Title: Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of
Mindfulness
Author: Smalley, Susan L.
Call Number: 616.89142 S635F 2010
Subjects: Mindfulness-based cognitive; Meditation
Number of Pages: 260
ISBN: 9780738213248
Book Description
(from amazon.com):
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.
My Read:
This phrase
from page 42 in the book really amazes me. It states: Breath as a window on the
mind. Here we have “breath,” “window,” and “mind.” At the beginning of chapter
five there is this quote from Publilius Syrus (Roman author, first century
BCE): “The pain of the mind is worse than the pain of the body. Personally I
believe that our mind controls almost everything about the self; we are what
the mind thinks. Sleepless nights, when there are no obvious physical issues,
are caused by the overworking racing mind.
“Breath is
a good barometer for your state of mind.”-page 47. When I tried the mindfulness
practices listen in the book I fully agree with the authors that it’s simple
but it’s not easy. The first few tries, my breathing became difficult; I
couldn’t breathe in enough air and the blowing out of air became sluggish and
ragged. I was feeling like a drowning person struggling for air. The shoulders
felt so tense and tight that I was afraid they would cramp and get into bouts
of spasms. The mind was where else, just not with me. The more I tried the more
tense my body became. It’s definitely not easy!
My tries is
proof of the saying that “The mind-body relationship is bidirectional-the mind
can influence the body, and the body can influence the mind.”
The
following are notes I took from reading this book:
“You are not the emotion.” Instead of saying “I am angry”
thinking “I have anger.”-page 116
“Do I feel like it is my emotion or the emotion?” “Hold
yourself with kindness.”-page 119
“It appears that as the brain shifts from less to more
coherent, we may shift from sad to happy.”-page 132
“We suggest here that mindfulness enhances attachment not
only to your own self and to others but to the whole universe and your place in
it.”-page 131
“How do we disidentify? One main tool for disidentifying in
the midst of difficult thinking is to label your thoughts just as you label
your emotions.”-page 186
“Aha. I am in the midst of aversion, it’s not personal to
me, it’s just a passing mental state.”-page 205
“It’s through obstacles that we are stretched and learn
something new about ourselves: our fortitude, courage, persistence, and
ingenuity.”-page 207
“Most of our thoughts are about things we regret from the
past or things we are worried about in the future.”-page 13
From
reading this book I got three things together. They are: Mindfulness, Wisdom, and Compassion.
The
following saying from the book is powerful and let me share here:
Practice changes the
brain.-page 7
