The library
Short readings built from public-domain writings — grouped by the voice, the question, the tradition, or the practice. Nothing here is therapy or medical care.
A voice on a theme
What one body of writing says about one thing you're carrying.
- Abraham Lincoln on grief
- Adi Shankara on grief
- Augustine of Hippo on identity
- Buddha on acceptance
- Buddha on anxiety
- Chief Seattle on boundaries
- Christina Rossetti on grief
- Cicero on identity
- Dogen on anxiety
- Emily Dickinson on presence
- Epictetus on acceptance
- Farid ud-Din Attar on anxiety
- Florence Nightingale on boundaries
- Francis of Assisi on anxiety
- Francis of Assisi on boundaries
- Frederick Douglass on identity
- G.K. Chesterton on forgiveness
- Hafiz on boundaries
- Hafiz on self-compassion
- Harriet Tubman on resilience
- Hildegard of Bingen on forgiveness
- John Adams on identity
- John Henry Newman on grief
- John of the Cross on grief
- Kateri Tekakwitha on grief
- Lao Tzu on acceptance
- Liezi on boundaries
- Lucretius on acceptance
- Maimonides on overwhelm
- Maimonides on purpose
- Marcus Aurelius on anxiety
- Mary Shelley on boundaries
- Mary Shelley on identity
- Matsuo Bashō on presence
- Michel de Montaigne on self-compassion
- Milarepa on grief
- Milarepa on purpose
- Nachman of Breslov on identity
- Nachman of Breslov on purpose
- Nagarjuna on anxiety
- Patanjali on purpose
- Seneca on grief
- Sitting Bull on forgiveness
- Thomas Aquinas on grief
- Vincent van Gogh on anxiety
- Vincent van Gogh on grief
- Vincent van Gogh on purpose
- Zera Yacob on overwhelm
- Zera Yacob on resilience
- Zhuangzi on boundaries
Questions people ask
One question, answered through three sets of writings.
- How do I care for an ageing parent without losing myself?
- How do I find purpose in midlife?
- How do I forgive myself for how I parented?
- How do I forgive someone who never apologised?
- How do I get through the first year after a loss?
- How do I grieve someone who is still alive?
- How do I handle an empty nest?
- How do I keep going after a setback?
- How do I keep my values when I'm under pressure?
- How do I know if I'm burned out or just tired?
- How do I live with a regret I can't undo?
- How do I make a decision I keep avoiding?
- How do I move through a transition I didn't choose?
- How do I parent a child who shuts me out?
- How do I quiet shame about the past?
- How do I rebuild confidence after failing publicly?
- How do I return to work after a hard season?
- How do I say no to family without a fight?
- How do I set a boundary without guilt?
- How do I sleep when worry wakes me at 3am?
- How do I slow down without falling behind?
- How do I start over after a divorce?
- How do I stop being so hard on myself?
- How do I stop carrying everyone else's feelings?
- How do I stop comparing myself to other people?
- How do I stop overthinking at night?
- How do I stop people-pleasing?
- How do I think about my own mortality without panic?
- How do I trust again after being let down?
- What did Buddhist teachers say about letting go?
- What did Christian contemplatives say about spiritual dryness?
- What did Confucian teachers say about family duty?
- What did Hindu texts say about acting without attachment to results?
- What did Sufi poets say about heartbreak?
- What did Taoist writers say about doing less?
- What did the skeptics say about needing certainty?
- What did the Stoics say about anxiety?
- What did the Transcendentalists say about solitude?
- What did Zen teachers say about sitting with pain?
- What do I do when grief comes back years later?
- What do I do when I feel invisible at work?
- What do I do when I resent the person I care for?
- What do I do when nothing feels meaningful anymore?
- What do I do when work has taken over my life?
- What do I do with anger I can't express?
- What helps when I dread Monday morning?
- What helps when my mind won't stop racing?
- What helps when retirement feels like loss?
- What helps with loneliness after moving to a new city?
- Why do I feel lonely even around people?
Traditions on situations
What a lineage's source texts say about a life moment.
- Christian contemplative perspectives on a hard decision
- Christian contemplative perspectives on loss and change
- Christian contemplative perspectives on meaning and direction
- Christian contemplative perspectives on parenting
- Christian contemplative perspectives on starting over
- Christian contemplative perspectives on worry that won't quiet
- Christian perspectives on a hard decision
- Christian perspectives on parenting
- Christian perspectives on regret
- Christian perspectives on starting over
- Christian perspectives on worry that won't quiet
- Civic and justice perspectives on a hard decision
- Civic and justice perspectives on regret
- Civic and justice perspectives on work and ambition
- Kabbalistic perspectives on a hard decision
- Kabbalistic perspectives on a strained relationship
- Kabbalistic perspectives on parenting
- Kabbalistic perspectives on regret
- Kabbalistic perspectives on worry that won't quiet
- Poetic perspectives on a hard decision
- Poetic perspectives on a strained relationship
- Poetic perspectives on work and ambition
- Skeptic perspectives on a hard decision
- Skeptic perspectives on a strained relationship
- Skeptic perspectives on loss and change
- Skeptic perspectives on meaning and direction
- Skeptic perspectives on worry that won't quiet
- Stoic perspectives on regret
- Stoic perspectives on starting over
- Stoic perspectives on worry that won't quiet
- Sufi perspectives on a strained relationship
- Sufi perspectives on loss and change
- Sufi perspectives on parenting
- Sufi perspectives on starting over
- Sufi perspectives on worry that won't quiet
- Zen perspectives on a hard decision
- Zen perspectives on meaning and direction
- Zen perspectives on parenting
- Zen perspectives on starting over
- Zen perspectives on worry that won't quiet
Practices for moments
One practice, used in one real situation.
- A settling for a strained relationship
- A settling for starting over
- Breath awareness for a strained relationship
- Breath awareness for loss and change
- Breath awareness for regret
- The Examen for loss and change
- The Examen for meaning and direction
- The Examen for regret
- The Examen for worry that won't quiet
- The first room for a strained relationship
- The first room for loss and change
- The first room for meaning and direction
- The first room for parenting
- The first room for regret
- The first room for starting over
- The first room for work and ambition
- The morning for a hard decision
- The morning for a strained relationship
- The morning for parenting
- The morning for starting over
- The morning for work and ambition
- What is ours for loss and change
- What is ours for meaning and direction
- What is ours for parenting
- What is ours for regret