Living with a serious illness can be an isolating experience, and it can often provoke feelings of anger, anxiety, and fear. As a former oncology nurse, a mindfulness teacher, a clinical researcher, and a retreat facilitator for people living with serious illness, Susan Bauer-Wu has dedicated much of her life to developing practices to help people with serious illness live fully in the face of these challenges. In her book, Leaves Falling Gently: Living Fully with Serious Illness through Mindfulness, Compassion, and Connectedness, she lays out accessible meditations for people living with illness and their caregivers.

In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Bauer-Wu to discuss what it means to live fully with serious illness, methods for finding spaciousness in the midst of constriction, how to adapt mindfulness practices in the context of pain, and how the quality of each moment can determine the quality of our lives. Plus, Bauer-Wu leads a guided meditation.