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Meditation In a New York Minute: Super Calm for the Super Busy

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Executive meditation coach Mark Thornton writes about a revolution―finding your deepest heart in everyday moments. In Meditation in a New York Minute , Thornton demystifies meditation and makes it accessible to all. He presents his complete program for enjoying the many benefits of meditation―stress reduction, energy, intense mental clarity―in a New York minute.

"If your life is moving at warp speed," begins Thornton, "more than ever you need to create calm quickly and profoundly." Meditation in a New York Minute will teach even the busiest

How to get an hour of refreshing meditation into your day―without adding a thing to your schedule
• Nineteen powerful techniques from the world's wisdom traditions, distilled into "micro-doses" you can use between meetings, while commuting, in the shower―whenever you have a free moment
• The Eight Laws of Super Calm and the Eight Golden Keys for flipping on compassion and insight in any situation
• The 11 Thieves along the path of meditation, and how to dodge them
"You can be super busy, super successful, and super calm at the same time, " assures Mark Thornton. With Meditation in a New York Minute , the rewards of this centuries-old inner art are finally available to everyone on the go.

145 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 2004

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Mark Thornton

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5 stars
29 (22%)
4 stars
45 (35%)
3 stars
38 (29%)
2 stars
13 (10%)
1 star
3 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
1,498 reviews25 followers
August 3, 2007
Meditation in a New York Minute, Mark Thornton, Sounds True, 2004


In this hectic, 24/7 world, meditation is one of the last things for which most people have any time. This book shows a number of easy ways that anyone can do "mini-meditations" at any time during the day, and that take only one minute at a time.

Everyone has an area of calm deep inside themselves. Accessing that area will decrease stress, re-energize yourself, and enliven the spirit, without closing your eyes and sitting in a lotus position for hours.

Among the techniques are: breathing energy, ChiGung breath for calm, eating (or walking or commuting) with Awareness, magnify heart energy, magnify wisdom, seeing the good in all people and dealing with anger. Start with just one technique, and practice until it becomes second nature. Don’t expect to "get" all of these techniques the first time.

This book also mentions quick things that can also be done by anyone at any time. Change your screensaver or cell phone display to CALM or PRACTICE CALM. Breathe in for four seconds, hold for one second, and breathe out for four seconds. Check the muscles in your forehead, and around your eyes, to see if they are relaxed. Massage them if needed. On the subway, imagine your spine is a tube of pure white light, growing brighter and more intense.

This is intended for busy people who don’t want to read a lot of spiritual theory; they want to get right to How To Do It. The author is a former executive at JPMorgan, so he understands workplace stress. He has done a fine job with this book. It’s simple, effective, and best of all, it’s fast.

5 reviews
September 8, 2014
The second half of the book has some great techniques to incorporate meditation for a busy lifestyle. Found this book to be motivating, and recommend it for professionals who have stressful, busy careers and are looking for a way to incorporate mindfulness into their busy days.
Profile Image for Correen.
1,140 reviews
May 27, 2018
With a busy life and managing ADD, Thornton views meditation as a helpful process that must not be approached with perfectionism. Nobody does it without intruding thoughts, but even a minute of mental clearing in a meditative condition, helps our health and mental clarity. He meditates in small bits of time throughout the day and finds it very helpful.

His attitude was useful for me. I began to relax more in my practice, and do not berate myself when intruding thoughts invade a session.
Profile Image for Joseph.
852 reviews
February 3, 2018
While the exercises are useful and practical, the anecdotes (which consist of marketing his rich and powerful clients and his busy and successful lifestyle) are distracting. Also curious is the author’s generic use of terms “yoga” and “tai chi” – the former to describe any sort of physical stretching or breathing and the latter to describe any slow and methodical movement.
Profile Image for Nicola Hayley.
Author 3 books7 followers
June 4, 2024
No longer do you need to set aside a chunk of 10+ minutes to get your daily dose of peace and inner calm.

Mark's approach provides a way to sneak your meditation practice into brief moments of respite throughout the day.

Finding this book gave me permission to do meditation my way, and for that I will always appreciate this book.
13 reviews
February 27, 2017
I really liked the beginning. Found it helpful and unique for really busy people. The suggestions for meditations at the end I found repetitive and too similar for most of them.
Profile Image for Leslie.
355 reviews14 followers
April 28, 2018
Recommend the audio version. A good, practical guide to start with that’s easy to understand especially if you don’t have a lot of extra time to sit for an hour with your palms up.
Profile Image for Lisa Butterworth.
949 reviews45 followers
February 4, 2018
I can't decide if Mark Thornton is a cutsie humble bragger or if he's got some weird brain quirk that allows him to experience flow/transcendence more quickly than the rest of us. Either way, this book is full of the usual just fine and helpful ideas for meditation and mindfulness, combined with kinda over the top promises that you can reach enlightenment (or super great altered awareness) in just five minutes a day, which is way over simplified and simply not true for most of us.
Profile Image for Bernadette.
55 reviews7 followers
March 17, 2012
Definitely worth reading - it's only about 2 hours on audiobook. The book is aimed at busy people - being written by an investment banker who eventually became former COO of JP Morgan in London definitely lends it credibility among its target audience. The book dives straight to a practical, mostly secular list/toolkit of techniques one can do just 1 minute at a time - instead of expecting people to stop their day for 10-30, the main idea is to intersperse throughout the day to make the whole day more awesome.
Profile Image for Imran.
9 reviews
March 10, 2010
This book certainly exceeded my expectations. The list of various meditation techniques was the appeal to purchase this as a reference book but I discovered that it also offers some good advice addressing the frustrations of an individual new to meditation. It's certainly worth a read if you're just starting out. Don't expect to find traditional meditation techniques in this books, but rather, new methods based on those developed for a busy post-modern world.
Profile Image for Vincent Van Wylick.
64 reviews9 followers
April 2, 2015
I got the audio-book from iTunes. Positives were the author's Australian accent which was strangely soothing, and his humble attitude towards this whole mediation thing. Negatives were no chapters in the audio and that there's so much information crammed into the audio that you definitely need to listen to it twice, thrice, or more.
117 reviews
February 4, 2016
Have the audio version from the Library - lots of skips and missed parts. But am enjoying so may purchase paper/Kindle version. Lots of real world tips for incorporating meditation into your life without dedicating a block of time every day. A very approachable book for anyone who thinks meditation is too "out there" or serious to try.
Profile Image for Becky.
444 reviews5 followers
February 4, 2016
Have the audio version from the Library - lots of skips and missed parts. But am enjoying so may purchase paper/Kindle version. Lots of real world tips for incorporating meditation into your life without dedicating a block of time every day. A very approachable book for anyone who thinks meditation is too "out there" or serious to try.
148 reviews
April 4, 2016
Listened. The idea is to meditate for an hour each day, but in little bits throughout the day. Author has a good voice for coaching meditation. He's definitely an executive trainer, but it was interesting and relaxing to listen to. No particular insights though.
Profile Image for Kathleen.
94 reviews14 followers
August 4, 2014
A very simplified overview of meditation and applicable practices. Good as an introduction, but superficial in a vacuum.
Profile Image for Sue.
161 reviews4 followers
March 13, 2016
Helpful tips for fitting in mindfullness
Profile Image for AliceinWonderland.
386 reviews15 followers
March 23, 2016
Some simple, good exercises, but nothing earth shattering if you're looking for more of a spiritual education about meditation.
More of a "how to", but some good exercises in there.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews