Reddit mentions of Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness

Hey. It really is a very very widely covered subject so when I first came across it I devoured a tonne of articles pretty indiscriminately, and didn't really save any until I got on to the more lengthy articles/books.

If you want a very quick introduction you can't really go wrong with google. It's a very easy concept to understand, it's just it can sometimes take a lot of practice to get the benefits out of it :)

Just bear in mind that articles can approach it from several quite different perspectives that could appeal or put you off, depending on your inclinations. Mindfulness as a concept, and as a meditative practice, forms the basis of many spiritual practices. Buddhism in particular. So there are many articles that are a little too spiritual for my tastes, but your mileage may vary. On the flip side Mindfulness meditation has found it's way into quite a number of therapy approaches and is being accepted as beneficial by psychologists, and so some articles take a much more scientific, but sometimes overly sceptical, view of about it due to the small, but increasing, amount of actual studies performed on it. The third, and probably most common type of article, is a simple pragmatic "self-help" type.

The thing to note is that no matter what perspective and what terminology is used the actual practice and descriptions of mindfulness are essentially the same ... as are the benefits! My point being, I'd advise you try not to let an overly scientific or overly spiritual author bias your view of the method and to try and get a balanced overview of it.

It's not really a simple introduction but I did enjoy reading (the first half) of this thesis which takes an intetersting and balanced view on the history (history and overview of Buddhism essentially) and science of Mindfulness (overview of studies done up to the time of the thesis). It is pretty lengthy though.

I'm also enjoying a book called "Fully Present" which is co-written by two people from both the scientific and spiritual perspectives together, for a pretty all round view as well. But again, it's a lengthy book that I'm only part of the way through still. Really good so far though. Very pragmatic from both authors really.

Fully Present by Susan Smalley and Diana Winston is a great resource.

This is a good book too, that helps me everyday