditation with growing enthusiasm and determination.