A Mindful Year

Reviews

“A Mindful Year is a conversation between two cherished friends. It is a collection of the authors’ back-and-forth correspondence, down-to-earth, practical, and insight-full daily meditations. There are a variety of ways to enhance one’s mindfulness meditation practice. A Mindful Year is a very good one.”

“In this wonderful volume the authors offer many useful windows into the day-to-day practice of mindfulness/presence. With their often insightful, poignant, or just wise observations and stories of how these practices arose for and affected them, they show us how to incorporate small, simple, but meaningful changes toward mindfulness/presence in our own and our clients’ lives. A welcome and practical addition to any clinician’s toolbox!”

“I’d like to say that this blessing of a book grew from the seeds of Dr. Campbell-Danesh and Dr. Seth Gillihan’s time that they shared while on the campus that I call home, but that would only be true in part. The wisdom found in the daily readings of this book have grown from their patient study of mindfulness, their personal spiritual practices, and most beautifully from their generous hearts. This book is meant to be read one breath at a time. It will slow you down—in the best of ways. More importantly it will allow each step that you take to carry you at a more healthy and a more savoring pace. I will be sharing this with many a student and friend.”

“This book is a gift! Here are two real people who have made a deep connection in their own lives. Out of that they are offering us riches from their experience. Aria and Seth clearly want to live the gift of life to the fullest with all its subtleties. I was touched by their generosity in letting us share their exchange of the ups, downs, and discoveries of their own lives. They offer us practices and challenges for each day, our ordinary days so that we too can live more deeply in touch with the gift of life.”

“This is more than a book. It is a companion, a wise guide that accompanies us each day. We find meditations here that sustain our optimism about who we are and what we can be. They both challenge and comfort us, just the combination we need if we are to awaken fully.”

“This book’s 365 daily invitations encourage and guide us to become more aware, learn new ways of knowing and being, and realize that in each moment we have a choice about how to respond. It is imbued with practical wisdom and compassion, alongside a grounded reality of how difficult this work can be. Starting each day with these reflections and committing to enacting them in our lives could enrich our lives, and those whose lives we touch both directly and indirectly. A unique feature of this book is that it was written on the foundations of a friendship between the two authors, that is clearly infused with love and mutual respect. The authors bring out the very best in each other, and in so doing potentially in readers as well.”

“A Mindful Year is jam-packed with entertaining, thought-provoking insights and creative invitations to be mindful as you go through your day, every day, for an entire year. The authors’ stories about their experiences demonstrate how often we have opportunities to pay close attention to the events, big and small, that transpire in our own lives. The daily observations are fascinating, deeply personal, and always engaging. After each entry, readers are presented with invitations to be mindful each day, so they can learn to respond with understanding, self-compassion, or action that aligns with their values. Throughout, the principles of mindfulness and cognitive-behavioral therapy are used to show the value of maintaining contact with the present moment, accepting authentic thoughts and feelings, and exploring different ways of understanding experiences. A Mindful Year is a wonderful book.”

“The Buddha taught that life is full of suffering but mindful compassion will help us both cope and gain insight into the nature of our minds. Mindfulness asks us to pay attention to our reactions as they unfold moment by moment. In this gentle book, Aria Campbell-Danesh and Seth Gillihan offer 365 reflections and invitations to be mindful in specific ways. They range over paying attention to our thoughts, feelings, and actions; noticing our bodies from our hands to our feet; noticing our sensory capacities and our desires and disappointments; noticing the way we may start each day with a hope, ‘a rush to do,’ or a dread. Drawing on a multitude of contemplative and scientific thinkers, this book is full of wonderful ideas for mindfulness practices for each day of the year that lift us out of the treadmill of the automatic pilot. Looking through these ways of focusing our attention reveals new vistas of experience—if we learn to pay attention. The world grows around us and becomes deeper and more multitextured.”

“This book helps us to see the extraordinary in the ordinary and to allow ourselves to be more present. The interaction between the mind and body is so powerful that as the mind becomes more emotionally balanced we reap the benefits in our physical health as well.”

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