Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm

Give to your soul and your body the opportunity to relax in the present moment. Let fear go away with the beautiful words written in this book. You’re gonna know the power of breath in the here and now.

I was hoping this book would be more in depth than what it was. Surely it has a few pearls of wisdom here and there, but even those eventually become repetitive. I did not care for the all the Buddhist breathing exercises, which make up nor than half of the book, so I got bored pretty quickly.

As with all of the books I've read by TNH his message rings clear and true. His wisdom is concise and compelling and he doesn't stray from his central message of bringing consciousness to all of our actions.

This book was amazing. It really gives you an awareness of your thoughts and feelings and digs deep. I learned so much from this book. I am walking away feeling so much happier and content. I recommend this book to everyone so that the world would be a better place.

Fear is not a philosophical issue to me...it's a viseral experience. I get the idea about the value of detachment...but something felt a little too intellectual to me. I want to know how to handle my fear in a way I can grow out of it.

a thoughtful and accepting exploration of fear and choices in experiencing and managing them using principles of mindfulness and conscious breathing. some repetition of concepts but I feel it serves a purpose in solidifying learning. well worth reading and owning

very insightful, we all have carried fear without knowing but it can rule our lives. This book offers help with stress and worries but you will only get out of it based on the level of input you are willing to put in.

Thich Nhat Hanh walks the walk. Kind, specific instructions for how to deal with the fears we humans struggle with. I've read many of his books and they are full of wisdom and practical living kindness.

I really have enjoyed reading Thick Nhat Hanh. I really love the wisdom of Buddha. What I enjoy most about Thich Nhat Hanh writing is he is also very spiritual and respects the Christian faith. He to is connected to Christians. I myself Love the teaching of Jesus and I find that Thich Nhat Hanh writing helps me grow in my faith both in understanding the Creators love, & the teaching of both Jesus & Buddha. Most importantly he dose not sway someone to believe what he does but rather he encourages the reader in their faith (whatever that is: Christian, Buddhist or other), and thier relationship with the creator by being mindful, being present in every moment and facing their fears. This book addresses many different kinds of fears, from personal relationships to dealing with death. Understanding our own fears gives us freedom to love more deeply every person we meet. After all the greatest Universal Law and commandment ever given is to LOVE -ONE-ANOTHER. I hope you find deep peace and love in his book. I highly recommend it.

Not as good as many of his other books. Talks about fear for only a little while, then goes off on other topics. His "Anger" is much better. Would also consider his combined book on anger and fear before purchasing this one.

Beautiful book about seeing, understanding and transforming Fear - one of the greatest roadblocks to spiritual growth and happiness. More than just talk I have found the book to be immensely practical in my daily life.

A wonderful life philosophy all in one beautifully written simple package. The path suggested acts a guide, reference, guide meditation and practical psychological toolkit. I am grateful to have read this book.

This is a very gentle book. It's a kind book, about having compassion for ourselves. It also has some great techniques for calming and centering ourselves, and for taming those fears that show up when things go bump in the night (or for that matter, in the middle of the day.) If you wrestle with fear (and who doesn't?) do yourself a favor and read this book.

This book helped me understand what my root fears were and why I had been taking depression meds most of my life. I am no longer taking meds. I understood what happened to me when I was a very young infant and how those events put me in the situation of panic attacks and many other sympthoms. I feel so good now, one Word gave the key "powerless" my mother left me powerless for the rest of my life. No more.

We fall in to fear because our thinking goes back and forth between our past and future. If we learn to live in the present moment, most of our fear can be overcome. Throughout this book, Thich Nhat Hanh guide you to peacefully live in the "Here and Now" and shows you many things we are grateful for. I recommend this book to anyone who desires the peacefull living with meditation.

This book has greatly enhanced my ideas on not only fear, but mindfulness in general. Filled with quick exercises to ground yourself during the strongest of emotions, this books insight can help you every minute of every day.

Just reading books of Thich Nhat Hanh begins your healing. It feels like you are conversing with the wise man, who slowly guides you to mindful breathing, mindful presence and mindful living. Love every line in the book, will reread when I feel the need.

This is a great book , I am a fan of the author and I have read his other books. It offers insight on how fear holds us all back from doing what we want and need to do in life and what you can do to eliminate that fear.

As usual, this book is right on with pearls of wisdom that gets you through the storm...whatever fears and anxiety you might have. I never go wrong when I choose books where Thich Nhat Hahn is the author.

I loved reading this book once and again.
The concept of not dying, and overcoming
the fear of loosing a loved one and disappearing
is the most valuable message Thich Nath Than
shares in this book.

I firstly became exposed to Thich Naht Hanh's writing over 10 years ago. Since then, I have enjoyed reading several of his books. Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Though the Storm is yet another valuable addition to scores of books on Buddhism and Mindfulness. The authors friendly and engaging style of writing, allows the reader to become fully immerse in concepts that are familiar yet not always fully explored in their consciousness. The real life examples and analogies and the frequent repetitiveness that is characteristic of Thich Naht Hanh's writing, make this book easy to understand and difficult to put down.
"Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones."

I read one of the Author's books some years ago and liked it. Then in succeeding years I occasionally will see another and buy it and be disappointed. That was the case with this one. To me, more of the same with a different title. I don't want to give it a 2 star because to many they may like it and he has written many so somebody likes them. I came to the conclusion that he is a Monk. Lives a stellar life in many ways. But when it comes to practical day to day advice, what experience does he have with normal everyday lives ... none. I feel the same way about books by the Dalai Lama. A cynic I guess.

felt super condescending, like he felt the reader had never had an experience or original thought before. Just felt like another self help book where the writer has answers that work for him but ignores the general situations humans find themselves in and doesn't explain how to get from where you are to where he is.

It didn't work for me. I've read many of his books and felt they had something original to offer--not so with this one. He starts out with wounded inner child stuff--old news. There was a lot of advice about what to do and how to do it. "We should live every day like people who have just been rescued from dying on the moon". I'll keep that in mind, Thich. I just thought it was oversimplified to the point of meaninglessness. For me, an American Buddhist such as Pema Chodron or Jack Kornfield generally handles this type of subject with much more personal relevance than this airy fairy romanticized stuff about the moon, forests, etc. We aren't there. We don't live in Plum Village. We have ticks and Lyme disease in our "forests". He goes on about how wonderful a Sangha is--the Sangha where I go was doing a book review of this book. There are always a few people that do all the talking about themselves thinly connecting it to the book. It isn't this romantically wonderful place where everybody supports everybody else. I felt like I wanted to reread "The Accidental Buddhist" for a dose of reality. Instead I opted for Hunter S Thompson's "Kingdom of Fear". I needed to laugh and get perspective.

I got this book literally within days! WOW! Fast service. I opened the book and started to read. This book is one of the most incredible books I have read on Fear! It is a must read for everyone. All humans are trapped in fear. This is a must. READ THIS BOOK! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

I read this book as a member of a Buddhist-interest group (people who aren't Buddhists but are interested in Buddhist concepts). It was a disappointment for us. Our sense was that it was just another self-help book, written for the market, that it didn't have the depth we expected. Wouldn't buy it again. It definitely didn't live up to its author's reputation.

The main focus of this book seems to be meditation.The author devotes much of the book to detailing various methods to meditate..
There are some nuggets of wisdom in the work that offer a new perspective on fear and anxiety,but the book fell short of my expectations.
I did not find it very helpful or original and certainly not worth the price.

Fear is Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh’s book on how to overcome the fears that come into our lives. He begins by saying that we have “original fear” when we are born. We leave the protection of our mother’s womb and come out into a strange world. As we progress in life other fears arise. We should acknowledge them and look for their source. Meditation is a key means of dealing with fears. Deep breathing is the initial step. Then we can say some short poems (gatha), at meals for example: “In this food I see clearly the presence of the entire universe supporting my existence.” Most of our fears relate to past events or future ones. Thus we should live in the present. Suffering results from ignorance of the true nature of things, namely that they are impermanent. Once we realize this situation we can accept everything, even our own death. Meditation involves two steps: stop (be calm) and looking deeply into the present moment. The author provides numerous examples of mantras (short phrases) you can repeat.

There is also some commentary on how to live in the world and with others. We need to create a “community” of people living in harmony. To be safe we have to build this community. Establishing peace in yourself is the basis for helping others. In engaging with others, especially in confrontational situations, we should first listen deeply to what they are saying, then reply with loving speech, and finally listen to their response.

While many of the ideas in this book come from a Buddhist perspective, one does not have to be a Buddhist to realize the benefits the author is describing. A number of secular research studies have shown the benefits of meditation and the simple activity of deep breathing. The difficulty for many people is to be able to engage in just breathing for an extended period. Here is a better approach in which the initial breathing phrase is followed by deep thinking.

While I agree with the author that meditation, and especially his approach, is beneficial, I cannot agree that it will erase all fears. Buddhist philosophy states that we have an essence that lives on after we die and we will be reborn again. Thus we should not fear death. I simply do not believe that concept. Instead I believe that I will just die some day and cease to exist. That thought is frightening. At the same time, through the idea of Buddhist meditation and living in the present moment I can accept this reality.

I rate this book at four stars instead of five because I do not share the Buddhist perspective on life.

I was first introduced to Thich Nhat Hanh by a friend 25 years ago at a time when I was almost crippled by job related stress. I'd been trying to meditate but found it almost impossible. Sitting meditation felt like sitting on an ant hill. He taught me to the basics of mindfulness, the practice of shifting attention from the disturbing flow of the thinking mind to actual physical sensation. Mindfulness, as he says, truly is miraculous. By following his very explicit instructions, I was able to transform my life from failure to success.

Mindfulness really can be learned from books and I've gone on the study the writings of other meditation teachers from almost every school. But I find that when times get tough I pick up one of Thay's books. I've come to realize that his teachings are so clear and helpful because he has personally been through so very much. He experienced the devastation of the Vietnam War, the death of friends and loved ones, and the pain of exile. He responded by creating simple exercises that helped himself and then teaching them to other suffering people.

I believe that Fear is my favorite of his works. In it, he makes the point that if we can't directly face our own fears, they will explode into self destructive anger that we will pass on to our children.. My father suffered from PTSD from his experiences as a soldier in WWII. He died a suicide when I was sixteen years old. I became very alienated from life and very nearly died from the guilt, shame and fear that his death transmitted to me. I did have family support that allowed me to survive.

I went on to become a special education teacher because I had a desire to help others. I had somewhat recovered from my father's death but when I was faced with the very real stress of the job, I began to experience a lot of frustration that exploded into anger. I realize, through Thay's teaching, that my father had unwittingly taught me his self destructive rage.

Through Thay's teaching, I have been able to transform the experience of rage to love. I retired from teaching special education after 32 years last year. I now work as a teacher assistant in a special education class. What amazed me the first time I experienced the miracle of mindfulness, was the transformation of anger to loving kindness. I experience and I can feel a radiant love for the students and teachers with whom I work. Thich Nhat Hanh's work is a great gift to the world.

When you pick up Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, ‘Fear’, you immediately get the sense that the words come from a person who is very gentle and whose aim it is to help people overcome the energy draining force known as Fear. Many people spend a great deal of life’s precious resources dwelling on the past or fretting about the future - often which never materializes - instead of living in the present moment, where our true power lies.

Indeed, staying grounded in the moment is the starting point to overcoming the debilitating effects of fear. When we are mindful of the present moment we can deal with “what is” and not get caught up on the roller coaster of negativity that leaves us powerless. From this place of mindfulness we can observe the fear, embrace it, and then allow it to dissolve. This is a process of “working with” rather than “fighting against.” This is a process of acceptance and then embracing our fear rather than trying to bury it or bully it into submission, “Invite your fear into consciousness, and smile through it; every time you smile through your fear, it will lose some of its strength. If you try to run away from your pain, there is no way out. Only by looking deeply into the nature of your fear can you find the way out.”

Perhaps this sounds a lot easier to do then it truly is in real life, and while this might indeed the case, Thich Nhat Hanh provides many lessons on mindfulness and numerous exercises, especially involving breathing, to help us along the way. As the author states, “When we practice walking meditation, when we breathe mindfully, we generate a powerful energy of mindfulness, which can recognize and embrace our suffering and fear. After doing that for a time, you will see that the fear goes back down to its former place is a seed, and to understand that the next time that manifests, you’ll be able to do exactly the same thing. Your chronic fear and anxiety will be genuinely reduced.”

In the end, it doesn’t matter what we are fearful of, or how the fear came to exist in the first place, the root of all fear exists in the mind and is reinforced by our beliefs that some external influence is more powerful than our own divine nature. While some degree of fear might be necessary for the survival of our physical being, on a deeper, spiritual level, when we come to realize that true nature extends beyond the mere physical world we see that many, or perhaps all, of our fears are unfounded, “Birth and death, coming and going, are just concepts. When we are in touch with our no-birth, no-death nature, we have no fear.”

By giving us the benefit of his compassionate wisdom, Thich Nhat Hanh is empowering people to overcome the limitations that their fears have imposed upon them. In essence, Thich Nhat Hanh is not giving us keys to our prison cell, he is showing us that the door was never locked to begin with.

This is a good book, and there is some essential wisdom in it. However, I also believe that it is not always easy to glean the wisdom from the more general stuff that is written in the book.

I have read "The Miracle of Mindfulness" and "Silence", and these are outstanding books.
What I felt, in this one, is that he skirted the issue of fear. Fear runs deep, and while mindfulness breathing can help, it is not the whole solution at times.

Thich Nhat Hanh is a wonderful author with insight and compassion. This book speaks about fear from the perspective of addressing your inner child using mindfulness. Then he gives daily practices for addressing the fear. I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor working with clients that have trauma. Great book to use with my clients and I have used myself.

This is my favorite book by Thich Nhat Hanh. I love the simplicity and honesty with which he shares wisdom, universal truths, comfort, and stories from his own life. I read a little each night before going to sleep, and i feel as if he is sitting by my side and gently talking to me, helping my fears dissipate and taking me to a higher place of peace and acceptance. This book is especially good for when you are going through a hard and challenging time. Highly recommended!

The author says reality is living in the here and now.

Live in the "now"....free of the depression over the past and the anxieties for the future.
Helpful reminder...
and in this book, there are many practical tools for staying in the now and relieving our fears.
I appreciate that AND his straight forward (easy to read and understand) writing style.

Live in the "here"....ahhh....that's the tricky part....his explanation of THAT is what reduced my rating by two stars.
Where is "here?"
He likened the ultimate reality to water....in this present moment, we are existing as "wave" which seems impermanent
but luckily we are actually (a part of) the water which is permanent.

And therefore, there is no beginning and no end, no birth nor death. This appears to me to be a huge religious supposition and doesn't relieve the non-Buddhist's fear of non-existence.
And his explanation about being the water instead of a particular wave
doesn't alleviate the concern
for an infinite continuation of that individual consciousness we identify as self.

But it seems to me, if we are to agree with the author that reality exists only in the "now," and we are willing to live in the "now,"
then,
fears about death can be reduced to mere anxieties of an unknowable future.
And as I said, he gives many practical tools (mantras and meditations) for heightening our awareness of the present moment.

And THAT's a great way to live.

Thich Nhat Hanh is easily my favorite Buddhist writer. In this book, he brings the Buddhist practice of handling our fears with his usual clarity. I highly recommend this book to those who are searching for the practices that help them face the fears and anxieties of life. With simple instruction, Thich Nhat Hanh provides practices that helps us face our fear and embrace it. An excellent read for the individual facing very real fear.

The author provides practical steps to overcoming our fear through mindful breathing, explores the origins of our fears and the means to finding peace in our lives. This is an excellent introductory book.

easily my favorite of his books...a beautiful read. hanh has helped me better understand the root causes of fear. what i like about this book is that it comes with practical tips, and practices for transforming your fear/anxiety into something more mindful, more beautiful. five stars.

Thich Nhat Hanh offers a very cursory review of some basic tenets of Buddhism, and offers guidance for getting in touch with mindfulness.

This is the kind of book that will require reading, thinking and re-reading again in order to establish a meaningful way of connecting with self-regulatory practices advocated to bring inner peace.

I don't think it's the book but more of the practicality of the applications in the book. Living as a monk or nun the book is five stars. Living in ny? Not sure. There is wonderful insight and I will reread it, just too many group breathing excersises that I do not have the 20 minutes or more per day to achieve.

Thich Nhat Hanh is truly an insightful, beloved teacher. If we just practice his wisdom our lives will be more joyful, and we will appreciate each day.
He shows us the importance of embracing the beauty found in nature, and the peace that comes from living "here and now."

i am new to buddhism and have read several of t.n.hanh's books..this book is simple, and meaningful..if you are prone to fear and anxiety, it is so very helpful in grounding you back to reality..this moment..all we really have..as with most of his books, be warned that it is a repetitive based on buddhist philosophy..nothing really new but well worth reading as a reminder of how to handle fear and stress..glad i bought it...

This book was recommended by a friend and I found I couldn't get much beyond page one. If you are a believer in trauma by birth, and the earthly existence being nothing more than a method to overcome that trauma then you will enjoy this. I had higher, or perhaps different expectations. Books like this should be selected by the individual not taken on recommendation.

Not the first book by this great man that I have read, and won't be the last! Each book I read helps me get better control of the toxic thoughts and behaviors that have too often affected my life in negative ways. Thanks to TNH am living a healthier happier life that keeps getting better all the time!