31 Best Books on Mindfulness

The Leader’s Guide to Mindfulness is a practical guide to help you lead your organization more effectively using proven mindfulness strategies and tools to unlock top performance and results.

Stress is an inevitable part of day-to-day work. From the sheer volume of work, to complex decisions, and working with others, leaders and employees are not able to work as effectively.

The Leader’s Guide to Mindfulness is a highly practical guide to help you focus your attention on the present so you and your organization can perform more effectively.  With an emphasis on the “why” and the “how” of mindfulness, you’ll discover how to reap the performance benefits and learn how to use mindfulness to become an emotionally agile leader.

Through a combination of ground rules, practical exercises, case studies, and no-nonsense advice, you’ll discover how mindfulness can help you and your organization to:

• Improve wellbeing and resilience
• Improve relationships
• Improve collaboration
• Improve creativity and innovation
• Improve decision making and problem-solving

Leverage mindful awareness and intention to achieve better outcomes.

Overworked and Overwhelmed: The Mindfulness Alternative offers practical insights for the executive, manager, or professional who feels like their RPM is maxed out in the red zone. By making the concepts and practices of mindfulness simple, practical and applicable, this book offers actionable hope for today’s overworked and overwhelmed professional.

New research shows that the smartphone-equipped professional is connected to work 72 hours a week. Forty-eight percent of Americans report that their stress level is up and that the number one source of stress is the job pressure of a 24/7 world.

What’s the alternative? Top leadership coach and educator Scott Eblin offers one in Overworked and Overwhelmed: The Mindfulness Alternative. While mindfulness is one of the “Top Ten Trends for 2014 and Beyond,” many professionals think it’s just too hard to give it a try. In this book, Eblin shows that mindfulness that makes a difference doesn’t require meditating like a Buddhist monk.

Overworked and Overwhelmed is a handbook for more mindful work and living that offers:

• “Must know” mindfulness basics that today’s professional needs to thrive in a 24/7 world.
• Inspiring examples of mindfulness in action from dozens of leaders ranging from a U.S. Coast Guard Commandant to the CEO of Hilton Worldwide.
• A self-assessment for readers to understand how they perform at their best.
• Simple routines to reduce stress and sustain peak performance.
• A personal planning framework for creating the outcomes that matter most at home, at work, and in the community.

Even small increases in mindfulness can lead to big changes in productivity and quality of life for the overworked and overwhelmed professional. Overworked and Overwhelmed: The Mindfulness Alternative is a guide for doing just that.

Jon Kabat-Zinn changed the way we thought about awareness in everyday life with his now-classic introduction to mindfulness, Wherever You Go, There You Are. Now, with Coming to Our Senses, he provides the definitive book for our time on the connection between mindfulness and our physical and spiritual wellbeing. With scientific rigor, poetic deftness, and compelling personal stories, Jon Kabat-Zinn examines the mysteries and marvels of our minds and bodies, describing simple, intuitive ways in which we can come to a deeper understanding, through our senses, of our beauty, our genius, and our life path in a complicated, fear-driven, and rapidly changing world.

In each of the book’s eight parts, Jon Kabat-Zinn explores another facet of the great adventure of healing ourselves — and our world — through mindful awareness, with a focus on the “sensescapes” of our lives and how a more intentional awareness of the senses, including the human mind itself, allows us to live more fully and more authentically. By “coming to our senses” — both literally and metaphorically by opening to our innate connectedness with the world around us and within us — we can become more compassionate, more embodied, more aware human beings, and in the process, contribute to the healing of the body politic as well as our own lives in ways both little and big.

Quotes from Coming to Our Senses;

“Meditation is a way of being, not a technique.”

“[Meditation] is about allowing yourself to be exactly where you are and as you are, and for the world to be exactly as it is in this moment as well.”

“For any of us, perhaps our greatest potential regret may be that of not seizing the moment and honoring it for what it is when it is here, especially in regard to our relationships with people and with nature.”

“It is life itself that becomes the teacher and the curriculum.”

“Just by meditating, by sitting down and being still, you can change yourself and the world.”

“The knowing of things as they are is called wisdom.”

“Awareness itself is the teacher, the student and the lesson.”

Researchers have found that the accelerated pace of modern office life is taking its toll on productivity, employee engagement, creativity, and well-being. Faced with a relentless flood of information and distractions, our brains try to process everything at once increasing our stress, decreasing our effectiveness, and negatively impacting our performance. Ironically, we have become too overworked, unfocused, and busy to stop and ask ourselves the most important question: What can we do to break the cycle of being constantly under pressure, always-on, overloaded with information, and in environments filled with distractions? Do we need to accept this as the new workplace reality and continue to survive rather than thrive in modern-day work environments? Thankfully, the answer is no.

In their new book, ONE SECOND AHEAD: Enhance Your Performance at Work with Mindfulness (Palgrave Macmillan; November 2015), Rasmus Hougaard, Jacqueline Carter, and Gillian Coutts demonstrate that it is possible to train the brain to respond differently to today’s constant pressures and distraction. All it takes is one second. They propose that we need to learn to work differently so we are more focused, calm, and have less clutter in our minds so we can better manage our time and attention. What if we could hit the ‘pause’ button on our day, step back, and meet challenges with a sense of clarity and purpose? And what if there was a way not just of ‘getting things done,’ but ensuring that what does get done are the right things to do?

Based on a program in corporate mindfulness designed by Hougaard and the partners of The Potential Project, One Second Ahead provides practical tools and techniques as well as real-world examples and lessons from organizations that have implemented mindfulness on a large scale. Thoroughly tested in a diverse range of industries, this program has resulted in measurable increases in productivity, effectiveness, and job satisfaction. With the new mindset proposed in One Second Ahead, readers will be able to put an end to ineffective multitasking, unproductive meetings, poor communication, and other unhealthy workplace behaviors by applying mindfulness to everyday work life. All too often, we think that being mindful requires engaging in a special activity like meditation or yoga. Sure, these activities are beneficial and important to train the mind, but there are many simple things we can do to be mindful all day long.

One Second Ahead is a handbook for more mindful work that offers: Practical, easy apply, tools and techniques to enhance performance and effectiveness in day to day work activities such as meetings, emails, communication, planning, creativity, and more Real-world stories of how mindfulness changed the workdays of leaders and front line employees Tips for cultivating mental strategies and routines that can reduce clutter, increase focus, and rewire your brain to enhance presence, patience, kindness and other valuable mind states Simple yet detailed step-by-step instructions for a more systematic approach to mindfulness training to enhance focus and awareness Guidelines for a 10-minute-per-day mindfulness program that can reshape your life both at work and at home; A reproducible planning worksheet and further resources in the Appendix. One Second Ahead can transform daily work life by helping individuals and teams realize more of their potential through greater focus and awareness. The tools and techniques in this book can transform individual and organizational performance one mind at a time.

Quotes from One Second Ahead;

“If you’re checking and responding to emails all day, you’re not fully focused on your work, on your emails or on anything else.”

“There are things we can do to better manage the challenges of today’s work life to stay one second ahead of the demands and responsibilities of our information-laden existence.”

“Getting one second ahead of your automatic reactions…allows you to see potential where before you saw limitations.”

“When you’re observing your thoughts, who is it that’s doing the observation? If you’re not your thoughts, then who exactly are you?”

“Focusing on what you choose depends on recognizing that the overwhelming majority of distractions are irrelevant and can be set aside in the moment.”

“Mindfulness is not just a theory. Mindfulness is training. And as with any training, you won’t achieve results without effort.”

When Wherever You Go, There You Are was first published in 1994, no one could have predicted that the book would launch itself onto bestseller lists nationwide and sell over 750,000 copies to date. Ten years later, the book continues to change lives. In honor of the book’s 10th anniversary, Hyperion is proud to be releasing the book with a new afterword by the author and to share this wonderful book with an even larger audience.

Quotes from Whereever You Go;

“Mindfulness is an ancient Buddhist practice which has profound relevance for our present-day lives.”

“The best way to capture moments is to pay attention…Mindfulness means being awake.”

“Meditation does not involve trying to change your thinking by thinking some more. It involves watching thought itself.”

“‘What is my job on the planet?’ is one question we might do well to ask ourselves over and over again.”

“Trust is a feeling of confidence or conviction that things can unfold within a dependable framework that embodies order and integrity.”

“Part of our mind is constantly evaluating our experiences, comparing them with other experiences or holding them up against expectations and standards that we create, often out of fear.”

“Thinking you are unable to meditate is a little like thinking you are unable to breathe, or to concentrate or relax.”

A ridiculously easy, breakthrough approach to practicing mindfulness.

If you suffer from anxiety and experience racing, panicky thoughts, you need help right away. You’ve probably heard about mindfulness, and how effective it can be in easing anxiety and worry—but how do you do it, exactly?

In this go-to guide, psychologist Scott Symington presents a practical, breakthrough approach called the two-screen method to help when painful thoughts feel overwhelming. Using this simplified mindfulness approach, you’ll learn to accept and redirect your thoughts and focus on your values. By using the two-screen method outlined in this book, as well as the three anchors—mindfulness skills, healthy distractions, and loving action—you’ll learn to relate to your thoughts and feelings in a whole new way. And when threats, fears, insecurities, and potentially destructive thoughts and feelings show up, you’ll have a game plan for dealing with these difficult emotions so you can get back to living your life.

If you have anxiety, being present with your negative thoughts is probably the last thing you want to do. That’s why the two-screen method in this book is so helpful—it offers a way to diffuse from your anxious thoughts while still focusing on the things that really matter to you.

Quotes from Freedom From Anxious Thoughts;

“You are not the worry. You are not the anxious feeling. These are experiences showing up inside you, but they don’t speak to who you are, what you believe or what you decide to do in life.”

“When you have a reliable way of bringing your mind into the here and now, you also have a way to exit worry loops and gain healthy space from destructive moods.”

“The more we try to seek emotional safety or change the way we’re feeling or get rid of threatening thoughts, the more we energize the unwanted thoughts and feelings.”

“The more you try to avoid or resist an anxious feeling, the stronger it becomes.”

“When you’re feeling good and free of worries, you don’t need to give much thought to how you relate to your internal world.”

“Inside us all, whether conscious or unconscious, is a burning desire to burst out onto life’s stage, proclaiming, ‘Here I am!’ It’s the human person fully alive.” 

“When you say to yourself, ‘Today is a good day,’ it’s a sign you’ve been connected to the front screen.”

Are you looking for a better life―one filled with true contentment and joy? Everyone wants to be happy, but somewhere along the way, we fall into “traps” that prevent us from reaching our potential, our goals, and the lives we want. Sure to be a classic in the self-help genre, Practicing Happiness utilizes a cutting-edge transdiagnostic approach at the forefront of contemporary behavioral therapy to help you break free from these psychological traps, once and for all.

In this important and groundbreaking workbook, internationally-recognized mindfulness expert Ruth Baer discusses the four most common psychological traps that people get stuck in rumination, avoidance, emotion-driven behavior, and self-criticism. To help you get past these traps, Baer provides powerful, proven-effective mindfulness strategies, exercises, and worksheets to guide you, step-by-step, to the life that you deserve.

Chapter by chapter, you will learn how to apply these mindfulness skills in everyday situations. And with practice, you’ll find yourself taking control of your thoughts and feelings in a new way. Instead of falling back on familiar habits, such as self-criticism, you will learn to foster an attitude of kindness and curiosity toward both yourself and the world around you.

By following the exercises and tips outlined in this clear, helpful guide, you will learn to truly transform your mind―and your life!

Quotes from The Practicing Happiness;

“Mindfulness is a distinctly different kind of awareness. It’s nonjudgmental and compassionate, even when the present moment is stressful and difficult.”

“Mindful observation helps you see what’s actually happening in the moment. [Observing] mindfully will help you make wiser decisions about what to do.”

“Mindful acceptance does not mean saying, ‘I guess I just have to accept this’ and resigning yourself to hopelessness and passivity. It’s not weak or spineless, and it doesn’t mean you don’t care.”

“Mindful observation of emotional experiences helps us recognize their components, including bodily sensations, thoughts and urges.”

“Acceptance of unpleasant feelings means observing them without judgment and allowing them to take their natural course, rather than trying to change or get rid of them.”

“Compare thoughts and feelings to waves in the ocean. Depending on weather conditions, the waves vary in size and strength, but they’re always present.”

From a world-respected neuroscientist, an eye-opening study of why we react to pressure in the way we do and how to be energized rather than defeated by stress.

Why is it that some people shine brilliantly at public speaking while others stumble with their words and seem on the verge of an anxiety attack even speaking up in a department meeting? Why do some of us sink into all-consuming depression when life has dealt us a poor hand, while in others it increases their resilience?

The difference between experiencing too much pressure and too little can result in either debilitating stress or lack of motivation in extreme situations. However, the right level of challenge and stress can help people flourish and achieve more than they ever thought possible. In The Stress Test, a clinical psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist Ian Robertson, armed with over four decades of research, reveals how we can control our brain’s response to pressure and turn stress into a good thing. The Stress Test is a revelatory study of how and why we react to pressure as we do, and how we can change our response to stress to our benefit.

The landmark work on mindfulness, meditation, and healing, now revised and updated after twenty-five years.
 
Stress. It can sap our energy, undermine our health if we let it, even shorten our lives. It makes us more vulnerable to anxiety and depression, disconnection, and disease. Based on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s renowned mindfulness-based stress reduction program, this classic, groundbreaking work—which gave rise to a whole new field in medicine and psychology—shows you how to use medically proven mind-body approaches derived from meditation and yoga to counteract stress, establish greater balance of body and mind, and stimulate well-being and healing. By engaging in these mindfulness practices and integrating them into your life from moment to moment and from day to day, you can learn to manage chronic pain, promote optimal healing, reduce anxiety and feelings of panic, and improve the overall quality of your life, relationships, and social networks. This second edition features results from recent studies on the science of mindfulness, a new Introduction, up-to-date statistics, and an extensive updated reading list. Full Catastrophe Living is a book for the young and the old, the well and the ill, and anyone trying to live a healthier and saner life in our fast-paced world.

Quotes from Full Catastrophe Living;

“Mindfulness is “the awareness that arises by paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”

“Knowing what you are doing while you are doing it is the essence of mindfulness practice.”

“Before we convince ourselves that our bodies are too this or too that, shouldn’t we get more in touch with how wonderful it is to have a body in the first place?”

“Acceptance…simply means that, sooner or later, you have come around to a willingness to see things as they are.”

“It is not that mindfulness is the ‘answer’ to all life’s problems. Rather, it is that all life’s problems can be seen more clearly through the lens of a clear mind.”

“You have to accept yourself as you are before you can really change.”

“Unawareness can cause us to miss much of what is most beautiful and meaningful in our lives – and, as a consequence, be significantly less happy than we might be otherwise.”

The author of Human, Michael S. Gazzaniga has been called the “father of cognitive neuroscience.” In his remarkable book, Who’s in Charge?, he makes a powerful and provocative argument that counters the common wisdom that our lives are wholly determined by physical processes we cannot control. His well-reasoned case against the idea that we live in a “determined” world is fascinating and liberating, solidifying his place among the likes of Oliver Sacks, Antonio Damasio, V.S. Ramachandran, and other bestselling science authors exploring the mysteries of the human brain.

Have you ever wished you could reprogram your brain, just as a hacker would a computer? In this 3-step guide to improving your mental habits—using plenty of clear “computer-related terms should resonate with tech-savvy readers, including those resistant to typical self-help fare” (Publishers Weekly)— learn to take charge of your mind and banish negative thoughts, habits, and anxiety—in just twenty-one days!

A seasoned author, comedian, and entrepreneur, Sir John Hargrave once suffered from unhealthy addictions, anxiety, and poor mental health. After cracking the code to unlocking his mind’s full and balanced potential, his entire life changed for the better. In Mind Hacking, Hargrave reveals the formula that allowed him to overcome negativity and eliminate mental problems at their core.

Through a 21-day, 3-step training program, this book lays out a simple yet comprehensive approach to help you rewire your brain and achieve healthier thought patterns for a better quality of life. It hinges on the repetitive steps of analyzing, imagining, and reprogramming to help break down barriers preventing you from reaching your highest potential.

By treating your brain as a computer and mastering Hargrave’s mind hacking formula, you, too, can create a positive, permanent shift in your thinking, leading to personal and professional triumphs in all areas of life.

A modern classic about how people really make decisions: drawing on prior experience, using a combination of intuition and analysis.

Since its publication twenty years ago, Sources of Power has been enormously influential. The book has sold more than 50,000 copies, has been translated into six languages, has been cited in professional journals that range from Journal of Marketing Research to Journal of Nursing, and is mentioned by Malcolm Gladwell in Blink. Author Gary Klein has collaborated with Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and served on a team that redesigned the White House Situation Room to support more effective decision making. The model of decision-making. Klein proposes in the book has been adopted in fields including law enforcement training and petrochemical plant operation. What is the groundbreaking new way to approach decision-making described in this modern classic?

We have all seen images of firefighters rescuing people from burning buildings and paramedics treating bombing victims. How do these individuals make the split-second decisions that save lives? Most studies of decision-making, based on artificial tasks assigned in laboratory settings, view people as biased and unskilled. Klein proposes a naturalistic approach to decision making, which views people as gaining experience that enables them to use a combination of intuition and analysis to make decisions. To illustrate this approach, Klein tells stories of people—from pilots to chess masters—acting under such real-life constraints as time pressure, high stakes, personal responsibility, and shifting conditions.

Bestselling author Steven Pinker possesses that rare combination of scientific aptitude and verbal eloquence that enables him to provide lucid explanations of deep and powerful ideas. His previous books – including the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Blank Slate – have catapulted him into the limelight as one of today’s most important popular science writers. In The Stuff of Thought, Pinker presents a fascinating look at how our words explain our nature. Considering scientific questions with examples from everyday life, The Stuff of Thought is a brilliantly crafted and highly readable work that will appeal to fans of everything from The Selfish Gene and Blink to Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

Meticulously outlining an arsenal of cutting-edge tools and strategies tied to predicting performance and a “passion for excellence,” David Snyder has developed what may be a paradigm shift in our understanding of the way high-performing individuals can be identified, selected, and professionally coached. Drawing on Snyder’s interviews with a team of performance and hiring experts nationwide, How to Hire a Champion will help all leaders to build: — A better model and process for selecting and retaining high-performing individuals. — Stronger teams and a customer-centered, results-driven culture. — A self-directed “culture of greatness” where top performers and top managers in all departments help and inspire each other.

A researcher and consultant burrow deep inside the heads of one modern two-career couple to examine how each partner processes the workday—revealing how a more nuanced understanding of the brain can allow us to better organize, prioritize, recall, and sort our daily lives.

Emily and Paul are the parents of two young children and professionals with different careers. Emily is the newly promoted vice president of marketing at a large corporation; Paul works from home or from clients’ offices as an independent IT consultant. Their days are filled with a bewildering blizzard of emails, phone calls, more emails, meetings, projects, proposals, and plans. Just staying ahead of the storm has become a seemingly insurmountable task.

In Your Brain at Work, Dr. David Rock goes inside Emily and Paul’s brains to see how they function as each attempt to sort, prioritize, organize, and act on the vast quantities of information they receive in one typical day. Dr. Rock is an expert on how the brain functions in a work setting. By analyzing what is going on in their heads, he offers solutions Emily and Paul (and all of us) can use to survive and thrive in today’s hyper-busy work environment—and still feel energized and accomplished at the end of the day.

In Your Brain at Work, Dr. Rock explores issues such as:

• why our brains feel so taxed, and how to maximize our mental resources
• why it’s so hard to focus, and how to better manage distractions
• how to maximize the chance of finding insights to solve seemingly insurmountable problems
• how to keep your cool in any situation, so that you can make the best decisions possible
• how to collaborate more effectively with others
• why providing feedback is so difficult, and how to make it easier
• how to be more effective at changing other people’s behavior
• and much more

Aware provides practical instruction for mastering the Wheel of Awareness, a life-changing tool for cultivating more focus, presence, and peace in one’s day-to-day life.

An in-depth look at the science that underlies meditation’s effectiveness, this book teaches readers how to harness the power of the principle “Where attention goes, neural firing flows, and neural connection grows.” Siegel reveals how developing a Wheel of Awareness practice to focus attention, open awareness, and cultivate kind intention can literally help you grow a healthier brain and reduce fear, anxiety, and stress in your life.

Whether you have no experience with a reflective practice or are an experienced practitioner, Aware is a hands-on guide that will enable you to become more focused and present, as well as more energized and emotionally resilient in the face of stress and everyday challenges life throws your way.

What is your emotional fingerprint?

Why are some people so quick to recover from setbacks? Why are some so attuned to others that they seem psychic? Why are some people always up and others always down? In his thirty-year quest to answer these questions, pioneering neuroscientist Richard J. Davidson discovered that each of us has an Emotional Style, composed of Resilience, Outlook, Social Intuition, Self-Awareness, Sensitivity to Context, and Attention. Where we fall on these six continuums determines our own “emotional fingerprint.”

Sharing Dr. Davidson’s fascinating case histories and experiments, The Emotional Life of Your Brain offers a new model for treating conditions like autism and depression as it empowers us all to better understand ourselves—and live more meaningful lives.

Based on Dr. Borysenko’s groundbreaking work nearly thirty years ago at the Mind/Body clinic in Boston, Minding the Body, Mending the Mind continues to be a classic in the field, with time-tested tips on how to take control of your own physical and emotional well-being. The clinic’s dramatic success with thousands of patients — with conditions ranging from allergies to cancer — offers vivid proof of the effectiveness of the mind/body approach to health and its power to transform your life. With tips on how to elicit the mind’s powerful relaxation response to boost your immune system, cope with chronic pain, and alleviate symptoms of a host of stress-related illnesses, this book is a must-have for anyone interested in taking an active role in their own healing.

“Compelling, and so beautifully written…’ The Mind Club’ deftly brings the most up-to-date research about other minds to readers of all backgrounds. It may cause you to think differently about crime and punishment, about business transactions and health care, and even about the upcoming elections. Things might just start looking up.”–The Wall Street Journal

From dogs to gods, the science of understanding mysterious minds—including your own.   

Nothing seems more real than the minds of other people. When you consider what your boss is thinking or whether your spouse is happy, you are admitting them into the “mind club.” It’s easy to assume other humans can think and feel, but what about a cow, a computer, a corporation? What kinds of minds do they have? Daniel M. Wegner and Kurt Gray are award-winning psychologists who have discovered that minds—while incredibly important—are a matter of perception. Their research opens a trove of new findings, with insights into human behavior that are fascinating, frightening, and funny.
       The Mind Club explains why we love some animals and eat others, why people debate the existence of God so intensely, how good people can be so cruel, and why robots make such poor lovers.  By investigating the mind perception of extraordinary targets—animals, machines, comatose people, god—Wegner and Gray explain what it means to have a mind, and why it matters so much.
         Fusing cutting-edge research and personal anecdotes, The Mind Club explores the moral dimensions of mind perception with wit and compassion, revealing the surprisingly simple basis for what compels us to love and hate, to harm and to protect.

“Our employees are our greatest asset”-it’s a cliché company feel obliged to spout. Some may even believe it. But as with eating healthy food and getting exercise, lip-service doesn’t make goals come true. In this groundbreaking book, The Talent Mandate, Andrew Benett explores how truly “talent-centric” organizations thrive in today’s changing economy. Based on original research and in-depth interviews with outstanding leaders of talent-driven organizations such as Zappos, DreamWorks Animation SKG, Nestle, Dow Chemical, The Motley Fool, AnswerLab, and more, Benett uncovers emerging trends and benchmarks and shows why it is so important to invest in and develop tomorrow’s talent. Readers will come away with a clear lesson: Talent is no longer something to be palmed off down the chain of command. It must be the top business priority of the most senior people in the company including the CEO.

The Element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the Element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in the Element and those that stifle that possibility. Drawing on the stories of a wide range of people, including Paul McCartney, Matt Groening, Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, and Bart Conner, he shows that age and occupation are no barrier and that this is the essential strategy for transform­ing education, business, and communities in the twenty-first century.

A breakthrough book about talent, passion, and achievement from one of the world’s leading thinkers on creativity and self-fulfillment.

In this Pulitzer Prize finalist and national bestseller, one of the world’s leading cognitive scientists tackles the workings of the human mind. What makes us rational―and why are we so often irrational? How do we see in three dimensions? What makes us happy, afraid, angry, disgusted, or sexually aroused? Why do we fall in love? And how do we grapple with the imponderables of morality, religion, and consciousness? How the Mind Works synthesizes the most satisfying explanations of our mental life from cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and other fields to explain what the mind is, how it evolved, and how it allows us to see, think, feel, laugh, interact, enjoy the arts, and contemplate the mysteries of life.

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 offer 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 a 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 five guided mindfulness meditations by Jon Kabat-Zinn, selected from the audio program that inspired this book.

It’s no wonder that The Power of Now has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 30 foreign languages. Much more than simple principles and platitudes, the book takes readers on an inspiring spiritual journey to find their true and deepest self and reach the ultimate in personal growth and spirituality: the discovery of truth and light.

In the first chapter, Tolle introduces readers to enlightenment and its natural enemy, the mind. He awakens readers to their role as a creator of pain and shows them how to have a pain-free identity by living fully in the present. The journey is thrilling, and along the way, the author shows how to connect to the indestructible essence of our Being, “the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.”

Featuring a new preface by the author, this paperback shows that only after regaining awareness of Being, liberated from Mind and intensely in the Now, is there Enlightenment.

Quotes from The Power of Now;

“You can improve your life situation, but you cannot improve your life…It is already whole, complete, perfect.”

“The more you are able to honor and accept the Now, the more you are free of pain, of suffering – and free of the egoic mind.”

“The art of inner-body awareness will develop into a completely new way of living, a state of permanent connectedness with Being, and will add a depth to your life that you have never known before.”

“Enlightenment is not only the end of suffering and of continual conflict within and without, but also the end of the dreadful enslavement to incessant thinking.”

“Many people live with a tormentor in their head that continually attacks and punishes them and drains them of vital energy.”

“When you are present, when your attention is fully and intensely in the Now, Being can be felt, but it can never be understood mentally.”

“In compassion, the seemingly opposite feelings of sadness and joy merge into one and become transmuted into a deep inner peace.”

In this beautiful and lucid guide, Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh offers gentle anecdotes and practical exercise as a means of learning the skills of mindfulness–being awake and fully aware. From washing the dishes to answering the phone to peeling an orange, he reminds us that each moment holds within it an opportunity to work toward greater self-understanding and peacefulness.

The mind contains the seeds of its own awakening―seeds that we can cultivate to bring forth the fruits of a life lived consciously. With Mindfulness, Joseph Goldstein shares the wisdom of his four decades of teaching and practice in a book that will serve as a lifelong companion for anyone committed to mindful living and the realization of inner freedom. Goldstein’s source teaching is the Satipa? Hana Sutta, the Buddha’s legendary discourse on the four foundations of mindfulness that became the basis for the many types of Vipassana (or insight meditation) found today. Exquisite in detail yet wholly accessible and relevant for the modern student, Mindfulness takes us through a profound study of:

• Mindfulness of body, including the breath, postures, activities, and physical characteristics
• Mindfulness of feelings―how the experience of our sense perceptions influences our inner and outer worlds
• Mindfulness of mind―learning to recognize skillful and unskillful states of mind and thought
• Mindfulness of dhammas (or categories of experience), including the Five Hindrances, the Six Sense Spheres, and the Seven Factors of Awakening

“There is a wealth of meaning and nuance in the experience of mindfulness that can enrich our lives in unimagined ways,” writes Goldstein. In Mindfulness you have the tools to mine these riches for yourself.

The Little Book of Mindfulness is a pocket-sized guide to help you calm your mind and lighten your spirit. Mindfulness techniques will help you focus on the present, changing the way you think, feel and act by releasing your mind of all that is around you. As a result, you will de-stress and de-clutter your thoughts. This invaluable book is a collection of inspirational quotes, key research findings, tips for how to get the most out of the practice, and a variety of short activities. It can be opened on any page to help you center and balance your mind in a few quick and easy steps.

I wrote a memoir about a fidgety, skeptical newsman who reluctantly becomes a meditator to deal with his issues – and in the process of publishing it, I occasionally, to my embarrassment, found myself failing to practice what I preach. I was kind of like a dog that soils the rug, and the universe kept shoving my face into it.

In 2014, Dan Harris published his memoir 10% Happier. The book—which describes his reluctant embrace of meditation after a drug problem, an on-air freak-out, and an unplanned “spiritual” journey—became an instant bestseller, and Dan, to his own surprise, became a public evangelist for mindfulness. Hoist on My Own Petard is the story of what happens to Dan Harris after the runaway success of his memoir and the lessons he had to (re)learn in the process.

Mindfulness in Plain English was first published in 1994, is one of the bestselling — and most influential — books in the field of mindfulness. It’s easy to see why.

Author Bhante Gunaratana, a renowned meditation master, takes us to step by step through the myths, realities, and benefits of meditation and the practice of mindfulness. The book showcases Bhante’s trademark clarity and wit as he explores the tool of meditation, what it does, and how to make it work.
 
This book is:

• A best-selling introduction to mindfulness
• Full of practical advice on developing a meditation practice
• Written in approachable, clear language
• Containing chapters on loving-kindness and concentration

The reader can gain a deeper understanding, inner peace, and clarity through meditation practice with the thoughtful guidance of this classic book. Written for those without any meditation background, but also an essential handbook for established students, Mindfulness in Plain English is a must-have for anyone exploring the benefits of Buddhist meditation.

This expanded edition includes the complete text of its predecessor along with a new chapter on cultivating loving kindness, an especially important topic in today’s world. For anyone who is new to meditation, this is a great resource for learning how to live a more productive and peaceful life.

With Search Inside Yourself, Chade-Meng Tan, one of Google’s earliest engineers and personal growth pioneers, offers a proven method for enhancing mindfulness and emotional intelligence in life and work.

Meng’s job is to teach Google’s best and brightest how to apply mindfulness techniques in the office and beyond; now, readers everywhere can get insider access to one of the most sought after classes in the country, a course in health, happiness, and creativity that is improving the livelihood and productivity of those responsible for one of the most successful businesses in the world.

With forewords by Daniel Goleman, author of the international bestseller Emotional Intelligence, and Jon Kabat-Zinn, renowned mindfulness expert and author of Coming To Our Senses, Meng’s Search Inside Yourself is an invaluable guide to achieving your own best potential.

From Sharon Salzberg, a pioneer in the field of meditation and world-renowned teacher acclaimed for her down-to-earth style, Real Happiness is a complete guide to starting and maintaining a meditation practice. Beginning with the simplest breathing and sitting techniques, and based on three key skills—concentration, mindfulness, and lovingkindness—it’s a practice anyone can do and that can transform our lives by bringing us greater resiliency, creativity, peace, clarity, and balance.

This updated 10th-anniversary edition includes exercises, journal prompts, and ten guided meditations available for download online and through scannable QR codes.