Gratitude for Mindfulness

Today I’m grateful for Mindfulness, especially as it relates to modern psychology.

I’m currently reading “The Mindful Way Through Depression” by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn.

I’ve been interested in and practiced (in an on/off, never quite sticking to it way) mindfulness for a few years now.  I believe my first real introduction to it was through the Insight Meditation Center’s Audio Dharma, which has an excellent Introduction to Meditation series.

Mindfulness is one of those things that I’ve known helps to alleviate my depression, but for whatever reason I haven’t really stuck to.  But that’s not what this post is about – it’s about the gratitude that it exists, that people have studied it and refined the practice, and that it’s one of those things that a person can practice in either a religious or a secular context.  Or both, even.

If you are interested in an introduction from a purely secular viewpoint, this morning I watched (and practiced along with) a video of a talk that Jon Kabat-Zinn gave at Google back in 1997.  Well worth the hour and fifteen minutes I spent on it.  I hope it’s worth it to you too.

Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn

[This is entry 20 of 365 of Operation Gratitude]