Stress Relief Book 2: Wherever You Go There You Are

Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

Jon Kabat-Zinn

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ISBN 0-7868-8070-8

Amazon link

Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder and director of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. He has created a program there that continues to be a leading force in teaching mindfulness to persons in high stress—heart patients, patients in chronic pain, patients with stress-related illnesses, prisoners, low-income, minority, etc.

The course there is called “Full Catastrophe Living”.

In a series of short narratives, Kabat-Zinn captures a concept to illustrate the following main ideas:

Part One The Bloom of the Present Moment

Part Two The Heart of Practice

Part Three In the Spirit of Mindfulness

Excerpt from the book:
“Guess what? When it comes down to it, wherever you go, there you are. Whatever you wind up doing, that’s what you’ve wound up doing. Whatever you are thinking right now, that’s what is on your mind. Whatever has happened to you, it has already happened. The important question is, how are going to handle it? In other words, “Now what?””

“Like it or not, this moment is all we really have to work with. Yet we all too easily conduct our lives as if forgetting momentarily that we are here, where we already are, and that we are in what we what we are already in. In every moment, we find ourselves at the crossroad of here and now. But when the cloud of forgetfulness over where we are now sets in, in that very moment we get lost. “Now what?” becomes a real problem.”

“If you sit down to meditate, even for a moment, it will be a time for non-doing. It is very important not to think that this non-doing is synonymous with doing nothing. They couldn’t be more different. Consciousness and intention matter here. In fact, they are key.”

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“On the surface, it seems as if there might be two kinds of non-doing, one involving not doing any outward work, the other involving what we might call effortless activity. Ultimately we come to see that they are the same. It is the inward experience that counts here. What we frequently call formal meditation involves purposely making a time for stopping all outward activity and cultivating stillness, with no agenda other than being fully present in each moment. Not doing anything. Perhaps such moments of non-doing are the greatest gift one can give oneself.”

Tags: meditate, meditation, mindfulness, Stress, stress reduction