Quiet Power: Finding Peace, Vitality, and Connection Through the Practice of Equanimity

***A Next Big Idea Book Club Must Read***

Revered meditation teacher and licensed psychotherapist Margaret Cullen reveals scientific breakthroughs and spiritual intersections that demonstrate how the power of equanimity allows us to live more fully, with balance and wisdom.

We are facing complicated and untenable predicaments—climate change, political division, global conflict—that are beyond our control, which often results in feelings of powerlessness and resignation, or disconnection and bitterness.

Drawing on decades of mindfulness practice and teaching, Margaret Cullen offers contagious enthusiasm about the groundbreaking discoveries focused on a virtuous habit that has been hiding in plain sight for over two thousand years: equanimity. Equanimity is characterized by non-reactivity and clear seeing and has the power to help us navigate the biggest dramas in our lives—not by ignoring them (or reacting in more fiery ways) but by being present with, and open to, all the very real struggles of being human without being hijacked by them. Equanimity is a profound and powerful force that can transform our responses to the events of our lives and in the world at large—and effect change inside our hearts and in all our interactions.

Featuring guided meditations, cutting edge research and fascinating insights from experts across a range of fields, Quiet Strength sparks curiosity and engagement with the practice of equanimity.

Margaret Cullen is a licensed psychotherapist and a pioneer in bringing contemplative practices into mainstream settings, co-developing the Compassion Cultivation Training with Thupten Jinpa at the Stanford University School of Medicine, the Mindfulness and Compassion Training for Military Spouses with Amishi Jha at University of Miami, and Compassion Corps, a program which brings compassion programs to underserved populations around the world. She is coauthor of The Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook (with Gonzalo Brito Pons) and serves as a Mind and Life Institute Fellow and advisory board member of the Global Compassion Coalition. She has been a meditation practitioner for over forty-five years.