Playing Dead

How Meditation Brought Me Back to Life

By: Robert Sheehan

Narrated by: Robert Sheehan

Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

From Robert Sheehan, star of Misfits and The Umbrella Academy, and host of hit podcast The Earth Locker, comes a heartfelt journey to inner peace.

In Playing Dead, Robert Sheehan shares intimate reflections on his search for purpose, looking back at the adventures – and misadventures – of his life so far, and sharing the profoundly transformative lessons he has learnt along the way.

Meditation is at the heart of Robert's route to spiritual awakening. In Playing Dead he reveals the turbulence in his life that led him to seek calm and tranquility within. A beautiful, meandering memoir reflecting a rich tapestry of experience, uncovering how spirituality has become his anchor in the constant moving tide. Combining storytelling with letters, poetry, childhood memories and thoughtful musings on fame.

Through this compelling description of his quest for inner stillness, Robert shows us how we can welcome a practice of meditation into our own lives, with tools for soothing your nervous system and focusing a fretful mind. In a world where our attention is constantly up for grabs, Playing Dead shows how we can give our souls the deep rest we crave.

'A wit and wisdom that harkens back to an age of enlightenment' – RON PERLMAN, ACTOR

'A meditation guide from a man with a mind most unlikely to be conducive to meditation' – MANCHÁN MAGAN, WRITER AND BROADCASTER

'In this beautifully written story, Robert Sheehan shares his journey from chaos to stillness and how meditation can lead us to a place of connection and calm' – DEB DANA, AUTHOR OF ANCHORED

©2024 Robert Sheehan (P)2024 Penguin Audio

So much meat here

The author weaves memoir, history, science, original poetry and a bit of travel into detailed settings within which he illuminates his own meditation journey and how it has improved his personal and professional life. There are suggested exercises and some practical tips, but what I came away with was a desire to explore how to begin my own practice, more than a list of what to do next.

The concepts he explores are subtle, but he always seems to find 'le mot juste' which perfectly expresses his point. His writing is well crafted, and I sometimes found myself rewinding just for the joy of listening again to a particularly satisfying sentence or paragraph. And of course, his humor and gentle Irish lilt only adds to the enjoyment.

That said, I'm not sure that the audio format is the best way for me to retain this information over the long term. I'm in the US and the physical book was not available here, but I have ordered it from a UK bookseller so that I can read it again in that form and mark the passages that I want to remember. I also expect the white space on the pages will help delineate the topics and points in a way that is not possible in an audiobook. As he says, there is meaning in emptiness.

I would have liked to know more about how he kept going during the first 6 months to a year as he struggled to quiet his "monkey mind." Where did he turn for inspiration when his resolve would flag? What resources did he find helpful along the way?

Still, I can't remember ever having been exposed to a book and immediately wanting to experience it again, as I did here. I highly recommend this for anyone who is curious about the power of meditation to improve the human condition--for one of us, or all of us.