Throughout this turbulent year, one of our enduring sources of hope and inspiration has been reading a good book. Fortunately, when the going got tough, these new titles were there to keep us going. From the books that expanded our understanding of the brain and body, to those that helped us navigate the waves of emotion and reconnect with compassion, these are the favorites of conscientious publishers.
1. permission to feel
unlocking the power of emotions to help our children, ourselves and our society thrive
You are reading: Best mindfulness books 2020
marc brackett • celadon books
Brackett, Founding Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, came to this job with a mission born out of his own experience of sexual harassment and assault, which he poignantly discusses in Permission to Feel. However, before we get to know his story, Brackett paints a vivid picture of why emotions are so important to public health and education. Incidents of bullying and harassment in US K-12 schools doubled each year between 2015 and 2017; 46% of teachers report high daily stress; between 2016 and 2017, one in three students at 196 universities in the united states reported diagnosed mental health conditions; a quarter of children between the ages of 13 and 18 suffer from anxiety disorders; and by 2030, mental health problems could cost the global economy up to $16 trillion. When our children learn unhealthy responses to emotions, the tangible results ripple through families, schools, communities, and society. that’s the diagnosis.
the brackett prescription, as researched, taught and advocated at the yale center, begins with a very simple question: how do you feel? if the response is evasive or lying, if no one is interested in our genuine response, it is almost certain that we will suffer and that suffering will spread. Instead, Brackett recommends the rule method: recognizing emotions in oneself and in others; understanding of causes and consequences; accurately label emotions; express emotions, taking into account the context and culture; and regulate effectively. the book expands on this method and how it is used for both adults and children. (In schools, the ruler works with the adults before bringing it to the students.) Permission to Feel is an inspiring book with a timely message, not just for each of us, but for the organizations and institutions that shape how we should behave . —bb
2. stay awake
a meditation guide for the rest of us
justin michael williams • rings true
many “spiritual” writings give only incidental mention of the social and material struggles people face. imply, “inequality, marginalization? that is an external problem. ignore it and meditate.” Having factored in homophobia, personal trauma, and stress rooted in poverty and domestic violence, Justin Michael Williams has no time for that: “You need a different kind of meditation. one who does not pretend that the fight does not exist”. he demonstrates real strength through the honesty and vulnerability of the first book of his. with “freedom meditation”, he offers you 10 steps to create a meditation (and life) practice that is about fearlessly embracing all that you are, to explore both your inner and outer world: “meditation is not try to relax. meditation is about becoming more alive.”—en
3. the monkey mind meditation platform
30 fun ways for kids to relax, tune in and open up
carolyn kanjuro • shambhala
With exquisite illustrations by alexander vidal, this pack of 30 cards mixes many images: we find weather (rainbow, gentle breeze, hurricane), natural features (tree, mountain, rushing river) and anthropomorphized animals (grumpy crab, burrowing bunny , loyal dog) on the one hand, and simple and fun meditation practices on the other. the result is an impressive array of short, insightful practices that can be, according to the accompanying guide, “a source of invention and play, a safe way to reflect on difficult topics, and a form of nourishment and support for children navigating a increasingly difficult world. complex world.” the instructions are very clearly stated and (best of all) the teachings contained here avoid the extreme seriousness that can ruin meditation for people of all ages. —bb
4. conscious movement in psychotherapy
paul salmon • guilford press
How many movies or television series have you seen that show psychotherapy? every time it’s the same scene. the therapist in a comfortable chair, hands under the chin, listening intently or speaking wisely. in front of them the client sits on a chair or sofa, generally a little more anxious. salmon, a clinical psychologist who teaches in the department of psychology and brain sciences at the university of louisville, asks us: is there something missing from this image?
movement. because the movement, he says, is traditionally “considered outside the realm of ‘talk therapy’.” conscious movement” in their interventions. he’s not just talking about exercise, but movement infused with an awareness of what’s going on in the body and mind, which can “provide a way to rekindle an appreciation for our ability to move and be physically active.” moving, he emphasizes, is built into our DNA, but our lifestyle has greatly reduced it. physical activity itself can create a tangible experience that helps us become more than sedentary bodies with hyperactive brains, providing “a moment-to-moment anchor for reality.”
salmon begins by offering five progressively more engaging ways to bring movement into therapy. it then defines and defends mindful movement, as well as reviews how mindful movement is used in existing clinical programs. From there, salmon offers practical applications, first in general and then for various types of conditions, such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders and addictions. There are also 29 audio-guided practices that book buyers can do in person or with clients. —bb
5. keep calm and connect: your manual for surviving the digital revolution
gillian “gus” andrews, edd • the mit press
This manual is packed with practical information, from understanding bias to finding out who owns a particular website. Andrews points out that the digital revolution, with its promise to connect us all, expand access, and generally spread more fun, often leaves us feeling more disconnected and misinformation proliferates. his book is for those of us who feel “wrong” with technology, addicted to it, or don’t know how best to navigate a world dominated by it. She addresses frequently asked questions about privacy, online etiquette, critical thinking, being intimate online, and more. worksheets, practices, tips, and resources for further reading make this guide valuable for anyone who wants to better understand one of the defining revolutions of our time. —sd
6. Well-Nourished: Mindful Practices to Heal Your Relationship with Food, Eat Fully, and Stop Overeating
andrea lieberstein, mph, rdn • favorable winds
This step-by-step approach to healing our relationships with food offers worksheets, charts, graphs, prompts, and practices to guide readers through an inventory of how, what, and why we eat and overeat. Lieberstein describes what she calls our “eight bodies”: physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, social, intellectual, and creative. Lack of nutrition from one or more of those bodies can lead us to overeat, writes Ella Lieberstein. Subsequent chapters focus on each of those bodies, with research-based insights into the importance of each to our well-being, along with tools for harnessing awareness, setting intentions, and making changes to better nourish each of our bodies. Well Nourished is a practical, compassionate, and customizable approach to a problem that may seem insurmountable: We have to eat to survive, but not addressing our relationship with food, and overeating can stunt our ability to thrive and live fully. —sd
7. humanity
a hopeful story
rutger bregman • little, brown and company
In 1971, Professor Philip Zimbardo conducted the notorious Stanford Prison Experiment, in which “a group of ordinary students were transformed into monsters,” in the words of Rutger Bregman. In a seminal chapter of humanity, Bregman groups this experiment together with Stanley Milgram’s 1961 study in which subjects applied what they were told were electric shocks to people who answered questions incorrectly, and a total of 65 % of subjects continued to shock to the limit they were told to shock. To this pair, he adds studies on the “bystander effect” that arose from the murder of Kitty Genovese in New York in 1964, which occurred while many seemed to watch and do nothing.
bregman brings up this investigation, after an earlier chapter on william golding’s lord of the flies, to show us what has been staged to lead to the conclusion that we are, as one columnist put it after the genovese incident , “an insensitive, immoral and goose-hearted people,” or as Golding wrote, “man produces evil as the bee produces honey.”
bregman gradually enlarges each frame to reveal larger images. Milgram and Zimbardo’s experiments suffered from the same disease as reality television: producers and directors are offstage intimidating and goading participants. Psychological research can no longer be done this way, and Zimbardo himself atoned by launching the Heroic Imagination Project. In the case of the Genoese, there were people who did something, but they were overlooked in the effort to tell a sensational story.
this gets to the heart of what bregman is about: because people have done bad things, including some terribly bad things (see the holocaust), we’re back to a simplistic story of basic evil. then we design things based on that belief, leading to outcomes like mass incarceration. he is asking us to consider what would happen if we started from a belief in the fundamental decency of people, for which we also have a great deal of evidence. would we build a better world? —bb
8. you belong: a call to connection
sebene selassie • harper collins
This debut from meditation teacher sebene selassie is sheer delight. selassie’s style tells the reader: you belong on these pages, and her message tells us: you belong, period. selassie draws from science, ancient indigenous wisdom, Buddhism, art, pop culture, anecdotes from friends, and her own experience (as an Ethiopian-Eritrean daughter of immigrants, regularly the only black girl in any group, three times cancer survivor, longtime meditator, and lifelong seeker of ways to belong) to build a compelling argument: “the only thing breathing human beings have in common is birth, death, and belonging.” that belonging, she points out selassie, is linked to knowing and loving ourselves, but also to the idea that we are intrinsically linked. in the end, belonging is love. belongs to all of us, and we to him. —sd
9. women’s bodies, women’s wisdom
create physical and emotional health and healing
christiane northrup, md • penguin random house
This fifth edition of christiane northrup’s landmark handbook for women’s health, first published in 1996, has been updated for the #metoo generation. As with northrup’s previous four revised editions, this one offers up-to-date treatment and research data, as well as updated thinking, from northrup’s new life stage: grandmother.
northrup continues to take a holistic approach to women’s health, and that includes considering the culture in which women live. northrup doubles down on her claim that having internalized our bodies as a problem is at the heart of women’s health, and that sexual trauma and abuse manifest in our physical bodies. she points out that just as the tide seems to be turning for sexual assault and harassment, so must the tide turn for health care. this book will be for any woman who missed it the first time: it is dedicated comprehensively to women’s health, from the role of patriarchy in women’s health care to understanding menopause, and includes a 12 step program to prosper. —sd
10. don’t tell me to relax
emotional resilience in the age of anger, feelings & madness
See Also: 12 of the Best Gardening Books that Preschoolers Love (Printable List)
ralph of the rose • shambhala
spiritual avoidance, a term first coined in psychology, refers to the misuse of the teachings of spirituality or wisdom by focusing on their “feel good” aspects, while downplaying the reality of pain (ours). and that of others). but is the only alternative to be paralyzed by raging despair?
don’t tell me to relax, de la rosa’s second book, comes at the perfect time to inform a growing cultural awareness that neither approach will get us very far. “Let us never forget: Often the deepest truths are the ones that challenge us,” she writes.
Deftly drawing inspiration from neurobiology, mindfulness teachings and psychotherapy, de la rosa recognizes that suffering is caused by a multitude of factors: from the systemic, such as racism, ableism, homophobia and lack of economic power, to dysfunctional personal education, traumatic losses, physical and mental health problems. having faced some of these himself, he does not deny their importance in our lives, nor does he claim that we should just get over them. instead, he empowers us, through direct and insightful prose, to touch those parts of ourselves that ache. the book’s focus is “on radical non-pathology, embodying it in a model of empowerment: the truth that the inherent wisdom, clarity, and freedom of our deepest nature need not wait for anyone or anything else to arrive.” throughout, de la rosa offers seemingly simple yet transformative practices to help us (re)discover our innate curiosity and introspection. When we don’t “chill out” but instead go deeper into awareness and compassion, we can channel our efforts in the direction of healing, both for ourselves and for our world. —in
11. thinking and eating
recipes to nourish and inspire
the school of life
A cookbook like no other, Thinking and Eating explores “how the sensory realm can be deployed to help with the transmission of ideas.” food, like art, can inform us about how we should live. In the first section, a list of virtues, each combined with a single ingredient, accompanies delicious-sounding recipes. hope is a lemon, for example, maturity a fig. subsequent sections offer recipes and menus for a variety of moods: when I’m alone (I don’t like myself very much), with friends (why do we keep talking about house prices?), and in relationships (how can I retire kindly of a sulking?). what’s not to like about a book that claims “the mushroom is an edible treatise on the rarity of existence”? seconds for me please.—sd
12. a kingdom of tender colors
a memoir of comedy, survival and love
seth greenland • europe editions
Screenwriter, playwright, and novelist Seth Greenland brings his considerable powers as a storyteller to recount the journey he and his family took after his diagnosis with stage 4 lymphoma at age 37. With a daughter and another boy on the way and a writing career halfway there, he faced the prospect of losing everything, possibly leaving his new family in dire straits. His in-laws sent him a letter: “We hope you make the most of the time you have left.”
And indeed he has, over the ensuing three decades, as evidenced by the free flow of this narrative, which he was inspired to write during the worst days of his illness, vowing that if he survived he would write the kind of book he wished he had. been able to read while going through the darkest of dark nights. dark yes, but also fun, since the shtick runs through his veins. Greenland was a writer and producer of HBO’s The Great Love, a satirical treatment of Mormon polygamy, and that irreverence is in full bloom here, as he describes grappling with eternal questions and finding various seriously lacking cosmologies. as he talks to god and asks the divinity to please not kill him, he can’t help but share that he’s pretty sure he doesn’t exist, chides him for the inquisition and holocaust, and drops some fucking bombs. to boot.
It’s not all fun and games. we are caught up, moved and intrigued, as he goes through chemotherapy and complications that lead to his near death; meditation, tai chi, and other mind-body approaches; topped off with distant alternative treatments that it would be inappropriate to mention in polite company. Along the way, Ella Susan’s wife begins meditating to help herself and her children, she leaves her career as a lawyer, becomes the best-selling author of Mindful Child, and founds an innovative mindfulness program for children. . even the darkest clouds hide silver linings. —bb
13. true change
mindfulness to heal ourselves and the world
sharon salzberg • iron
Sharon Salzberg is one of the field of mindfulness’s most beloved teachers and one of the most prolific authors, with several best-selling titles including Real Happiness and Love Your Enemies. In her most recent book, Real Change, Salzberg directs her considerable wisdom toward the now ever-present question of how we can show up and help the world from a place of compassion, without succumbing to anger or exhaustion.
You could be forgiven for assuming that someone with dozens of years of practicing meditation and lovingkindness under their belt is too grounded and heart-centered to be upset by what’s on the news. Salzberg tells us that he sometimes leaves her “overwhelmed, tired,” adding that it’s completely human to feel overwhelmed at times and want to get away from it all. however, “the truth is,” he tells us, “meditation wouldn’t be as meaningful to me at this point in my life if it were just me.” she describes our intrinsic tendency to fight, flight, or freeze in the face of powerful emotions. gently, gradually, we can move out of these responses, through mindfulness and loving-kindness practices that help us learn to “cultivate a sense of agency, to understand that a range of responses is open to us…to have the space in through adversity to remember our values, what really matters to us, and find support in our inner strength and in others,” she says.
real change journeys through many richly nuanced topics including how to transform the energy of anger and resentment, instead of getting lost in them; how to work with the bottomless pain of grief and trauma by tapping into our innate resilience; and how we can begin to enact a shared worldview by making a decision to care and take action. In the last part of the book, Salzberg leads us into deeply insightful teachings about interconnectedness, bias, and our habitual instinctive judgments toward self and “other.” each chapter ends with a mindfulness practice to help us further integrate our expanded vision in each area.
Reading this book is like stepping into a collage of real wisdom and hope. Salzburg features many voices of courage and care, from feminist authors Bell Hooks to survivors of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school shooting, to researchers and experts in fields too numerous to name, including many in the contemplative sciences. Salzburg also draws connections from Buddhist psychology to add to our current scientific understanding of the mind and how significantly our minds create our world. A profound and timely offering, Real Change will resonate for years to come as a guide to creating conscious, heart-centered change in the midst of so much uncertainty. —in
See Also: 2021 National Book Award winners and finalists: A guide to the must-read books – Vox