Braving Your Way Toward Simplicity, Awakening and Peace
A unique synthesis of Buddhist and Quaker wisdom and mindfulness, centering real-life BIPOC experiences of transformation that inspire and challenge.
Simple, accessible, brave-making practices to move you from identity crisis to confidence.
Daily we are called toward bravery, to stretch in the direction of kindness, generosity, vulnerability, and authenticity. Yet life’s tender fragility, fear, and uncertainty can derail us from growing and thriving, leaving us stuck, fractured, and constantly second guessing ourselves.
How can we gain greater self-awareness and bravery to break these patterns?
HOPE LEANS FORWARD will help you:
- Choose bravely when conditions are uncertain and ambiguous.
- Address anxiety to support deeper self-understanding and self-love.
- Feel grounded at home, hybrid workspace, or office.
- Align your values with your work for a greater sense of purpose and meaning.
- Cultivate clarity through body intelligence and body awareness.
- Listen for connection instead of control and correction.
- Sustain calm through fear, anger, and pressure.
- Examine unconscious patterns that hold you back.
- Savor the radical rest you deserve.
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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT HOPE LEANS FORWARD:
“This extraordinary book is like a great river that delivers nutrients to all those on her shores.”
Roshi Joan Halifax
Abbot, Upaya Zen Center
“A deeply personal and rich book that does not hide the mud from which lotuses grow, but at the same time shows the lotuses in all their splendor.”
Sister True Virtue
Plum Village, France
“To read this book is to feel more grounded and alive. To practice the wisdom within it is to open yourself to the possibilities of your own life.”
Barry Crossno
General Secretary
Friends General Conference
“In this moment, when our interconnectedness and mutual vulnerability are more evident than ever, Valerie Brown’s Hope Leans Forward offers a path luminescent in its pragmatism, crystal in its invitation to shared responsibility, gentle in its guiding steps and full of grace for each of us.”
Sarah Willie-LeBreton, Provost & Dean of the Faculty
Professor of Sociology & Black Studies, Swarthmore College
“Valerie Brown writes as a Buddhist-Quaker grounded in her practice of Kundalini Yoga. The end result is an excellent example of how the practice of interreligious dialogue more often than not expands expand one’s faith journey in unexpected and creative ways.”
Paul Ingram
The Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies
