Morgan Harper Nichols
I knew that the moment I opened this book, I wouldn’t be able to put it down. Aundi Kolber’s words will meet you where you are, here in the present moment, shining light in the direction of connection and joy, in places where they are often a challenge to find. Her writing draws you into the depths as she gives you practical, grace-filled words of wisdom for every step. While reading this book, you will feel mirrored through Aundi’s beautiful way of giving language to our experiences. You will be met in the wild of where you are while also receiving the tools you need so you can carry on for the rest of the journey.
Steve Wiens
For those exhausted from dragging their bodies through life and white-knuckling their way through pain, Aundi Kolber offers wise advice: Try softer. By learning to listen to your body instead of fighting it, you can become more resilient and more self-compassionate. Try Softer is exactly what a stressed-out world needs to hear.
Michael John Cusick
Far too often the Christian recipe for abundant living involves mustering up more faith, doing more for God, and trying harder to make life work. In Try Softer, Aundi Kolber helps readers understand why such an approach never works and invites us to a radical new way of living—compassionately connected to ourselves, God, and others. With an extraordinary blend of personal vulnerability, scriptural acumen, and compelling neuroscience, Aundi ultimately shows readers that the abundant life we long for is less about striving and all about surrender.
Hayley Morgan
Try Softer is the book I’ve been searching for on the bookstore shelves. As someone who has been high-strung and “try-harder” since childhood, I’ve always wondered, Why? Why does my body feel on high alert even when my mind is quiet? Thankfully, Kolber’s smart, informative approach and kind voice are here to help us all understand the complicated happenings between our heads, our hearts, and our bodies.
Barb Maiberger
For those souls feeling alone in their suffering, Try Softer serves as a companion guide toward feeling connected and whole. Aundi Kolber’s spiritual journey demonstrates that the way to transform pain is to surrender to the healing power of embodying compassion. Try Softer gives us faith and hope that light can be created out of darkness.
Ashley Abramson
Reading Try Softer feels a lot like exhaling. In a world that simultaneously pushes us to hustle and to hide our pain, Aundi Kolber wisely, tenderly, and skillfully offers us a new way forward. While it’s certainly countercultural, the message of Try Softer is both biblical and timely—a presentation of the gospel that powerfully invites us to live fully in the grace and healing Jesus freely offers.
Shannan Martin
In Try Softer, licensed therapist Aundi Kolber walks us toward the gentle understanding that our scars hold clues to our wholeness. Life is hard. Pain finds us. But as we learn to pay attention to our full selves, patiently excavating compassion from the rubble of critique, we will know healing. This kind, courageous book is right on time.
Hannah Brencher
In a culture teeming with anxiety and feelings of being “not enough,” Aundi is the friend and guide we need for this present moment. Packed with a perfect blend of relatable storytelling and practical methods, this book will be one I return to and pass on to others. This is one of those rare lifelong reads you will pull out as a refresher course again and again.
Stephanie Tait
Not since The Body Keeps the Score has a book made such a profound impact on my healing as a trauma survivor. Try Softer is a masterpiece, a seamless blend of competent clinical understanding and nurturing pastoral care. Aundi’s unique dual perspective as both trauma therapist and trauma survivor gives her work an unparalleled depth of empathy, wisdom, and tenderness. She’s created a powerful therapeutic tool that is an essential read not only for those who have been personally affected by trauma but also for therapists, pastors, educators, and caregivers.
Nicole Unice
In a world that tells us we’d better be crushing it or killing it if we want to make it, Aundi Kolber has a revolutionary approach—trying softer. With grace, wisdom, and candor, Try Softer gives us hope for a different way—lives of connection and attention instead of competition and distraction. If you’re weary of trying so hard (who isn’t?), then try softer. You’ll be glad you did.
