We would like to introduce you, and invite you to sponsor, the forthcoming book First Aid Kit for the Mind: Breaking the Cycle of Habitual Behaviors by Valerie (Vimalasara) Mason-John.

Do you struggle with how to respond to being triggered, or with painful habits that you just can’t shift? Help is at hand. Due to be published this May, this illustrated pocketbook will help give you courage to take your life back into your own hands. 

An award-winning author and speaker, Vimalasara offers a wise and accessible path to self-awareness, acceptance, and practical ways to help your heart, mind and body out of triggered and painful states. Whether you can’t seem to stop surfing the net, or you suffer from crippling self-criticism, internalised oppression, or chemical dependencies – this little book will offer many ways to greater freedom, choice, and better relationships. 

The book will include guided meditations, reflections, workbook sections to support your awareness, and short practices. With this guide at hand, you’ll be able to reconnect with breath and body, and learn to recognise and work with negative thought cycles.

Vimalasara and Dr Paramabandhu Groves, wrote the award winning Eight Step Recovery: Using the Buddha’s Teachings to Overcome Addiction which came out in a second edition in 2018. We’re confident that First Aid Kit for the Mind will offer both an emergency response and a path to freedom for many people suffering with compulsions and addictions. 

We’d like to invite you to sponsor First Aid Kit for the Mind. Your support gives us the freedom to publish the books we value by contributing towards the upfront costs of production, printing, and distribution. 

How YOU benefit from sponsorship

You’ll be among the first to receive a copy of the book. As soon as the book is published, we’ll send you a paperback copy as well as the eBook. And you get to be part of something that changes lives.

How WE benefit from sponsorship

These are particularly challenging times for small independent publishers like ours, with rising costs of printing and distribution. You can help us keep doing what we love: making Dharma books to support your practice and the wider sangha.

About Vimalasara

Valerie (Vimalasara) Mason-John is the award-winning author of ten books, including Eight Step Recovery: Using The Buddha’s Teachings to Overcome Addiction, Detox Your Heart: Meditations for Emotional Trauma, and more recently their shortlisted book for two Canadian Awards: I’m Still Your Negro: An Homage to James Baldwin. 

A teacher in the Triratna Buddhist Community, Vimalasara previously worked as an international correspondent covering Aboriginal deaths in custody, and interviewed Sinn Fein prisoners and ex rebels from the Sierra Leone war. Their work in the field of conflict transitioned into working with gangs, the incarcerated, bullies, and challenging behaviour. They are one of the founding facilitators of Dr Gabor Mate’s Compassionate Inquiry and also trained in Internal Family Systems.

Learn more about Vimalasara and please do consider sponsoring their forthcoming book!