Why do we meditate? The main reason most modern people start meditating is because it helps us feel better—reducing anxiety, improving sleep, decluttering the mind, and so forth.

“But where does your meditation go when things go bad?” asks Andrew Holecek. “Where is your spirituality when ‘rock meets bone,’ as they say in Tibet—when the crap hits the fan?”

Any meditator who sticks with it long enough will hit a turning point, when the methods that once brought inner peace stop working like they used to. In Reverse Meditation, Holecek reveals that’s when our practice really begins—when we are called to throw out any assumption that meditation somehow insulates us from the confusion, suffering, and uncertainty of life. “By putting your meditation into reverse,” he teaches, “you’ll actually find yourself going forward. Step into your pain and you can step up your evolution.”

With his signature blend of depth and accessibility, Holecek teaches three expansive approaches to meditation— shamatha-based mindfulness, open awareness, and the boundary-smashing reverse meditations—along with on-the-spot practices for snapping into a meditative mindset even in trying moments. “What you once tried to escape with meditation now becomes your practice,” he says. “This leads you to the discovery of unconditional happiness, basic goodness, and true freedom in the most turbulent situations.”