I am pleased to announce the publication of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Mindfulness, a book I co-authored with Carolyn Flynn.
You don’t have to be a Buddhist to practice mindfulness or benefit from it, and you don’t have to have a regular meditation practice to start bringing mindfulness into your life. Although meditation practice cultivates mindfulness in a way nothing else can, even non-meditators can learn to pay attention to the present moment.Â
The book gives basic instructions for sitting and walking meditation, for lovingkindness (metta) practice, and for working with the breath in a mindful way. We also suggest ways to bring mindfulness into your daily life, no matter what you’re doing or what you’re feeling. It isn’t necessary to be calm and still and quiet to practice mindfulness. In fact, it’s during times of stress or busyness that mindfulness can benefit us the most, and can teach us some pretty interesting things about our minds and the way we make sense of our experience.
It is my hope that readers of this book find it a useful introduction to mindfulness, and that the suggestions it offers for bringing mindfulness into daily life are helpful and beneficial.