cover image Sit Down to Rise Up: How Radical Self-Care Can Change the World

Sit Down to Rise Up: How Radical Self-Care Can Change the World

Shelly Tygielski. New World Library, $25.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-60868-744-2

Mindfulness teacher Tygielski debuts with an uplifting guide on building a platform of social activism through meditation and channeling one’s energy into collective activism. The founder of the aid organization Pandemic of Love and a 2020 CNN Hero, Tygielski explains how to build personal courage, connections, and momentum to enact change in one’s community by “showing up”: “Show up for yourself and for others.... Show up consistently. Show up even when others don’t show up.” Three sections describe the communal journey: in “Sit Down,” Tygielski lays out “the inner journey to me” through meditation, arguing that “we are all broken” and have the responsibility to help others; in “Show Up,” she considers “the outer journey to we” through forming strong community bond and mutual support networks; and, finally, in “Rise Up,” she explains “the movement to us,” where one practices what one preaches by making sure everyone in one’s neighborhood has basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter met. Readers involved in community outreach will value Tygielski’s integration of self-reflection and humanitarian objectives for healing a broken world. (Nov.)