Thomas's Reviews > Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness

Don’t get me wrong, I love mindfulness, though this specific book about mindfulness felt so long and drawn-out. Jon Kabat-Zinn details some important and helpful information about mindfulness, and he then applies it to many, many areas: mindfulness for doctors and patients, walking meditation, mindfulness applied to pain, mindfulness applied to stress, mindfulness applied to work, and so on. While I can see how this approach may resonate for folks who do want to read about mindfulness applied to literally everything, for me it started to feel repetitive. I don’t regret reading this because I like little boosters/reminders for me to engage in mindfulness in my packed day-to-day life. However, for those who want a more concise or targeted introduction to mindfulness, I’d recommend Kabat-Zinn’s Wherever You Go, There You Are or Tara Brach’s Radical Acceptance. I read both of those books around a decade ago or even more than that I think, so I don’t recall everything from them, though they resonated with me then and still impact my day-to-day life positively.

Also, this should be the bare minimum, though I’m glad Kabat-Zinn acknowledges the roots of mindfulness in Eastern and Buddhist philosophies.