Mindfulness

by Gill Hasson

Be calm, collected and in the moment

Too often, life just races by. You don't fully experience what's happening now, because you're too busy thinking about what needs doing tomorrow, or distracted by what happened yesterday. And all the time your mind is chattering with commentary or judgement.Mindfulness allows you to experience the moment instead of just rushing through it. Being mindful opens you up to new ideas and new ways of doing things, reducing stress and increasing your enjoyment of life.

With ideas, tips and techniques to help you enjoy a more mindful approach to life, you'll learn how to:

- Adopt more positive ways of thinking and behaving- Become calmer and more confident- Break free from unhelpful thoughts and thinking patterns- Bring about positive changes in your relationships- Achieve a new level of self-awareness and understanding

Life is happening right now; mindfulness will help you live in the moment, so it doesn't pass you by!

Genres: Self Help, Psychology, Nonfiction, Personal Development, Spirituality, Meditation, Philosophy

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Gill Hasson is the author of Mindfulness: Be mindful. Live in the moment works with people from diverse backgrounds and situations. Her key motivation is her belief in the ability of people to positively change their way of thinking - about life, other people, and themselves.

She is a freelance journalist and writes articles on personal development and relationships for a variety of magazines, including Psychologies and Take A Break, and for a number of websites.

As well as delivering adult education courses in personal development, she is an associate tutor for the University of Sussex where she teaches career and personal development and academic study skills. She delivers training in child and adolescent development to preschool, youth and social workers, teachers and parents.

Reviews

[Rowan MacDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

“It’s being here now that’s important. There’s no past and there’s no future... all there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can’t relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don’t know if there is one.” – George Harrison

Meditation has greatly benefited my life in recent years, though I still consider myself a newbie. This book, instead of focusing on meditation, explores how we can apply mindfulness in our everyday lives, through various activities, in order to be more present and live life to the fullest.

Unfortunately, the author spends too much time explaining what each chapter will cover rather than delivering the actual content. Perhaps, if she read her own book, she would spend less time dwelling on the future, and instead focus on the present. There are errors in the text too, which should’ve been picked up had the editor done their job more mindfully.

There is good content here though and information is nicely spread out. The short, sharp passages are easy to understand. But some content is mind-numbing common sense, like - “Prepare for meetings, interviews and presentations.” Really?

I found the ‘beginner’s mind’ section one of the best. It encouraged me to break routines and embrace new experiences, all while putting aside beliefs and conclusions arising from past events. Opening yourself up to new possibilities will always be a good thing.

“Beginner’s mind can transform the way you experience life. It makes life exciting and fresh, it keeps you young and eager to learn.”

The book also explores “worry time” – a concept that involves setting aside specific time in the day for “worry.” This is then followed by moving onto something that will distract and fully absorb oneself. The concept was introduced to me in a well-being course recently, so this information helped reinforce it.

Sections on forgiveness, acknowledgement and being non-judgemental towards thoughts, feelings, and people were helpful too. Ultimately, the book encourages you to be a better person and to contribute to society in a positive way.

“An old Arab proverb suggests three gates you should be able to pass through before you open your mouth to speak: Is it necessary? Is it kind? Is it true?”

One thing this book made me realise? My dog has it all figured out. I need to be more like my dog. When she plays, she’s not thinking about what happened yesterday, or what she’s doing later today. She’s totally absorbed in the moment. That’s just how she lives her life. It’s how I hope to live mine too, and since reading this, I feel like I'm on the right track.

“Mindfulness is a way of living your life so that you are in the present moment more often. It involves bringing your awareness back from the future or the past and into the present moment. You are not trying to get to a better place or to become a better person - you are already there.”

[Nea Britto · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a delightful read on the topic of mindfulness. I loved that it covered different aspects of life and had a lot of practical steps that we can apply when practicing mindfulness in any particular given situation.

I loved how the book summed it up by putting forth the message that mindfulness is not a destination to be reached. It is just being here in the present moment.

[Millie Wisbeach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calming ☺️☕

[Suzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listening to this mindfulness book on audible. Gill Hasson talks about living in the present moment instead of living in the past or the future. If your mind wanders to the past or future ( mind traps) try and bring it back to the present moment without judgement. (Focus on small positive goals)

[Hasini | bibliosini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this as a gift from a relative, and I can see why they loved this book. It was full of practical advice on getting through life mindfully, and just reading the book made me feel calmer.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read on a sunny afternoon on the couch w my cat. An easy read with some practical tips for practicing mindfulness in your day to day. Great for lockdown.

[Deniz Abusaud · Rating 3 out of 5]

Calming, with beautiful illustrations. It was also a light read with interesting mindfulness exercises that I'm going to try to incorporate into my daily routine.

[Destiny Awaits · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of the time in this book I felt like crying "duh!" at myself. Gill Hasson uses a lot of simple messages which are quite strong. I think one of the best ones is how looking at the future or past can be inspiring or debilitating depending on your perspective. The whole point of mindfulness is staying in the moment. This book does a pretty good job of explaining how to do that. I think I'll definitely try varying my routine, and paying more attention to tasks from now on.

Gill really doesn't like multitasking or busy schedules. It's hard to know what's her personal shtick and what is informed advice.

This book was just the right length, neither too long or too short. It doesn't stray off topic and does a good job of delivering on its message. I managed to be absorbed by it despite the fact the chapters weren't broken down into headings. The language is friendly and approachable without being numbing.

Again Hasson gets into ideas of flow, which I really appreciate. You see it in a lot of self help books and it's a great topic.

Her advice on action as a problem-solving skill is really useful. I think losing the phone and keys is a very strong, relatable analogy.

The author didn't use too many weird analogic situations, which was good. Sometimes they can go overboard with those in self-help books.

There are little exercises that are cute, but they always make me wish I had a pen and pad to complete them, and draw me out of the reading.

I can't imagine her conflict resolution advice particularly working.

[J¡ngXuΔnت · Rating 2 out of 5]

Normal. I felt that it's mostly repetitive throughout the whole book.

[Cristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book to read and remind yourselves about the brain shortcuts, about the importance of being "in the present" and not "for the present", breathing techniques, goal setting, how to stop judging and criticizing and aiming for a more consultative approach.... in short.. how to be mindfulness. To understand that you can train the mind by bringing it to what happens in the moment and not about what happened in conversation yesterday or what might happen in the meeting with my manager tomorrow. Let your thoughts come in and just observe them, acknowledge they are there but do not stick to them and start the juding, worrying and feeling anxious.
Some goods guides and steps to follow.
Recommend.

[Matt Harwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to mindfulness, but took quite a popularist, goal-orientated view of mindfulness rather than what I would take to be the true, non-purpose nature of it.

An enjoyable refresher of some important points, non-the-less.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good pocket book for Mindfulness. A read to get you started so you don't have to read a text book about mindfulness. Do I feel there could be more examples? Yes, but it's still good for what was presented.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy this and it was easy to read and understand. I have taken a lot from it which isn't always the case with this type of book.

[Natalie Sparkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

a little hippy-fied in places, but actually filled with really good ideas and tips

[Melissa Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful for sure, I found many of the techniques helpful.

[Mackenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book!

[Dylan Hodder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book because I am interested in the social aspect of human nature and wanted to learn about mindfulness.

The content is useful and helpful (it includes techniques to practice and examples of hypothetical situations), however I felt the content was quite repetitive and that the book could have had its content reduced. Nevertheless, there is helpful information and techniques that can be put into practice.

My review will be more about the social aspect of the book as it is the most relevant to me.

I did find the emphasis on breathing to be quite helpful — when I am in social environments I find my social anxiety to affect me which, in turn, noticeably affects my breathing as I tend to feel somewhat short of breath, and that I also unconsciously pause my breathing and then restart several seconds later. Gill's suggestion taught me to focus on my breathing which I found actually helps, and I started taking calm, deep breaths more.

My social anxiety also extends to my nervousness around women, particularly if it's a group of them, which causes me to become short of breath and sweat more than usual. Gill's suggestion of acknowledging and accepting these feelings helped me (surprsingly) as I put this into practice today whilst at a book store. Instead of trying to avoid or distract myself from these feelings, I simply acknowledged and accepted them which helped me, and for once I actually focused on skimming the contents of a book rather than being unable to focus.

[Graham Archer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half of this book was about living in the present, and I found it very interesting. In later chapters the author talks about forgiveness and persuasion etc. Why should a person learn to mindfully persuade anyone to do something for them? It's as if the second half of this book was written by a different author. Anyway, I forgive the person who wrote this this book, and I wont be persuading any of my friends to read it.

[Gavin D'Souza · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book!! I loved how this book addressed several facets of life and how we can integrate mindfulness into practically everything!

Thanks, @Nea for recommending this. In this fast paced life, and considering how worry-prone people can get these days, this book was a much-needed pat of assurance that life is in the here and now.

[Emma Hinkle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short book is a primer to mindfulness and applies the concept of mindfulness to different situations (work, relationships, etc).

This book wasn't bad, it just didn't seem to provide new information around mindfulness and the author didn't have credentials to write this book. It felt like a book that was pulled together from a bunch of general internet articles about mindfulness.

[Josh Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightfully effective way of expressing key points to refine and streamline your life through everyday practice. I found that in the pages and different sections where different thoughts/practices/perspectives were discussed - my mind wad able to whip up an anecdote to put the theory into relative practice.

Thank you, Gill 🙏🏻🥰

[M G · Rating 4 out of 5]

A calm read. This is a quick introduction to practices to be more aware of yourself and of others. It is punctuated with short stories to allow us to better understand the ideas being portrayed. The short passages were easy to read but I found the sudden introduction to volunteering to be out of place from the rest of the book.

[Steve Friedman · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a great topic but a slow book. On a book rightfully advocating being in the here and now, I was constantly dozing off to the anywhere but here and now. Unfortunate because the lessons are good. There’s just probably another way to convey mindfulness with some punch and pizzazz.

[Nafees Omar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't find much so realistic a lesson that would really be worth trying out. The chapters seemed to be repetitive over the same approach all throughout the book. I believe the book could've been finished within much fewer pages.

[Joe Ciccone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, quite and easy and enjoyable read. The points about how to handle alot of everyday moments and well as tips to live in the present and set up without worrying for the future self. Will be reccomending to friends that do find intrest.

[Jeunesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reinforced ideas I already had about mindfulness and offered new eye opening perspectives.

I enjoyed the notes on goal setting, gratitude and approaching life with a ‘beginners mind’: “be prepared for new possibilities in familiar situations”.

[Elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book as an introduction to mindfulness. I haven't ready a book on the subject before so this book helped to clarify and explain the topics well. I would recommend this to anyone looking to live more in the present and reconnect with themselves.

[M Delea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick and concise, without a lot of tangential stories, this book is a great way to start a journey of mindfulness. There are a few exercises and the chapters are all summed up at the end. I also found the quotations within to be helpful.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cannot recommend this book enough for anyone who struggles to manage their thoughts and feels overwhelmed by the past and the future. Not only is the book relatable but the practical suggestions are useful and reassuring.

[Mark Tompkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent mental reset! Got to read this book under the pressures of life and it helped me take a step back and appreciate the present. A great book for self proclaimed multitaskers