A Mindful Year

“This is more than a book. It is a companion, a wise guide that accompanies us each day. We find meditations here that sustain our optimism about who we are and what we can be. They both challenge and comfort us, just the combination we need if we are to awaken fully.”

David Richo, PhD, author of The Five Longings: What We’ve Always Wanted and Already Have

“This book’s 365 daily invitations encourage and guide us to become more aware, learn new ways of knowing and being, and realize that in each moment we have a choice about how to respond. It is imbued with practical wisdom and compassion, alongside a grounded reality of how difficult this work can be. Starting each day with these reflections and committing to enacting them in our lives could enrich our lives, and those whose lives we touch both directly and indirectly. A unique feature of this book is that it was written on the foundations of a friendship between the two authors, that is clearly infused with love and mutual respect. The authors bring out the very best in each other, and in so doing potentially in readers as well.”

Willem Kuyken, Ritblat Professor of Mindfulness and Psychological Science, University of Oxford, and coauthor of Mindfulness: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Psychology

“A Mindful Year is jam-packed with entertaining, thought-provoking insights and creative invitations to be mindful as you go through your day, every day, for an entire year. The authors’ stories about their experiences demonstrate how often we have opportunities to pay close attention to the events, big and small, that transpire in our own lives. The daily observations are fascinating, deeply personal, and always engaging. After each entry, readers are presented with invitations to be mindful each day, so they can learn to respond with understanding, self-compassion, or action that aligns with their values. Throughout, the principles of mindfulness and cognitive-behavioral therapy are used to show the value of maintaining contact with the present moment, accepting authentic thoughts and feelings, and exploring different ways of understanding experiences. A Mindful Year is a wonderful book.”

Joel Minden, PhD, clinical psychologist and author of Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss

“The Buddha taught that life is full of suffering but mindful compassion will help us both cope and gain insight into the nature of our minds. Mindfulness asks us to pay attention to our reactions as they unfold moment by moment. In this gentle book, Aria Campbell-Danesh and Seth Gillihan offer 365 reflections and invitations to be mindful in specific ways. They range over paying attention to our thoughts, feelings, and actions; noticing our bodies from our hands to our feet; noticing our sensory capacities and our desires and disappointments; noticing the way we may start each day with a hope, ‘a rush to do,’ or a dread. Drawing on a multitude of contemplative and scientific thinkers, this book is full of wonderful ideas for mindfulness practices for each day of the year that lift us out of the treadmill of the automatic pilot. Looking through these ways of focusing our attention reveals new vistas of experience—if we learn to pay attention. The world grows around us and becomes deeper and more multitextured.”

Prof. Paul Gilbert, PhD, OBE, author of The Compassionate Mind and Living like Crazy

“This book helps us to see the extraordinary in the ordinary and to allow ourselves to be more present. The interaction between the mind and body is so powerful that as the mind becomes more emotionally balanced we reap the benefits in our physical health as well.”

Marilyn Glenville, PhD, founder of the Glenville Nutrition Clinics and the UK’s leading nutritionist in women’s health