Open: Living with an Expansive Mind in a Distracted World

“This wise and deeply relevant book guides us in navigating the seductive trance of a growingly virtual world… and living with our full creativity, intelligence, and love.”
—Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance and Trusting the Gold

A New York Times bestselling author shares a powerful new approach for living in a distracted and divided world with greater engagement, freedom, and openness.

With the avalanche of information we get every day, closing down our minds and hearts seems to be the only way to survive. We close down to our inner experience by compulsively checking our devices. We close down to others by getting caught in echo chambers of outrage. But what if there’s another way? What if being more open to life is actually what brings us sanity and happiness? In this climate of distraction and division, Nate Klemp’s Open offers a path back to a way of living that is expansive, creative, and filled with wonder.

Drawing on new science, age-old practices, and personal stories, Klemp examines why we close down when faced with stressors or threats, then reveals how we can train ourselves to open up to the fullness that life offers—even when frightened, outraged, or heartbroken. Join him to explore:

• The uniquely modern challenges that make closing down easier and more tempting than ever
• Experiential stories of psychedelic-assisted therapy, opening to political adversaries, meditation, and other tools for opening the mind
• The Three Shifts of Opening—how to break the habit of mind wandering, approach instead of withdraw, and enlarge the size of your perspective
• The Open Toolkit—a treasury of meditations, investigations, and habit-changing practices to open your mind

Expanding the size of the mind may sound subtle —yet the results can utterly transform our lives. “When we open to life,” says Klemp, “we’re no longer stuck in here fighting against our thoughts on the inside or a crazed world on the outside. We’re connected. Our minds and lives get bigger. There’s more room, more perspective, more possibility. This is what it means to be free.”