Tiny Buddha is a self-help, health, wellness, mindfulness and inspirational wisdom website founded by author Lori Deschene ^{[1] [2] [3]} in 2009. The site’s tagline promises “simple wisdom for complex lives.” Tiny Buddha features daily updated articles, ^[4] inspirational quotes, ^{[5] [6]} and images, and also hosts an active community forum. Tiny Buddha has received world-wide attention ^[7] and maintains a relatively large and devout base of followers across the board on major social media platforms such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.

Prior to starting Tiny Buddha, founder Lori Deschene spent more than a decade struggling with bulimia, depression, and self-loathing resulting from childhood trauma and bullying. ^{[8] [9] [10]}

After extensive treatment, including multiple inpatient hospitalizations, she minimized her self-destructive habits but still felt overwhelmed by shame.

She moved all around the United States in an attempt to outrun her pain, but soon learned that it followed her wherever she went.

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Lori eventually moved to New York City, living alone in a low-income dorm-style building. ^[11] With no friends, no self-respect, no money, and no job prospects, she was at an all-time low, until she read the Chuck Swindoll quote “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it.” This changed her perspective on herself and her circumstances, enabling her to shift her focus from what was wrong with her life to what she could improve going forward. With this empowered mindset, she decided to help herself by volunteering at a local yoga studio in exchange for free classes. This gave her a sense of purpose and connection and helped her find mental quiet.

Several years later, after moving to California, Lori decided that she wanted to use her former pain to help others, and to enable others to do the same thing. She perceived a healing power in sharing experiences and insights, authentically and vulnerably, and felt that a website with this mission would help readers feel less alone with their challenges and more empowered to overcome them.

When she launched Tiny Buddha in September 2009, the site offered one daily blog post and one daily quote.

Since then, the site has grown to include a community web forum and a collection of inspirational images and videos.

In December 2009, Conari Press published Deschene’s first book Tiny Buddha: Simple Wisdom for Life’s Hard Questions, which includes a collection of tweets from the Tiny Buddha community.

Some years later, Conari published Deschene’s second book, Tiny Buddha’s Guide to Loving Yourself, which includes 40 stories from Tiny Buddha community members.

In June 2014, Harper One bought the rights for the third collaborative Tiny Buddha book, 365 Tiny Love Challenges by Tiny Buddha, which is scheduled for a November 2015 release.

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In May 2014, Tiny Buddha’s first iPhone app, LOVE by Tiny Buddha launched at #9 in the iTunes store.

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