Shame need not be an enemy to conquer. In Reimagining Shame, David Whyte shows listeners how to harness this complex emotion as a tool for self-understanding. This program is read by the author.

Shame. The word itself is searing. It can evoke an almost visceral response in us, surfacing feelings of inadequacy, either consciously or unconsciously. It ranges from simply wishing we had done or said something differently, to that awful sense that something is wrong with us. But, what if shame is not an enemy to our happiness and contentment, but rather a doorway into the next stage of our existence and, ultimately, our emancipation? What if shame is not an enemy to our happiness and contentment, but rather a doorway into the next stage of our existence and, ultimately, the primary driver of our maturation?

Join much loved poet David Whyte as he guides us through a special audio journey drawn from his Three Sundays series. Here, Whyte invites us to recast shame and transform this orphaned layer of ourselves into an ally and gravitational force returning us to presence and wholeness, rather than a barrier to personal growth. As he reimagines his own experiences with shame, Whyte weaves his poems and prose throughout each lesson, painting an atmospheric portrait of his ancestral Irish homeland along the way.

The First Sunday explores our natural human instinct to run away from shame and the divide this creates between body and mind, until we learn to embrace it with compassion.

The Second Sunday follows shame inward and shows us how to reframe our vulnerabilities as a vehicle for discovering the wonder life has to show us.

The Third Sunday poses shame as an invitation to hide—to retreat into dormancy—which ultimately reveals the fertile ground from which we can grow and reach the light.

“Let your vulnerabilities walking on the cracked, sliding limestone be this time not a weakness,” says Whyte, “but a faculty for what’s about to happen.” When we allow feelings of inferiority to rest inside us, they can then be felt, named, and understood, and begin to change into something else, something transformative.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press Essentials.