Living Mindfully: At Home, at Work, and in the World

by Deborah Schoeberlein David, David Panakkal MD (Editor)

Overview

Learn to live a life that's good—for yourself and for the world.

Like a wise friend or kind teacher, Deborah Schoeberlein David—educator, meditator, and mother—walks you through a complete, easy-to-follow curriculum of mindfulness practice.

Beginning with the very basics of noticing your breath, David shows how simple mindfulness practices can be utterly transforming. Each practice builds on the previous exercise like a stepping stone, until you have the tools to bring mindfulness into every aspect of your life including sex, parenting, relationships, job stresses, and more.

This is an approachable guide for anyone who desires positive change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614291534
Publisher:	Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date:	11/24/2015
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Deborah Schoeberlein David, MEd, has more than twenty-five years’ experience teaching youth and adults, developing interactive curriculum, training teachers, providing parent education seminars and implementing sensitive programming, both in K-12 and professional settings. She is the author of Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness: A Guide for Anyone Who Teaches Anything.

Table of Contents

List of Exercises ix

1 Mindfulness: You and I 1

2 Why Meditate? 15

3 There's More to Mindful Breathing 29

4 Thoughts in Mind 43

5 They're Just Emotions 59

6 Being in Your Body 75

7 Mindful Sex 91

8 Mindfulness and Romantic Relationships 109

9 Mindfulness at Work 125

10 Mindful Parenting 141

11 Mindfulness in the Midst of Pain 159

Conclusion: Mindfulness Now and for the Future 177

Acknowledgments 187

References 189

About the Authors 193

Editorial Reviews

09/14/2015
This pleasant but cursory beginner’s manual on meditation aims to offer relief from the stresses of life by training the mind and showing how “living mindfully facilitates experiencing reality more comfortably and constructively.” David (Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness) starts with the simplest formal practices—a single mindful breath, a moment of pause—then reiterates the basic cycle of focus-observe-refocus for incrementally more complex practices of bringing mindfulness to breathing, counting, thinking, feeling, listening, experiencing static sensation, and experiencing dynamic sensation. She then transitions abruptly into real-world informal practice in complex interactive situations, starting with mindfulness during sex and moving to practices of sharing kindness and compassion and learning to respond rather than react in the context of romantic relationships, the workplace, parenting, and dealing with pain and loss. David’s race to broadly cover everything in life after such a careful, specific introductory path will leave the new student feeling lost. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

In Living Mindfully the science and practice of mindfulness is presented in a very personalized way with anecdotal accounts and recollections of the author's own early forays into meditation—all of which makes what could have amounted to a pretty dry manual of instruction into something lively, thought-provoking and entertaining.

Spirituality Today

Living Mindfully offers straight, ungooey prose presenting simple practices to bring mindfulness into the office, the bedroom, the boardroom, and beyond.

Mindful Magazine

Whether someone is new to meditation or an experienced practitioner, Living Mindfully is a valuable resource.

Shelf Awareness

Engaging and accessible, Living Mindfully is a wonderful introduction to a most beneficial approach to living a life. Reading the book is like being on retreat with a wise and practical teacher.

Kathleen Dowling Singh

Simple, direct and full of real-world wisdom.

Susan Kaiser Greenland

While many mindfulness books stop at providing instructions for general practice, Living Mindfully takes the essential next step of providing clear guidance in how to apply mindfulness directly to the vital areas of our lives, such as relationships, work, parenting, and heartbreak. The author’s heartfelt wisdom gently guides readers to use their newly developed skills in these contexts to enhance their lives. Many will benefit from the exercises and examples that help cultivate meaningful, satisfying lives."

Lizabeth Roemer

07/01/2015
Exploring the whys and hows of mindfulness, and what that concept can mean to those who devote themselves to its techniques, David (Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness) says that the method is as essential to the mind as physical exercise is to the body, and that it improves mental efficiency and mitigates the negative aspects of life. According to David, one solution is the action of pausing, which involves focusing, observing, and refocusing. Readers can employ this and other applications at work, in romantic relationships, in parenting, and in the midst of heartbreak. VERDICT David's compelling case for mindfulness will augment awareness for those who wish to know more about this discipline.

Library Journal