Must-reads on mindfulness

The Thread's Must-Read

'The Miracle if Mindfulness' by Thich Nhat Hahn
'10% Happier' by Dan Harris
'How To Do Nothing' by Jenny Odell

A friend recently finished constructing a labyrinth on her property, a lovely winding walk with elegant curves and bluish stones designed in the medieval tradition of the Chartres Cathedral labyrinth.

Now, I’ve never been one for quiet meditation — I think of hiking and enthusiastic exercise as my method for getting outside of myself — but this seems like a moment — COVID, the election, the breathless news cycle — for reconsidering that conviction.

So, I was curious about the science of the meditative mind and the experience of inspired meditation. Here are three books I’ve put on my list.

If you’re interested in the history and practice of mindfulness, the work of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn is essential. Born in Vietnam and banished in the 1960s, he has written more than 70 books, including “The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation” in which he teaches us how to resist being “sucked away to the future” and living in this “one moment of life.”

The jangly, high-pressure life of an ABC News correspondent couldn’t be further from Thich Nhat Hahn’s experience, but Dan Harris ends up, emotionally, in much the same place. Harris was a skeptic about meditation but an on-air panic attack led him into a deeper examination of the incessant voice in his head, urging him ever-onward and upward.

He writes about the path he embarked on to tame that voice in “ 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge and Found Self-Help That Actually Works — A True Story.”

One discovery? Harris thought of learning to meditate like lifting weights and building muscle mass.

My last book on mindfulness and meditation comes from artist Jenny Odell, titled “How To Do Nothing.” Odell draws on poetry and literature to teach us the tenets of paying attention in a world drenched in distraction: Refuse to have your attention pulled away, she counsels, ignore your routine for an hour or a day. And succumb to surprise.

Next week? How to hook your young reader on detective novels!

Want to add a book to my list? Send me the title on Twitter @KerriMPR.

— Kerri Miller | MPR News

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