Mindfulness
MINDFULNESS reveals a set of simple yet powerful practices that can be incorporated into daily life to help break the cycle of unhappiness, stress, anxiety and mental exhaustion and promote genuine joie de vivre. It's the kind of happiness that gets into your bones. It seeps into everything you do and helps you meet the worst that life can throw at you with new courage. The book is based on Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). MBCT revolves around a straightforward form of mindfulness meditation which takes just a few minutes a day for the full benefits to be revealed. MBCT has been clinically proven to be at least as effective as drugs for depression and it is recommended by the UK's National Institute of Clinical Excellence - in other words, it works. More importantly it also works for people who are not depressed but who are struggling to keep up with the constant demands of the modern world. MINDFULNESS focuses on promoting joy and peace rather than banishing unhappiness. It's precisely focused to help ordinary people boost their happiness and confidence levels whilst also reducing anxiety, stress and irritability.
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What Hacker News says
- Also recommend the book Mindfulness: Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Mark Williams (same author as the guardian article).
It's more geared towards the Average Joe and coping with daily stress. One line that stuck with me is: "your mind has a mind of its own", as he tries to emphasise that your thoughts are just that - mere thougths, and not reality. With practice, one can learn how to distinguish between thoughts and reality and become more grounded in life.
- For mindfulness awareness in the moment I would recommend Mindfulness:a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world by Williams (Oxford University). It takes you through a course in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. MBCT is aimed as anti-depression. I like the standardised approach used which means that clinical trials are possible. Another interesting angle is Mindful Self Compassion - best starting point Kristin Neff.
- Funnily enough this so-called "Choccolate Meditation" is the first meditation in the book on mindfulness for meditation, it's a fun place to start. Anecdotally I've never met a hectic stressed person who liked nearly-black bitter dark choccolate :)
(ISBN-13: 978-0749953089) http://amzn.eu/8JHl1tw
- * "Spartan Up!: A Take-No-Prisoners Guide to Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Peak Performance in Life", Joe De Sena;
Great thoughts on life, by creator of the Spartan Race.
* "Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World", Mark Williams, Danny Penman;
Meditation excercies plan for mindfulness, which gives different view on everyday life. Also considered as a good therapy for apathy, depression etc.
* "Mud, Sweat, and Tears: The Autobiography", Bear Grylls;
Great stories from former SAS member and adventurer.
- I have been a fan of power naps for the past year or so; I work from home so taking 25 minutes to nap in mid-afternoon is not a problem.
I just completed the program in "Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan" (Williams, Penman) and found in those eight weeks I didn't feel a need to nap in the afternoon. I just didn't get sleep late in the day.
- In keeping with others who are mentioning / linking to books about non-new-age meditation, try the book by the Psychologists in the mindfulness movement:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindfulness-practical-guide-finding-... (Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world, Prof Mark Williams and Dr Danny Penman)
It's a great book that leads you through the first 8 weeks of meditating, and contains meditation aid audio clips for various scenarios. The most useful I've found is the 3 minute "breathing space" meditation, particularly for that noisy bus - you need good noise excluding ear buds though.
If you don't like the speaking audio, and/or you've practiced enough not to need the prompts, you should check out Simply Noise:
http://simplynoise.com/ << they also have apps for phones.
I've found it equally helpful for rendering words unintelligible, which makes mindful awareness much easier.
