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Mindfulness
There's nothing mystical about mindfulness. To be mindful simply means to be aware of and engage with what's happening right now, in the current moment. This book explains mindfulness in a clear, accessible way, making you believe you can do it. You will learn that, whatever your circumstances, mindfulness can bring so much to your life, in any situation.
This book outlines how a mindful approach can help you in your everyday life to: establish more helpful, positive ways of thinking and behavingbe more open and acceptingmanage your attention so that unwanted thoughts cannot crowd your mind; stop ruminating about the past or worrying about the futurecope more effectively with stress and have a more confident and calm approach to lifemanage painful emotions such as anger, guilt, worry and anxietybring about positive changes in your relationshipsachieve a new level of self-awareness and self-understanding
This is mindfulness made easy; you will learn that mindfulness in not all in the head it's also a way of being - it's about what you do; your actions and your behavior.
This book outlines how a mindful approach can help you in your everyday life to: establish more helpful, positive ways of thinking and behavingbe more open and acceptingmanage your attention so that unwanted thoughts cannot crowd your mind; stop ruminating about the past or worrying about the futurecope more effectively with stress and have a more confident and calm approach to lifemanage painful emotions such as anger, guilt, worry and anxietybring about positive changes in your relationshipsachieve a new level of self-awareness and self-understanding
This is mindfulness made easy; you will learn that mindfulness in not all in the head it's also a way of being - it's about what you do; your actions and your behavior.
149 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
130 people are currently reading
818 people want to read
About the author
Gill Hasson
86 books72 followersGill 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
January 27, 2023
“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.”
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.”
November 1, 2021
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.
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.
March 28, 2020
Calming ☺️☕
June 18, 2023
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)
May 1, 2024
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.
August 15, 2020
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.
February 21, 2024
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.
September 23, 2016
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.
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.
June 10, 2018
Normal. I felt that it's mostly repetitive throughout the whole book.
April 1, 2015
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.
Some goods guides and steps to follow.
Recommend.
January 13, 2014
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.
An enjoyable refresher of some important points, non-the-less.
September 24, 2023
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.
November 24, 2014
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.
June 26, 2014
a little hippy-fied in places, but actually filled with really good ideas and tips
June 2, 2015
Insightful for sure, I found many of the techniques helpful.
November 30, 2021
Excellent book!
November 13, 2021
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.
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.
July 4, 2021
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.
December 9, 2021
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.
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.
March 22, 2024
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.
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.
April 25, 2025
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.
March 11, 2019
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.
February 6, 2020
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.
November 8, 2020
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.
August 13, 2021
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”.
I enjoyed the notes on goal setting, gratitude and approaching life with a ‘beginners mind’: “be prepared for new possibilities in familiar situations”.
January 16, 2022
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.
January 17, 2022
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.
October 27, 2024
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.
March 27, 2019
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
January 12, 2020
** listened via audible**
Brilliant! So concise and to the point. Lots of important info to take away.
Brilliant! So concise and to the point. Lots of important info to take away.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews