Mindfulness for Beginners - by Jon Kabat-Zinn (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

An Invitation to the Practice of Mindfulness

We may long for wholeness, suggests Jon Kabat-Zinn, but the truth is that it is already here and already ours. The practice of mindfulness holds the possibility of not just a fleeting sense of contentment, but a true embracing of a deeper unity that envelops and permeates our lives. With Mindfulness for Beginners you are invited to learn how to transform your relationship to the way you think, feel, love, work, and play--and thereby awaken to and embody more completely who you really are.

Here, the teacher, scientist, and clinician who first demonstrated the benefits of mindfulness within mainstream Western medicine offers a book that you can use in three unique ways: as a collection of reflections and practices to be opened and explored at random; as an illuminating and engaging start-to-finish read; or as an unfolding "lesson-a-day" primer on mindfulness practice.
Beginning and long-time meditators alike will discover in these pages a valuable distillation of the key attitudes and essential practices that Jon Kabat-Zinn has found most useful with his students, including:

- Why heartfulness is synonymous with true mindfulness
- The value of coming back to our bodies and to our senses over and over again
- How our thoughts "self-liberate" when touched by awareness
- Moving beyond our "story" into direct experience
- Stabilizing our attention and presence amidst daily activities
- Three fundamental mental factors that cause suffering
- How mindfulness heals, even after the fact
-Reclaiming our wholeness, and more

The prescription for living a more mindful life seems simple enough: return your awareness again and again to whatever is going on. But if you've tried it, you know that here is where all the questions and challenges really begin. Mindfulness for Beginners provides welcome answers, insights, and instruction to help us make that shift, moment by moment, into a more spacious, clear, reliable, and loving connection with ourselves and the world.

Includes digital access to five guided mindfulness meditations by Jon Kabat-Zinn, selected from the audio program that inspired this book.

Review Quotes

"Jon Kabat-Zinn is one of the finest teachers of mindfulness you will ever encounter." --JACK KORNFIELD, author of A Path with Heart

"Jon Kabat-Zinn provides access to the essence of meditation and its applications for both the beginner and those who wish to deepen and expand their practice. He embodies what he describes." --DEAN ORNISH, MD

About the Author

Jon Kabat-Zinn
Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, is professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the founder and director of its renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic. His clinic was featured in 1993 in the public television series Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers. Jon Kabat-Zinn is the author of 15 books, in print in over 45 languages. These include Full Catastrophe Living; Wherever You Go, There You Are; Coming to Our Senses; and Mindfulness for Beginners.