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72nd out of 100 books
—
2 voters
Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness
Now in paperback, the guide to living a meaningful life from the world stress expert"[The] journey toward health and sanity is nothing less than an invitation to wake up to the fullness of our lives as if they actually mattered . . ." --Jon Kabat-Zinn, from the Introduction
Ten years ago, Jon Kabat-Zinn changed the way we thought about awareness in everyday life with his no...more
Ten years ago, Jon Kabat-Zinn changed the way we thought about awareness in everyday life with his no...more
Paperback, 656 pages
Published
January 18th 2006
by Hyperion
(first published 2004)
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This is a very worthwhile read - even at 600+ pages. I read it immediately after a more "academic" treatise about the melding of CBT and mindfulness, which I enjoyed. Perhaps because of the juxtaposition of the two reads, I enjoyed the personal anecdotes and occasional humor in "Coming To Our Senses".
On the downside, although JKZ claims not to be a Buddhist, he certainly spouts quite a lot of Zen and other eastern mysticism.
I was also particularly struck by his repeated use of the term "heart" f...more
On the downside, although JKZ claims not to be a Buddhist, he certainly spouts quite a lot of Zen and other eastern mysticism.
I was also particularly struck by his repeated use of the term "heart" f...more
Jon Kabat-Zinn implores the reader to take a step back from their everyday life and notice the world around them, in his book, "Coming to Our Senses." The text is an intimidating 609 pages, however, the author breaks the book into eight independent sections guided by their specific didactic intents. Teaching lessons about meditation, mindfulness, and present moment awareness; Kabat-Zinn has provided us a textbook for improving our everyday experience of life naturally and immediately. What I rea...more
This book describes mindfulness - a practice for paying careful attention to the present moment and using meditation to focus that attention - and its potential benefits, from nearly every angle. I'd recommend it highly for those already interested, and at least somewhat versed, in mindfulness. For those with little interest or experience, large sections of the book might come across as lofty, verbose and too conceptual to help ground their mindfulness practice. That might just be my personal ex...more
An all time favorite. Don't really do the meditation but I reread it on a regular basis. The chapter called "Nowscape" is quite profound.
"Now is the future of the previous moment just past, and the future of all those moments that were before that one. Remember back in your own life for a moment, to when you were a child, or an adolescent, or a young adult, or to any other period already gone. This is that future. The you you were hoping to become, it is you. Right here. Right now. You are it....more
"Now is the future of the previous moment just past, and the future of all those moments that were before that one. Remember back in your own life for a moment, to when you were a child, or an adolescent, or a young adult, or to any other period already gone. This is that future. The you you were hoping to become, it is you. Right here. Right now. You are it....more
A adore JKZ. I needed this book! I was lucky to attend a workshop on "mindfulness and education" in which JKZ was one of the instructors, and this book was recommended reading, which is why I got it. I highly recommend it for its introduction to the importance of mindfulness, and for JKZ's views on things. I will try to elaborate later, as I found this book so meaningful to me that I am finding it hard to summarize.
Oh, and the book is good for the poetry alone -- he often puts a poem in between...more
Oh, and the book is good for the poetry alone -- he often puts a poem in between...more
I'd have given this book more stars but it simply goes on too long, repeating and reiterating its primary message to the point where it almost works against it. The book seems like a collection of essays, individually fascinating, but collectively overwhelming. Kabat-Zinn is a good writer, and his message of being mindful, living in the present, and opening our awareness to what is real is very potent. It's not original, of course, but in this day and age it's one we cannot hear too much. This b...more
A really great winter reminder about the power of a disciplined mindfulness practice. Its one thing to think that mindfulness is a good idea or to try living daily life mindfully (this is my general approach) but having a formal sitting or other type of meditation practice is where we really learn to observe and refine our own habits of mind. I liked Kabat-Zinn's connection of mindfulness to what he describes as the body politic. I'm always interested in the intersection of mindfulness and socia...more
Another huge book, with life changing ideas. This is a book to be read slowly, and to mark pages to come back to, and indeed, I think it is the kind of book that needs to be read, more than once, to be dog eared an battered because that is probably the only way to get the full value of this book and what it has to say. It has many things that will make you think, ponder, and rethink, but also some down to earth practical advice on how to bring mindfullness into your own life, to make it work, an...more
This is an in depth book about the history, development and experience and effect of meditation. It isn't about religion although the development of meditation is an integral part of the religious tradition in East and therefore always present.
Kabat-Zinn covered the physical/medical benefits of meditation on stress in his earlier book, Full Catastrophe Living. This was the text for a course I took on the practice of meditation for stress management some years ago. My personal experience meshes...more
Kabat-Zinn covered the physical/medical benefits of meditation on stress in his earlier book, Full Catastrophe Living. This was the text for a course I took on the practice of meditation for stress management some years ago. My personal experience meshes...more
A wise book about being mindful and living life to its fullest, this is a book that I've read before and will read again, containing as it does so much sage guidance. It is long, perhaps being therefore intimidating to first-time readers, particularly if one reads it as one is inclined to read most books, consuming it in large gulps over several days. Instead, this should be read in tiny bites, perhaps two pages a day, slowly and carefully chewed, swallowed, and digested, maybe even reading with...more
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How can you not appreciate Jon Kabat-Zinn? He opened the stress-reduction clinic in 1979 based on mindfulness practice. I read Full Catastrophe Living years ago, and this book is a great companion and expansion of what Kabat-Zinn has learned in the interim years. I'd like to require this in a poetry writing class, not just because JKZ knows and quote poetry, but because poetry is about coming to your senses.
Pay attention. To yourself. To the soundscape, the touchscape, the sightscape, tastescap...more
Pay attention. To yourself. To the soundscape, the touchscape, the sightscape, tastescap...more
1 like · like · see review
This was good, but for me not as good as his first book. I remember it being hard for me to focus on it while reading, and finishing was a struggle. That may not be a reflection on the book itself but where my head was when i was reading it. Either way, from where i read, his first book i would recommend in a heartbeat, but this one i hesitate on. If you already love his writing then you should enjoy trying this to, don't take my experience as gospel.
Well, I discovered how difficult it was to read this book mindfully when my mind was racing ahead to September and school starting up! I also had to return this to the library, so felt a bit pressured about getting it read by a certain date. This book is all about mindfulness! With over 600 pages, I found this book to be somewhat daunting. It is thoughtfully and beautifully written, but somewhat redundant at times. I found myself skipping over chunks that didn't particularly interest me (my impa...more
Sort of the "grandfather" of the application of mindful practice to healthcare, as well as a seminal researcher on its actual benefits to patients and practitioners, he here argues for the social benefits to all sentient beings (including ourselves!!) of regular practice. With my own patients who develop a regular practice, I offer this to help them make their practice further sense-able to, and in, their lives.
2011 Book 129/100
And what a book it is! A full 600+ pages that I have tried to read more than once before, and gotten no further than the first chapter or two. For every book, there is a time, and this week was the one for Jon Kabat-Zinn's Coming to Our Senses. I really appreciated both the messages and the way that the book was written, even when it became repetitive at times. Mindfulness for 2012!
And what a book it is! A full 600+ pages that I have tried to read more than once before, and gotten no further than the first chapter or two. For every book, there is a time, and this week was the one for Jon Kabat-Zinn's Coming to Our Senses. I really appreciated both the messages and the way that the book was written, even when it became repetitive at times. Mindfulness for 2012!
I am not sure why I found this book so compelling. Just reading it made me feel peaceful. My favorite line in the whole large book is this;
"The most common obstacle to meditation practice is not wanting to." Yes indeed, that just about sums it up, no excuses, no BS. This is a large book as I mentioned (over 600 pages) but I liked it so well I am going to start reading another one by this author.
"The most common obstacle to meditation practice is not wanting to." Yes indeed, that just about sums it up, no excuses, no BS. This is a large book as I mentioned (over 600 pages) but I liked it so well I am going to start reading another one by this author.
In my humble, opinion, many of the chapters are as powerful and thought provoking as any Kabat-Zinn I have read. Many chapters are more theoretical ruminations or metaphors. This is definitely not the book to begin learning the basics of mindfulness. BUT, do go back and mine for the nuggets when you understand more than the basics.
Kabat-Zinn has brought East and West together in his remarkable career. He shares his work from the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre which has established the ability of mindfulness training to reduce pain and improve wellbeing in many different medical conditions. He explains how simple mindfulness exercises can for example speed up the healing of psoriatic plaques. He describes the process by which CBT psychotherapists come to him for direction on incorporating mindfulness into CBT f...more
Compared with "Full Catastrophe Living" (by the same author), this one wasn't as seminal for me; however, the very brief, almost stream-of-consciousness chapters in this one allow the author to touch on a lot of topics linked with mindfulness, and helped reinforce the need for us to connect to what we are going through now, moment by moment and breath by breath, rather than fixating on the past or the future all the time or dwelling in a "virtual" reality. Some chapters were particularly great;...more
I took my time and absorbed every bit, in this a treatise, on becoming mindful. Memorable discussions of meditation throughout. "It does help if I remind myself to ask my heart from time to time what is most important right now, in this moment, and listen very carefully for the response." Jon Kabat-Zinn
I enjoyed this book and learned so
much from it. I had it on my night stand for over a year before I finished it. I read it in bits/pieces and re-read parts and skipped over parts. Many useful tools for dealing with life challenges.
much from it. I had it on my night stand for over a year before I finished it. I read it in bits/pieces and re-read parts and skipped over parts. Many useful tools for dealing with life challenges.
i like what Kabat-Zinn writes and especially the work he has done over the years. This is the bringing together of meditation, science, modern medicine, yoga, and the deep questions that we all ask ourselves at some point.
I love his style of writing and really breaks down the importance of practicing mindfulness. Another life changing book for me that has helped me remain dedicated to daily formal meditation.
This book had some remarkable passages, but was simply too sprawling to sustain interest over its 600+ pages -- not exactly what you want to conclude about a book about mindfulness, alas. The book pretty much preaches the same message preached in "Wherever You Go, There You Are," which is a more focused tome, and my opinion, a better place to start for those interested in the mindfulness-based approach to living advocated by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
This book contained many inspirational ideas for enhancing one's awareness, but boy, it could have used a good editor. About 2/3 of the way through I got bogged down and had trouble ever getting un-bogged. Sentences that run a paragraph long aren't always a bad thing, but too often in this book they were.
One of my favorite stories tells the answer a wise Buddhist monk gave a student to the question "How do I become a Buddha?" The monk replied, "Attention." The student said, "Is that all?" and t...more
One of my favorite stories tells the answer a wise Buddhist monk gave a student to the question "How do I become a Buddha?" The monk replied, "Attention." The student said, "Is that all?" and t...more
So Achtsamkeitskram halt, ich les das immer wieder mal (weil ich sehr vergesslich bin), aber empfehle es wirklich nur Anfängern, die sich für Achtsamkeit/Meditation interessieren.
Incredible! Brilliant! Beautiful! Reading for the 2nd time. You can pick this book up anytime, any page and learn to see the world in a very different way.
Aug 19, 2009
Janelle
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
audiobooks,
nonfiction
I have no idea what Jon Kabat-Zinn said in this abridged version of his book. Which is ironic. If I were to tackle it again, I would most certainly read the book rather than listen to it, as the words in the audio version flowed too much together to make sense of some of the intensive ideas Kabat-Zinn was presenting.
If you want to learn all about meditation in one book, this is for you. Short chapters and definitely written for people new to meditation. Given that I am not new to meditation ... and it's a VERY thick book ... and a bit repetitive ... I didn't finish it. What can I say ... so many other books, so little time.
I enjoyed this book but found it difficult to finish reading. I seemed to have difficulty internalizing the messages.
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Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., is founding Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is also the founding director of its renowned Stress Reduction Clinic and Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He teaches mindfulness and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)...more
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Jul 14, 2009 04:29pm