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Mindfulness For Dummies (2000)

by Shamash Alidina(Favorite Author)

3.97 of 5 Votes: 5

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English

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review 1: This book cause a lot of reflection.I have now read a small number of books on mindfulness. From my perspective it is the current fad within therapeutic circles (Just as ACT was 5 years ago, DBT 15 years ago, and CBT 20 years ago).It speaks negatively of rumination, and positively of meditation. On the one hand it describes a mindful state as emptying you mind, whilst then saying you get your most creative and best ideas whilst being mindful. WTF!!!Anyway, as a Mental Health Clinician I think mindfulness is a very useful tool, like all the other tools it is not the only answer. Sometimes distraction is just as valid of a technique. Even the Dali Lama is his book "The Art of Happiness", said if you have tried meditating and other techniques to resolve trauma (and you h... moreave not found these effective), in the end you should just try to forget about it.The Mental states described as being mindful, are quite similar to the mental states I find myself in whilst I am exercising. Even this book states you don't have to sit there and navel gaze to be mindful. I actually enjoy the state that I describe as ruminating, just letting my thoughts flow. It is in these ruminating states I find my best ideas. I am coming to suspect that rumination and meditation are just the opposite of the same coin (like tenacity vs stubbornness). Ruminating is no more bad than meditating. Mindfulness theorist would agree, because a great aspect of mindfulness is the suspension of judgement, and allowing things just to be.I suspect that mindfulness, will join the others as another mental health clinicians tool, which is OK. No tool is going to work all the time on all life's problems. A great result is the ability to help some of the people some of the time.Then again I am by nature a skeptic who is most skeptical of whatever is popular.
review 2: I would recommend going to Chapter 7 and get the "Mini Meditation" down and then read this excellent book. I wondered, "What is Mindfulness exactly" when I found this book in the library. My sleep quality is sometimes plagued with waking and having difficulty in getting back to sleep. No more! Just doing the mini meditation which theoretically takes just 3 minutes results in me going back to sleep always before I get to the last stage. I found many gems in this very readable book. I plan on buying a copy to refer to when my non-directed thinking gets ruminative and too much in the past or the future. less

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