Wherever You Go, There You Are summary

Chapter 1: Mindfulness means conscious living

Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn. What's in it for me? Experience life to the fullest. How often have you found yourself in a perfect situation on holiday?

Say in a wonderful city, enjoying the sights, or sunbathing on a beautiful beach, or walking through a picturesque forest. Wherever it is, it's exactly where you want to be. But then it hits you, you're not all there. Instead, you're thinking about the laundry that needs to be done, or that incomplete work assignment.

Our minds do this, they wander, and take us out of the moment. But what if the moment is exactly where we want to be? How can we stay there? The answer is mindfulness.

This has become a very voguish word over the course of the last decade, but how exactly does it work, and how does one actually practice it? Well, it isn't really a goal to be achieved, but something that needs to be practiced, requiring constant work and focus. In this summary, you'll learn the fundamentals of, as well as some more advanced techniques for practicing mindfulness. In this summary, you'll discover how the Dalai Lama has used mindfulness in dealing with China, why trees are great partners in meditation, and how generosity is one way to practice mindfulness.

Chapter 1: Mindfulness means conscious living and appreciation of the present moment. Mindfulness has become a bit of a buzzword in recent times. But what exactly is it? You have perhaps heard that mindfulness is an ancient Buddhist practice.

In fact, mindfulness is for everyone, and you needn't forswear your earthly possessions and become a Buddhist to enjoy its rewards. Mindfulness is about overriding our automatic approach to life. From a Buddhist perspective, our ordinary state of consciousness is quite limited. We often do things unconsciously, without being fully present in the moment.

The simple fact that we're always doing something, while thoughts race through our heads without cease, leaves very little room for us to just be. So, to truly embrace the present, we need to systematically observe who we are and examine our view of the world. This, essentially, is mindfulness. So why be mindful?

Well, mindfulness is a tool that helps us realize the richness and possibility of our own growth and transformation. Cultivating it reunites us with aspects of ourselves that we often overlook, opening us to new ways of existing both in our own skin and in the world. For example, it can lead us to richer experiences of joy, peacefulness and happiness, and also to a better understanding of difficult emotions, like grief, sadness and fear, that is, those emotions of which we're often unaware or only express unconsciously. Because mindfulness is so illuminating in this way, it's also empowering.

As we become more mindful, we become more aware of who we are, which unleashes our creativity and intelligence and gives us clarity. The cultivation of mindfulness and meditation are often confused with things like relaxation, stress relief or self-development. However, mindfulness isn't about aiming for a particular feeling, nor is it about getting somewhere or becoming a particular kind of person. Rather, it's about observing the mind, becoming still and allowing ourselves to realize who and where we already are.

Your practice starts with the next chapter.

Chapter 2: Mindfulness is cultivated by

Mindfulness is cultivated by being in the moment and concentrating on one thing at a time. Developing mindfulness is as easy as incorporating some practices into your daily routine. Let's take a look at some of them. First, rather than doing all the time, begin shifting yourself into being mode.

Here's how, either sit or lie down and, once in that position, think of yourself as timeless. Observe the present moment without trying to change anything. Engage your senses and focus on what you see, hear, feel or on whatever is happening for you. Try to completely embrace and accept this moment.

If you catch your mind straying during the exercise, gently coax your attention back to your breath. Focus on the sensation of your breath moving in and out of your body, without getting your mind too involved or trying to change anything. This exercise will enrich the moments of your normal active mode, influencing the decisions you make and providing guidance. Along with accepting the moment, concentration and voluntary simplicity are other practices that will be valuable allies on your path to mindfulness.

Concentration is the cornerstone of mindfulness. When you're fully concentrated, your energy is directed toward deeply experiencing one thing or one moment. Everything else falls away, including other thoughts, feelings and the outer world. People often deeply appreciate this feeling, as it allows them to experience inner stillness and an undisturbed peace.

You can also try voluntary simplicity, that is, engaging in one activity or with one thought, at a time. If you're playing with your daughter, for instance, and you get a text, you could deliberately ignore your phone, instead bringing your full attention to enjoying the game with your child. It's important not to confuse non-doing with doing nothing. Consciously stopping, with the intention of cultivating stillness and appreciation, is non-doing, but it is not doing nothing.