Mindfulness Meditation: Benefits, Principles and How-To

By Mark Williams And Danny Penman
Published on December 27, 2011
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Mindfulness is a truly different way of knowing the world. It is not just thinking along a different track. To be mindful means to be back in touch with your senses so you can see, hear, touch, smell and taste things as if for the first time. You become deeply curious about the world again.
Mindfulness is a truly different way of knowing the world. It is not just thinking along a different track. To be mindful means to be back in touch with your senses so you can see, hear, touch, smell and taste things as if for the first time. You become deeply curious about the world again.
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Deep wellsprings of peace and contentment live inside all of us — they’re just waiting to be liberated from the cage that our frantic and relentless way of life has created for them. “Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World” presents simple yet powerful exercises and meditations to help you break out of the cycle of anxiety, stress and exhaustion and instead face each day with renewed vigor and courage — off of autopilot, free from bad habits and energized by self-compassion. The best part? You can achieve this new mental vantage point in just minutes a day.
Deep wellsprings of peace and contentment live inside all of us — they’re just waiting to be liberated from the cage that our frantic and relentless way of life has created for them. “Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World” presents simple yet powerful exercises and meditations to help you break out of the cycle of anxiety, stress and exhaustion and instead face each day with renewed vigor and courage — off of autopilot, free from bad habits and energized by self-compassion. The best part? You can achieve this new mental vantage point in just minutes a day.

The following is an excerpt from Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Mark Williams and Danny Penman (Rodale, 2011). Toss out any notions you may have about meditation: It’s neither complicated nor time-consuming, and you needn’t sit cross-legged on the floor to reap its benefits. In this practical, down-to-earth guide, Mark Williams, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Oxford, and award-winning journalist Danny Penman instruct readers on the art of mindfulness meditation, which focuses on being aware of your actions, thoughts and feelings in the present moment (without judging yourself) as a means of achieving inner peace and improving your health. This excerpt is from Chapter 1, “Chasing Your Tail,” and Chapter 3, “Waking Up to the Life You Have.”

Numerous psychological studies have shown that regular meditators are happier and more contented than average. These are not just important results in themselves, but they have huge medical significance, as such positive emotions are linked to a longer and healthier life.

  • Anxiety, depression and irritability all decrease with regular sessions of meditation. Memory also improves, reaction times become faster, and mental and physical stamina increase.
  • Regular meditators enjoy better and more fulfilling relationships.
  • Studies worldwide have found that meditation reduces the key indicators of chronic stress, including hypertension.
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