I went through a very difficult time a couple of years ago and stumbled across this book. It was nothing short of life changing for me. It taught me to really listen to myself, to better trust my intuition, to accept what *IS* and shed so many of the "how life *should* be" attitudes.For example: "Gee, I'm a horrible parent because I want to work outside the home." Well, no, I'm not a horrible parent because I want to work outside the home. I'm simply a parent who wants to work outside the home. Some people in society have labeled it "horrible", but do *I* deem it "horrible"? No, I don't. So I don't let it bother me any more.Use your own standards to judge yourself, not "society's", because different societies have different standards. The Zen approach in the book is interesting, but fundamentally for me, the book is about how to love and accept yourself as you are and to stop putting societial labels on every thing you do.