I came across this book reading my Mindful magazine and was seduced by the idea that if you committed to practicing mindfulness daily for a period of four weeks, all that was needed was TWELVE MINUTES a day to really make a difference and improve focus. I was intrigued and got eh book.
In some ways it is quite scientific, with lots of facts on the many studies she has carried out over the years, in many areas but this also brings it credibility.
The topics she explores are explained in simple layman terms and the guidance is practical and inspiring with many interesting facts.
One of those is that despite what most of us think distractibility is not a new phenomena cause by our 24/7 crazy world but that our brain is actually programmed to be easily distracted, that is how we survived and ensured the evolution of the species.
However stress, poor mood and threat certainly worsen the situation and the good news is we can TRAIN it to do better.
So why should we?
Because the results are worth it:
– Improved attention
– Improved working memory
– Less mind wandering
– A greater sense of well-being
– Better relationships
Dr. Jha covers a lot of ground in this 300-page book explaining how to improve our present-centred, non-judgemental, non-reactive qualities of attention and our core capacities: “The ability to notice where your attention is, to bring your mind back when it wanders. The ability to fill your whiteboard with the present-moment experience. The ability to resist story-making and to simply observe. The ability to become aware of when your mind needs to be redirected.”
She adds: “Mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment experience without telling a story about it. (…) It is not about feeling better but experiencing our life better, it builds our understanding and confidence that we can tackle whatever lies ahead and we build the tolerance to distress. (…) we gain the fundamental understanding that everything passes”.
So what do you say, 12 minutes a day is do-able right???