From the best-selling author of Say What You Mean

A new book applying the timeless wisdom of contemplative practice to today’s most pressing issues—such as the climate crisis, oppression, anxiety, and burnout.

Discover and cultivate your best qualities.

Develop the inner resources to meet our greatest challenges individually and collectively.

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In this innovative book, meditation teacher Oren Jay Sofer shares a pragmatic guide to living a life of meaning and purpose in a time of great social, environmental, and spiritual upheaval. Through touching stories, insightful reflections, and concrete instructions, Sofer offers powerful tools to strengthen our hearts and nourish the qualities that can transform our world.

Each chapter explores a quality essential to personal and social transformation–like mindfulness, resolve, wonder, and empathy; offers suggestions to strengthen that quality through reflection, meditation, and action; and helps you work with difficulties that may arise.
Learn ways to:
  • Find more choice and freedom in life
  • Strengthen your ability to focus and sustain energy
  • Increase your capacity to handle stress
  • Identify burnout and renew yourself
  • Respond more effectively to collective challenges
  • Imbue daily activities with clarity and vitality

In Your Heart Was Made for This, Oren Jay Sofer offers a beautiful and poignant invitation to meet the crises of our current world and communities with the power of contemplative practice which helps us to acknowledge the pain that we are all experiencing and reveals how we can respond directly with awareness and tenderness.”

Lama Rod Owens, author of Love and Rage

Strengthen your heart

and rise to the challenges of our times.

Reflection from the chapter on Energy:

Consider how you use your energy. What feels worthwhile and what feels superfluous? Notice when energy is present or absent. Explore the connection between your awareness of purpose, your level of willingness, and how much energy you have. When doing something you don’t enjoy, step back and consider why you are doing it. What needs are you trying to meet? Are they truly yours? How does this awareness shift your available energy? Finally, what avenues do you have to replenish your energy? What do you need to sustain energy in your life?

“Using the Buddha's teachings, coupled with skillful activism, Sofer outlines how we can all access a deep well of energy and resilience to support us in engaging with our most pressing challenges.

This is the book we need right now to help heal the planet and care for one another.”

– Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness, Real Happiness, and Real Life

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“Clear, wise and inspiring. Oren offers a raft of beautiful teachings and practices to awaken the heart, uplift the spirit, to positively direct our life and to embody our best selves.”

Jack Kornfield, author of The Wise Heart and No Time Like The Present

Advance Praise for "Your Heart Was Made For This"

“In this uplifting and harmonizing treasure trove of wisdom, Oren offers tender and encouraging practices for our challenging times and daily reminders of what we are made of. This book is a real-life companion.

Ruth King
Author,  Mindful of Race

“The falling apart of our known world can bring forward our spiritual strengths. Your Heart Was Made For This guides us in responding to our societal confusion and suffering with skillful, wise and caring hearts.”

Tara Brach
Author, Radical Acceptance

“Oren’s vast experience, mind, heart and ability explains complex dynamics with clarity. Oren delivers not only the what, but the how through practices and possibilities, in a world that is on fire.”

JoAnna Hardy
Meditation Teacher, Mother Dog Lover

Zenju Earthlyn Manuel

“Sofer calls us back to love as the focus of our contemplative practice. We are reminded that in stillness and silence, with each breath, we are reaching into our hearts moving past a strong desire for individual improvement.

Fortunately, Sofer guides us on a path in which we can discover our deepest humanity.”

Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, author of Opening to Darkness, Shamanic Bones of Zen, Deepest Peace, and Way of Tenderness.

“A gift for these times...”

This book is a captivating and transformative read that delves into the depths of human connection and social transformation. Sofer's profound insights and practical guidance illuminate the path to cultivating authentic relationships and fostering true understanding. With heartfelt wisdom and a gentle yet empowering approach, this book serves as an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to . . . embrace the transformative power of contemplative practice to heal our world.” 

David Treleaven PhD Author, Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness

“In Your Heart Was Made for This, Oren Jay Sofer demonstrates the transformative potential inherent in Buddhist contemplative practices. Readers no longer have to choose between spiritual growth and social change. Through a lyrical blend of personal narrative, inspiring quotes and concrete invitations to action, Sofer guides all readers, regardless of experience, on a journey that will reveal their capacity to respond powerfully and choicefully to the many crises facing our world today.”

Roxy Manning PhD Author, How to Have AntiRacist Conversations

“I can't think of a contemporary book that creates such a beautiful interweaving of Buddhist teachings, healing practices, and social, racial, and environmental justice concerns. Sofer offers concrete guidance for flourishing in a way that connects the major issues of our time, all while being extraordinarily attuned to the needs of those with trauma, diverse socio-economic situations, and historically oppressed or marginalized backgrounds. I’ll be handing this book to …spiritual seekers, beginners, Buddhists, and activists for comprehensive answers to their many pressing questions."

Sumi Loundon Kim, Buddhist Chaplain, Yale University

“In each of these pages, you’re in the presence of a great teacher. Simply, warmly, and profoundly, Oren guides us to deepen inner strength, joy, and love, opening to who we already are. He offers a rare combination of penetrating clarity, powerful practices, and nurturing care throughout.

Like other classics in psychology and spirituality, this book starts with a solid foundation, and then soars to the heights. What a gem.”

Rick Hanson, PhD author of Neurodharma: New Science, Ancient Wisdom and Seven Practices of the Highest Happiness

Oren Jay Sofer’s book was made for this moment.  Everyone I know is justifiably anxious about the state of our politics and our planet. Your Heart Was Made for This offers transformative, non-pollyannish practices of resilience so that we can remain engaged, balanced, and able to actually help.”

Jay Michaelson
Author of The Gate of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path

“Oren is a brilliant teacher. The teachings and practices in this book will lead to true inner fulfillment and a more compassionate and just society. A must-read for those seeking to cultivate authentic change from the inside out. Your Heart Was Made for This is exactly what our world needs at this moment in time.”

Kaira Jewel Lingo Author, We Were Made for These Times

“Oren Jay Sofer’s new book will offer meditators a practical overview that can help us take up this paramount skill day by day in our own lives. Sofer shares in an engaging style with which ordinary people like ourselves, trying to navigate the pitfalls of modern life, can relate with benefit.”

Michael Nagler Founder, The Metta Center for Nonviolence

Your Heart was Made for This is a gift for these times, bringing the timeless wisdom of the Dharma to support us in this time of the Great Turning. Whether you are new to contemplative practices or are a seasoned veteran, this book provides insights and concrete practices to help us come back to our whole selves.

I can’t help but want my entire family to read this! ”

Kazu Haga, author of Healing Resistance

Oren Jay Sofer

About the Author

Oren Jay Sofer teaches meditation and communication internationally.

Oren has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1997. He holds a degree in comparative religion from Columbia University and is a Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner for the healing of trauma.

Born and raised in New Jersey, he is the author of several books, including the best-seller Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication. His teaching has reached people around the world through his online communication courses and guided meditations. A husband and a father, Oren lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he enjoys cooking, spending time in nature, and home woodworking projects.