What Are Your Favourite Mindfulness Resources?

[MelliOBrien]

Hi Mindful Mates,

I'd love to here what your favourite books, youtube vids, blogs, retreats or teachers are in the mindfulness space. I'll share a few of mine here...

My favourite books...

Ram Dass 'Be Here Now'

John Kabbat-Zinn 'Full Catastrophe Living'

Thich Nhat Hanh 'Peace Is Every Step'

Eckhart Tolle 'The Power of Now'

Steve Taylor 'Waking From Sleep'

Thich Nhat Hanh 'You Are Here'

Eckhart Tolle 'A New Earth'

John Kabbat Zinn 'Coming to Our Senses'

Byron Katie 'Loving What Is'

Ramana Maharshi 'The Spiritual Teachings of Ramana Maharshi'

Ramana Maharshi 'Who Am I'

Gaganji 'The Diamond in Your Pocket'

Geneen Roth 'Women Food God' - This is a great one to read about addiction, impulses and cravings

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 'Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience'

Stephen Mitchell 'The Bhagavad Gita - A Translation'

Stephen Mitchell 'The Tao Te Ching - A Translation'

Youtube vids...

Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc

Talks at Google: Eckhart Tolle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE1dWwoJPU0

Brene Brown: The power of vulnerability
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o

Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU

7 Strategies to Maintain Mindfulness In The Information Age
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtrQQ_mLujU

TED TALK: New Research Reveals Mindfulness Is the Secret to Happiness
http://mrsmindfulness.com/ted-talk-happ ... ndfulness/

Places and Teachers

In Australia I absolutely love the Satyananda Yoga Ashram in Mangrove Mountain just outside of Sydney http://www.satyananda.net/mangrove-retreats (thats why i run almost all my retreats from there- soooo beautiful!). I go here for my personal retreats too.

I also love and highly recommend learning mindfulness through the MBSR 8 week program. This program is a product of 30 years of refinement and experience from amazing teachers and practitioners. For Aussies, the openground crew have programs around Australia. http://www.openground.com.au/

Love Melli

[JonW]

That's a great list of books, Melli, including quite a few of my personal favourites along with titles that I've added to my wish list.
My favourite mindfulness books have been written by Jon Kabat-Zinn (particularly Coming To Our Senses) and Mark Williams/Danny Penman (Finding Peace In A Frantic World).
I'm with you on Ramana all the way and love the teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj just as much.
Other writers/poets/teachers: Toni Packer, Joan Tollifson, Charlotte Joko Beck, Steven Harrison, Jeff Foster, Meister Eckhart, Ranjit Maharaj, Ramakrishna, Peter Matthiessen, Shimon Malin, Tony Parsons (the other Tony Parsons), Robert Wolfe, Jan Westerhoff, Richard Bates...

[Gareth]

Oh Melli. You and Jon are going to get on very well, Tristan too when he shows up again.

A 'mindfulness resources' would definitely be a great addition to the site. Give people a host of different ways to learn about the practice and let them decide what suits them best. Anything can be a mindfulness practice. For me it was ambient music, and we've just seen on here somebody using smoking as a mindfulness practice. We are all different, and I am a firm believer in people finding a way to practice that suits them best.

We are going to have to get some more people with access to the site, to get in there and help make it something wonderful. This starting to become too big an idea for me to do on my own.

[MelliOBrien]

Thanks for sharing those books Jon! Awesome. I'll note them down (the ones i haven't read) and have a browse on amazon.

Gareth, help is here! We're all in this together and I think this site is only going to grow into a more and more valuable resource and place of community for practitioners. Thanks again! I simply had a mindful breaky in the sun this morning to start my day. In the end, life is the practice, the teacher and the teaching and every moment is worthy of our fullest attention.

Have a marvellous and mindful day my friends : )

[nnikolic]

Great list of resources there.

I would like to add one more, one of the most important books I have ever read.

Book is called "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius, roman emperor who lived around year 180 AD.

It is not about meditation at all. It is a personal reminder of a brilliant mind about life. He wrote the book for himself, and did not plan to publish it. It is based on stoic philosophy, and it's fascinating how much of it is similar to Buddhist teachings. Highly recommended!

[MelliOBrien]

Ahhh yes Marcus Aurelius! He was such a wonderful wise man. I'll check that out. Thanks.

Also I came across anther treasure on the weekend. 'The Mindfulness Movie' that you can watch for free in full here. http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi1149545241/

I also wrote a blog post last week pulling together my 9 favourite youtube videos on mindfulness so you can also check that out here (I ended up putting another 2 in the comments section. There are just so many good ones) http://mrsmindfulness.com/9-mindfulness-videos/

Enjoy!

[LucidMind]

I have come across a few university websites over the years with amazing mindfulness meditation resources. They have many guided meditations free to download. I would check them out if you have a chance! Most of these are through the university's counseling center or stress reduction clinic.

(just Google the name of the university + mindfulness or stress reduction)
UCSD: http://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/mindfulness/mbsr/Pages/audio.aspx
UCLA: http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22
Brigham Young University: https://caps.byu.edu/node/536
Central Washington University: You have to download them from Itunes (they are free)

[Peter]

I've read a lot of those books you mentioned, but my absolute favorite is:

Mindfulness For Dummies from Shamash Alidina
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1118868188/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1445089972&sr=1-1&pi=SL75_QL70&keywords=Shamash+Alidina

NoticeAndAccept

[JonW]

Hi NoticeAndAccept,
Thanks for that recommendation.
Please feel free to make yourself at home here on the forum.
All best,
Jon

[Peter]

Hi Jon,

Thank you very much! I am very happy to have found a place where 'we' can talk about mindfulness, after spending so much time reading about it and practicing it alone.

Sometimes I try to talk to people about it, but I don't know anybody that practices it. So it is more like expressing my enthusiasm, than anything else. 'Normal' people don't understand it and think it's some kind of religion or something.

I hope to be able to participate and I have some questions myself.