Book reviews

"Mindfulness, a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world" (Mark Williams, Danny Penman, 2011)

I've been practising meditation with one of those services that give you timed meditations, but I wanted to learn and understand more about the practice, which is something the app doesn't explain.

So I first read the book that is often recommended, Wherever you go, there you are, and didn't quite 'get it'.

I was still intrigued, but I found this book, which has less of the mysterious ambiguous advice the other book has, and more of the psychological answers I was curious about. It also has a CD with guided meditations, but I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet.

Given that I had been practising meditation before, the concepts the book proposes do not come to me as fully revolutionary, but I liked the insights, like the ways we limit our own creativity just by the way we approach a problem, even if we do it keen on finding a solution, etc.

An eight week plan is proposed, each week tackling a different challenge, including body meditation. I haven't followed the plan yet as I am doing the other meditation, I am busy going places, and I don't want to carry a book with me, but I might try doing it when I settle.

In any case, my most pressing questions about the psychology of meditation were answered here. The rest is just a nice extra. Good book.