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 advanced 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 The three poisons that cause suffering-and 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 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 a complete CD with five guided mindfulness meditations by Jon Kabat-Zinn, selected from the audio program that inspired this book. Contents Part I Entering Beginner's Mind The Breath Who Is Breathing? The Hardest Work in the World Taking Care of This Moment Mindfulness Is Awareness Doing Mode and Being Mode A Grounding in Science Mindfulness is Universal Wakefulness Stabilizing and Calibrating Your Instrument Inhabiting Awareness Is the Essence of Practice The Beauty of Discipline Adjusting Your Default Setting Awareness: Our Only Capacity Robust Enough to Balance Thinking Attention and Awareness Are Trainable Skills Nothing Wrong with Thinking Befriending Our Thinking Images of Your Mind That Might Be Useful Not Taking Our Thoughts Personally Selfing Our Love Affair with Personal Pronouns-Especially I, Me, and Mine Awareness Is a Big Container The Objects of Attention Are Not as Important as the Attending Itself Part II: Sustaining Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction A World-Wide Phenomenon An Affectionate Attention Mindfulness Brought to All the Senses Proprioception and Interoception The Unity of Awareness The Knowing Is Awareness Life Itself Becomes the Meditation Practice You Already Belong Right Beneath Our Noses Mindfulness is Not Merely a Good Idea To Come Back in Touch Who Am I? Questioning Our Own Narrative You Are More Than Any Narrative You Are Never Not Whole Paying Attention in a Different Way Not Knowing The Prepared Mind What Is Yours to See? Part III: Deepening No Place to Go, Nothing to Do The Doing That Comes Out of Being To Act Appropriately If You Are Aware of What Is Happening, You Are Doing It Right Non-Judging Is an Act of Intelligence and Kindness You Can Only Be Yourself-Thank Goodness! Embodied Knowing Feeling Joy for Others The Full Catastrophe Is My Awareness of Suffering Suffering? What Does Liberation from Suffering Mean? Hell Realms Liberation Is in the Practice Itself The Beauty of the Mind That Knows Itself Taking Care of Your Meditation Practice Energy Conservation in Meditation Practice An Attitude of Non-Harming Greed: The Cascade of Dissatisfactions Aversion: The Flip Side of Greed Delusion and the Trap of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies Now Is Always the Right Time The "Curriculum" is "Just This" Giving Your Life Back to Yourself Bringing Mindfulness Further Into the World Part IV: Ripening The Attitudinal Foundations of Mindfulness Practice Non-Judging Patience Beginner's Mind Trust Non-Striving Acceptance Letting Go Part V: Practicing Getting Started with Formal Practice Mindfulness of Eating Mindfulness of Breathing Mindfulness of the Body as a Whole Mindfulness of Sounds, Thoughts, and Emotions Mindfulness as Pure Awareness