There is little surprise why Kristin Neff has gained a world-wide reputation with her energetic researching of the benefits of self-compassion... this seminal work is both life changing and at the same time very human and quite often funny...

As a type A, super achiever, who has hit 51 and despite "having it all" with a great family, partner and life as a physician, is still at a bit of a loss about all this "happiness" people keep talking about -- the concept of needing to be anything but "hard driving, damn the pain" has been an eye opener, much less the idea of being compassionate with yourself and not having to fix all of my faults...

if you are a performance junky like me... read this book... and read it again... I certainly intend to... as an aside, LOL and perhaps in my type A way... I also listened to the book tape, which is excellent (awesome reader), AND took the online 8 week course, which again I strongly recommend...

Just do it...