Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Momentand Your Life

We may long for wholeness, suggests Jon KabatZinn, 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 playand 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 starttofinish read; or as an unfolding lesson aday primer on mindfulness practice.Beginning and advanced meditators alike will discover in these pages a valuable distillation of the key attitudes and essential practices that Jon KabatZinn 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 selfliberate when touched by awareness Moving beyond our story into direct experience Stabilizing our attention and presence amidst daily activities The three poisons that cause sufferingand their antidotes 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 youve 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 a complete CD with five guided mindfulness meditations by Jon KabatZinn, selected from the audio program that inspired this book.ContentsPart I EnteringBeginners MindThe BreathWho Is Breathing?The Hardest Work in the WorldTaking Care of This MomentMindfulness Is AwarenessDoing Mode and Being ModeA Grounding in ScienceMindfulness is UniversalWakefulnessStabilizing and Calibrating Your InstrumentInhabiting Awareness Is the Essence of PracticeThe Beauty of DisciplineAdjusting Your Default SettingAwareness: Our Only Capacity Robust Enough to Balance ThinkingAttention and Awareness Are Trainable SkillsNothing Wrong with ThinkingBefriending Our ThinkingImages of Your Mind That Might Be UsefulNot Taking Our Thoughts PersonallySelfingOur Love Affair with Personal PronounsEspecially I, Me, and MineAwareness Is a Big ContainerThe Objects of Attention Are Not as Important as the Attending ItselfPart II: SustainingMindfulnessBased Stress ReductionA WorldWide PhenomenonAn Affectionate AttentionMindfulness Brought to All the SensesProprioception and InteroceptionThe Unity of AwarenessThe Knowing Is AwarenessLife Itself Becomes the Meditation PracticeYou Already BelongRight Beneath Our NosesMindfulness is Not Merely a Good IdeaTo Come Back in TouchWho Am I? Questioning Our Own NarrativeYou Are More Than Any NarrativeYou Are Never Not WholePaying Attention in a Different WayNot KnowingThe Prepared MindWhat Is Yours to See?Part III: DeepeningNo Place to Go, Nothing to DoThe Doing That Comes Out of BeingTo Act AppropriatelyIf You Are Aware of What Is Happening, You Are Doing It RightNonJudging Is an Act of Intelligence and KindnessYou Can Only Be YourselfThank Goodness!Embodied KnowingFeeling Joy for OthersThe Full CatastropheIs My Awareness of Suffering Suffering?What Does Liberation from Suffering Mean?Hell RealmsLiberation Is in the Practice ItselfThe Beauty of the Mind That Knows ItselfTaking Care of Your Meditation PracticeEnergy Conservation in Meditation PracticeAn Attitude of NonHarmingGreed: The Cascade of DissatisfactionsAversion: The Flip Side of GreedDelusion and the Trap of SelfFulfilling PropheciesNow Is Always the Right TimeThe Curriculum is Just ThisGiving Your Life Back to YourselfBringing Mindfulness Further Into the WorldPart IV: RipeningThe Attitudinal Foundations of Mindfulness PracticeNonJudgingPatienceBeginners MindTrustNonStrivingAcceptanceLetting GoPart V: PracticingGetting Started with Formal PracticeMindfulness of EatingMindfulness of BreathingMindfulness of the Body as a WholeMindfulness of Sounds, Thoughts, and EmotionsMindfulness as Pure Awareness