Switching off is the last thing we need to do to be more mindful, calm, and happy. Modern Mindfulness gives you the ideas, principles, and techniques you need to bring awareness, composure, and kindness to whatever you are doing. Filled with more than sixty practical exercises, the author’s approach brings the benefits of meditation to even the busiest of lives. Ideas from Modern Mindfulness: - Adopt mindfulness techniques throughout the day (and night) - Use your phone mindfully (yes, it’s possible!) - Make mobility part of mindfulness (we’re always on the move!) - Use technology for good instead of evil (no need to do a digital detox). - “Whack-a-thought” and stay centered "Anyone intrigued by mindfulness, but allergic to incense or too busy to take a course should read this book. Like his app Buddhify, Modern Mindfulness is clean, elegant and useful. It's perfectly suited to our hurried, global, digital existence – and yet also a perfect antidote to it." - Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, author of The Distraction Addiction and Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Do Less ROHAN GUNATILLAKE is the creator of the buddhify app. Rohan is a trustee of the British Council, and, in 2012, Wired named him in their Smart List of 50 people who will change the world. He studied chemistry at Oxford. He lives in Glasgow with his wife and son. Modern Mindfulness How to Be More Relaxed, Focused, and Kind While Living in a Fast, Digital, Always On World By Rohan Gunatillake St. Martin's Press Copyright © 2017 Rohan Gunatillake All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-250-11641-3 Contents TITLE PAGE, COPYRIGHT NOTICE, DEDICATION, 1. A VERY MODERN MINDFULNESS, 2. THIS IS RELAXATION, 3. THIS IS FOCUS, 4. THIS IS BEING PRESENT, 5. THIS IS COPING, 6. THIS IS CONNECTION, 7. THIS IS GOING DEEPER, 8. THE OPERATING SYSTEM FOR MOBILE MINDFULNESS, 9. HOW TO DESIGN YOUR OWN MEDITATIONS, 10. GENERATION WISE, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, ABOUT THE AUTHOR, COPYRIGHT, CHAPTER 1 A VERY MODERN MINDFULNESS Mindfulness needs a redesign. There has never been as much interest in mindfulness and meditation as there is right now. A growing base of scientific research is providing substantial evidence for its benefits and effects. Leading companies are teaching it to their employees to manage stress. Elite athletes use it to stay calm and perform under pressure. Celebrities are taking it on as a must-have lifestyle accessory, and most important, people just like you are discovering how making mindfulness part of their lives can have a significantly positive impact. That's the good news. The bad news is that despite all this, most people who have an interest in mindfulness do not actually go on to do anything about it. There are three main barriers that stop people moving mindfulness from a nice idea to a lived reality: the time problem, the hippy problem and the digital problem. As a maker of mindfulness-related products, these are actually the challenges that get me the most excited since they can all be overcome. I just don't have time to meditate. This is the time problem. In an over-scheduled world with all our various commitments, finding a quiet ten or twenty minutes to dedicate to ourselves feels like an impossible task. So when we hear that to get the most out of mindfulness we have to do exactly that, of course it feels out of reach. If this is you, please don't worry. We'll solve the time problem. You have to be spiritual or religious to get into meditation and that's just not me. This is the hippy problem. Mindfulness-based meditation does originate from the Buddhist tradition. And even though Buddhism has perhaps the best PR department out of all the major world religions, the spiritual aesthetic and other baggage tied up with mindfulness and meditation is a very real barrier for a lot of people. That's fine too. We will solve the hippy problem. I live a very connected life and it's just not practical for me to unplug everything. This is the digital problem. Mindfulness and technology are commonly presented as being in opposition to each other. Too often we are told that the only way to be truly present and connected is to turn everything off. But in a world where our work, our lifestyle and our economy are so fundamentally dependent on technology, when it comes to our well-being we simply cannot afford to keep demonizing all things digital. But fear not. We will solve the digital problem as well. This is a next-generation mindfulness book. It is for the millions of people who struggle to find space in the busyness of it all. It is for the millions of people all around the world who would love more awareness, more calm and more kindness in their lives. It is for the millions of people who have never felt that mindfulness or meditation was for them. This book is for you. Notice what it feels like to read these opening paragraphs. Notice if any particularly strong thoughts or reactions have come up.