Leaves Falling Gently : Living Fully With Serious Illness Through Mindfulness, Compassion, and Connectedness

Accessible meditations, reflections, and practical advice to help patients and their loved ones navigate the emotional landscape of serious illness.

Dealing with chronic illness can be an isolating and challenging experience. Whether it’s you or someone you love, it’s common to struggle with feelings of fear, sadness, or anger as you navigate the uncertainty of a diagnosis. This revised, expanded edition of Leaves Falling Gently empowers readers to embrace the present moment, find peace within themselves, and deepen interpersonal connections. With accessible meditations, reflective prompts, and mindfulness practices that resonate deeply with both patients and their loved ones, it offers a nurturing roadmap for navigating the complexities of health challenges.

The book’s three parts—Mindfulness, Compassion, and Connectedness—each contain prompts for meditations, reflective writing, and daily practices that are rooted in Buddhism and can benefit everyone. Frequent reminders to “pause now” encourage us to be where we’re at and move at a pace that is comfortable.

Backed by research and clinical studies, and interspersed with stories from the author’s own experiences working in end-of-life care, this heartfelt guide is a welcome offering for all of us to treat ourselves and those around us gently in order to live more fully.

SUSAN BAUER-WU, PhD, RN integrates the different strands of her four-decades of professional experience in clinical care, teaching mindfulness, and research in contemplative science. With a foundation as a registered nurse working in oncology and palliative care, PhD and post-doctoral training in psychoneuroimmunology, psycho-oncology and behavioral medicine, and long-time teaching of mindfulness-based stress reduction, Susan has held teaching and leadership positions in health care, higher education, and non-profits. Through her current work with Coming to Life (coming-to-life.com), Susan works with individuals and groups to guide them in purpose-full living while facing illness and aging and preparing for dying. She is also the author of A Future We Can Love (Shambhala, 2023).