Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness

by Susan L. Smalley PhD, Diana Winston

Overview

From Buddhist traditions to daily exercises, enhance your physical and mental health with the ultimate practical guide to mindfulness from two leading experts.
Mindfulness--the art of paying attention with an open and curious mind to present-moment experiences--has attracted ever-growing interest and tens of thousands of practitioners, who have come to the discipline from both within and outside the Buddhist tradition. In Fully Present, leading mindfulness researchers and educators Dr. Sue Smalley and Diana Winston provide an all-in-one guide for anyone interested in bringing mindfulness to daily life as a means of enhancing well-being. Fully Present provides both a scientific explanation for how mindfulness positively and powerfully affects the brain and the body as well as practical guidance to develop both a practice and mindfulness in daily living, not only through meditation but also during daily experiences, such as waiting in line at the supermarket, exercising, or facing difficult news.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738214221
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	07/13/2010
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	688,156
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Susan Smalley, PhD, is the founder and director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) at UCLA, bringing twenty years of experience as a professor and behavior geneticist to the emerging area of mindfulness research.

Diana Winston, a former Buddhist nun who has been practicing mindfulness for twenty years, is the director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA’s MARC. They each live in Southern California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xv

1 What Is Mindfulness? 1

2 Getting Started 21

3 Breath and Awareness: Essential Components 37

4 Mindful Movement: The Body and Awareness 55

5 Working with Physical Pain 77

6 Feeling Bad: Dealing with Negative Emotions 97

7 Feeling Good and Finding Happiness 121

8 Pay Attention, but How? 149

9 Stressful Thinking 169

10 What Gets in the Way? 193

11 Mindfulness in Action 211

Afterword 223

Glossary 235

Notes 239

Index 265

About the Authors 279

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the first edition:
“A highly readable, informed, and elegant synthesis. Susan Smalley and Diana Winston have done a remarkable job of weaving together a coherent and compelling narrative that encourages each one of us to explore mindfulness from the inside out for our own benefit and the greater well-being of the world.”—Jon Kabat-Zinn, bestselling author; founder of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School

“A beautiful contribution to the exciting new studies on all the benefits of mindfulness. By simply refocusing our awareness, we reshape our experience. A truly optimistic read!”—Meg Ryan, actress

“Excellent. Fully Present offers one of the clearest introductions to mindfulness in the field.”

 
 —Library Journal

"Seamlessly combines easy-to-read reports on scientific research with first-person accounts and practice instructions...A lively read."
—Mindful

“[The authors’] collaboration in Fully Present draws on their expertise and experience in ways that readers can totally relate to…Take your time with this one. It's that good.”—Cincinnati Parent

“The authors draw on their experience of bringing mindfulness to the masses and present the scientific side of mindfulness with an artful approach that results in a well-rounded synthesis accessible to scholars and laymen alike.”—Publishers Weekly

“Brilliant, authoritative, rooted in solid research, and incredibly useful! If people would follow the practices outlined here, it is guaranteed they would become happier, healthier, and more fulfilled in their lives.”—Edward Hallowell, MD, bestselling author of Driven to Distraction

“Fully Present is a rare fusion of science, spirituality, and healing. This book is a treasure trove of wisdom.”—Kathy Freston, author of Quantum Wellness

From the Publisher