The charm of this book lies, at least partly, in the author's personal history. Barbara Newhall Follett's original manuscript was finished just a few days after her ninth birthday, only to be lost in a fire. The version that is published is her painstaking reconstruction completed aged twelve. To be…
Author: Sonia
The Salt Path, Raynor Winn (2018)
And ahead of us? The walk, only the walk. The Salt Path charts the journey of Raynor Winn and her husband, Moth, from the point at which they lose everything. A poor investment and a naïve trust in justice over legal process leads to them being forced from their home…
Full Catastrophe Living: How to Cope with Stress, Pain and Illness Using Mindfulness Meditation, Jon Kabat-Zinn (rev edn 2013)
In this book, Kabat-Zinn describes the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme that he originally developed in 1979 and that was (and still is) taught at the Stress Reduction Clinic in Massachusetts. Kabat-Zinn’s incredible contribution to participatory medicine in the form of MBSR is now world-famous, and has led to a…
Sitting with difficulty in Twelfth Night (1601-2)
Sitting with difficult feelings is perhaps the most challenging task of mindfulness. It’s natural to feel aversion to painful thoughts,…
Why I’m re-reading The Book of Hygge (2016) and having myself a hygge Samhain this October
If you somehow missed the hygge hype of the last couple of years (which would mean you didn’t enter any…
Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman (1995)
This popular book of the 1990s made the case for emotional intelligence as a greater indicator of success than IQ. Recognising and identifying emotions is the first step in being able to choose how to respond and manage them, and Goleman includes devastating examples of what happens when emotional intelligence…
MBCT for Dummies, Patrizia Collard (2013)
Presented in the familiar and easy to digest ‘for Dummies’ format, this book is a great introduction for anyone looking to start exploring mindfulness, from mindfulness attitudes and practices, to establishing mindful routines to incorporate in daily life . Collard’s passionate and engaged treatment of MBCT includes poems, quotations and…
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression, Segal, Williams and Teasdale (2nd edn 2018)
This is the core text for anyone interested in MBCT, but is specifically aimed at clinicians and psychologists wishing to teach the programme. It includes comprehensive coverage of the development and rationale for MBCT, a detailed account of the structure and content of the programme, with examples of inquiry, and…
Introduction to MindLit
When people say they read for escapism, I can’t help feeling that they have missed a trick. Reading for me…
The Present Moment in E. M. Forster’s ‘Howard’s End’ (1910)
The following passage illustrates what it means to come in to the present moment, how to do it, and what…