Jon Kabat-Zinn

Maybe this doesn't come out when reading Jon Kabat-Zinn's work. Maybe one needs to listen to his books on audio because before now I never realized Jon Kabat-Zinn is really funny. Everything he talks about in Mindfulness Meditation makes perfect sense but it's laced with humor I hadn't noticed before. The other benefit to listening to Mindfulness Meditation is being able to hear the bells he rings during the practice.

Mindfulness Meditation is all about playing attention to world around you show more in minute detail. His prime example is to focus on eating just one raisin but don't just throw it into your mouth. Really look at it. Get all five senses involved in looking at it, feeling it, smelling it, and even putting it in your ear to hear it crackle (I kid you not). Finally, when you put it in your mouth to taste it you savor it slowly, again paying attention to how it feels while you chew. Kabat-Zinn goes beyond the raisin and explains that meditation is not about emptying your mind to alleviate stress. It's all about focusing the mind to transform the way you think and deal with life. show less

I listened to this on audiobook, and I quite enjoyed it. The MBCT program it introduces is very similar to the MBSR program as outlined in Jon Kabat-Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living but with a few additions that make it specifically helpful to those who suffer from chronic or recurrent bouts of depression. These include the Three-Minute Breathing Space, the Body Door, the Thought Door, intended to help rewire our immediate reactions to unpleasant situations. I particularly like the focus on show more noticing bodily sensations and thoughts as symptoms rather than as part of who we.

I would listen to this book in the car on the way to and from the grocery store or in the kitchen while making supper and feel calm and relaxed and ready to cope with anything when I got home. And then I got home and the kids would be arguing or my spouse would wonder aloud why I spent $10 on mushrooms (it's because they were on sale and I bought a bunch of them) and I would totally lose my calm. But it was nice while it lasted.

The only thing I don't like about this book is that, like the MBSR program which I've done and found very helpful, it requires a pretty significant investment of time. Sure, it's worth it, but that doesn't make the time any easier to find or make it so I'm any less likely to fall asleep while trying to meditate. show less

I've been hearing people talking about mindfulness and seeing books about it pass through the library for years, but I never really had a good idea of what it actually is. I thought it might just be another touchy-feely trend that tells me I can choose which emotions I feel, blah blah blah, and I kind of harrumphed myself away from learning more about it.
When I was reading another book earlier this year, [b:Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change|18144153|Beyond show more Addiction How Science and Kindness Help People Change|Jeffrey Foote|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1392574958s/18144153.jpg|25491489], there was a reference to an informal meditation technique that I found very helpful in calming my mind when I was getting overwhelmed and agitated. This sparked an interest in mindfulness and meditation that eventually led to my trying out this book.
It's a book I had seen floating around for years. When I worked for Borders in Madison, Wisconsin, we stocked it by the floorstack. It's an extensive introduction to meditation practice and an outline of how meditation in its various forms can and has been used to approach health issues, both mental and physical. And the concept of mindfulness as an alternative to going through life in autopilot mode made sense to me. I don't know if I understand every nuance or am totally on board with every concept, but I was glad I read it and valued what I got out of it enough to buy a copy to keep as a reference. show less

I borrowed this book from my friend Melanie ages ago (maybe three years ago). I started it right away after I borrowed it, and while I appreciated the Kabat-Zinns' perspective, the book didn't really hold my interest. It felt like old news. I'd been through those difficult early years with my kids, and while the suggestions were good, I didn't really need them anymore. But there was enough there that I didn't want to give the book back to Melanie unread, so I put it on my TBR Challenge list show more for 2015---and actually read it.

This time the book spoke to me, probably because I started 2015 with a view toward more mindful living, which, because I have young children, is essentially the same as mindful parenting. Apparently right now is the right time for me to be reading this book.

In the months after my first child was born, I used to pick up the La Leche League staple The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, not because I needed help with breastfeeding---I'd paid the lactation consultants for that and was finally nursing nearly pain-free after six weeks---but because the tone was so supportive. I would dip in after my daughter had nursed herself to sleep but wasn't ready to latch off yet, and the words would wrap around me. I would feel, for a few minutes, like I wasn't alone.

Reading Everyday Blessings this month, I was reminded of that feeling of embrace. Myla and Jon Kabat-Zinn provide an open and honest look at the challenges and benefits of being present with our children. They don't offer anything I didn't already know, but they did offer reassurance. Here were people who had engaged in the same type of parenting to which I aspire, who tried and failed and tried again, over and over, and not only lived to tell the tale, but reaped benefits even from their imperfect parenting. This is comforting to me because, as much as I hope for perfection, there's no such thing as perfect parenting. I will always make mistakes; I will always have regrets. There will always be times when I'm confused and have no idea how to proceed, but I'll have to proceed anyway because that's my job. Everyday Blessings reminds me that this is okay. This is just another part of the process.

Even with all of these warm fuzzies, I found myself dreading the last section, Darkness and Light, about the loss and grief inherent in parenting. I wasn't sure I wanted to go there after being buoyed gently along on the rest of the book, but it turned out that this section pulled everything together well. Here is where they talked about their own fears and failures, and as much as I don't like looking at those in my own life, it was helpful to see them presented so gently. Practicing empathy for the parenting mistakes of those who share my parenting intentions helps me have more empathy for my own shortcomings. show less