We Begin Here - by Jassy Denison (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A compassionate, practice-based guide for for white readers ready to move from defensiveness and shame into embodied understanding, healing inherited patterns, and more connected ways of living

This is not a book about having the right answers. What if the work of understanding whiteness and meeting racism more honestly began not in your thinking, but in your body?

Somewhere between silence and saying the wrong thing, many white readers find themselves frozen. Reckoning with whiteness is not just an intellectual exercise. It is lived, felt, and practiced. Drawing on the teachings of peace activist and Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh and the Plum Village tradition, Jassy Denison invites readers into a grounded exploration of race and racial harm rooted in attention rather than urgency. Through personal story, body-based reflection, and contemplative exercises, readers are guided to face discomfort, work with shame and reactivity, and show up more skillfully in conversations about race and justice.

Readers will find:

• simple, repeatable practices for working with fear and reactivity
• guided meditations to stay present with discomfort without shutting down
• reflections that surface inherited patterns and conditioned response
• invitations to reconnect with the body as a source of clarity and grounding
• support for building more honest, connected relationships
• a clear, accessible entry point into anti-racist practice that does not rely on shame or performative pressure

This is an offering designed not just for insight, but for practice--supporting readers in shifting how they live and relate, from the inside out. What if the place you feel most uncertain is also the place you can begin?

About the Author

Jassy Denison is an accredited workplace mediator, trainer, and supervisor who supports teams in prison, educational, and faith settings to develop new responses to conflict. She is a practitioner in Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh's lineage of Engaged Buddhism focused on bringing mindfulness into the work of dismantling race and racism and understanding our past in order to create a new future. Over the past ten years, Denison has developed "white awareness" networks within the UK and Europe, coming together with other white people to see, understand, and transform the legacy of colonialism.