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 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 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 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 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.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of the widely praised Wherever You Go, There You Are shows how the power of mindfulness can bring profound changes to your personal life. As stress continues to exact a toll on everyday life, we are increasingly turning to ancient, meditative methods, which have been tested by science, to reduce stress and become more focused and healthy in our everyday lives. Jon Kabat-Zinn has been for decades at the forefront of the mind/body movement and the subsequent revolution in medicine and health care, both demystifying it and bringing it into the mainstream. In Coming To Our Senses, he shares his belief that every human has the capacity to mobilize deep, innate resources for continual learning, growing, healing and transformation through mindfulness. Woven into eight parts, Coming To Our Senses: Uses anecdotes and stories from Kabat-Zinn's own life experiences and work to illustrate the realm of healing possibilities. Offers a remarkable insight into how to use the five senses - touch, hearing, sight, taste, and smell - as a path to a healthier, saner, and more meaningful life.

Introduction: a confluence of streams and a flowering of possibilities -- Session 1. Meditation-based clinical interventions : science, practice, and implementation. How Buddhist meditative practices can inform our understanding of pain and suffering, the potential for healing, the relief of suffering, and the underlying nature of the human mind and body / Ajahn Amaro. Some clinical applications of mindfulness meditation in medicine and psychiatry : the case of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) / Jon Kabat-Zinn. Mind-brain-body interaction and meditation / Richard J. Davidson. Session 1 dialogue -- Session 2. Possible biological substrates of meditation. Synchronization of brain rhythms as a possible mechanism for the unification of distributed mental processes / Wolf Singer. The neurobiology of the adaptive and deleterious features of stress / Robert Sapolsky. Session 2 dialogue -- Session 3. Clinical research 1 : meditation and mental health. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and the prevention of relapse in recurrent depression / Zindel Segal. Paths to recovery : neural substrates of cognitive and mindfulness-based interventions for the treatment of depression / Helen Mayberg. Session 3 dialogue -- Interlude preceding session 4. The Buddhist science of human flourishing / Alan Wallace. Interlude dialogue -- Session 4. Clinical research 2 : meditation and physical health. Mindfulness-based stress reduction and cardiovascular disease / David Sheps. Neural-immune interaction / John Sheridan. Session 4 dialogue -- Session 5. Integration and final reflections. Meditation and the future of health care / Ralph Snyderman. Some reflections on the evolution and nature of mind and self and their implications for humanity / Wolf Singer. Session 5 dialogue