Last month, I shared my Mindfulness Workbook For Dummies with you. In this video, I share a little more on my thoughts and the top five lessons I’ve learned from reading this book.
What do you think about mindfulness meditation?
I’ve been interested in meditation for several years, and although I’ve taken a few steps such as buying a deck of “Meditation Cards”, it’s not something I’ve made time for regularly. When I have meditated, I hit the same roadblocks most people do of having my mind wander to irrelevant topics and feeling like I was doing it “Wrong”. Earlier in the year, I watched a lecture that mentioned the benefits of mindfulness meditation and I found it to be very compelling. Both Jai and I have wanted to learn more about the topic of mindfulness meditation, and upon searching, it became clear that many of the books on the topic were pretty esoteric; I wanted something basic that would serve as a good introduction to mindfulness to those of us who have yet to go on a Zen retreat.
So when I got an offer to check out the Mindfulness Workbook For Dummies, I thought it was pretty serendipitous. After all, it couldn’t get much clearer than a “For Dummies” book, right? π I was eager to check it out. The irony is that it was very hard to make the time to actually sit down and read it with everything that has been going on – that in itself should tell you that I most definitely need meditation in my life!
As the title suggests, this book is a how-to manual complete with worksheets containing suggested exercises to follow as you begin to learn the ropes of mindfulness. Beginners will be reassured to know that there is no “Wrong” way to meditate, and that in fact, having thoughts pop up in your head during meditation is the whole point. Mindfulness really is about a journey with no destination, because the journey is the destination.
The authors, Shamash Alidina and Joelle Jane Marshall, are both based out of London, so I found their thoroughly sensible British approach to mindfulness very comforting. Only in Britain would they recommend ending a meditation group with tea and biscuits – I love it!
The Mindfulness Workbook is very pragmatic and practical, which really appeals to me. It discusses the scientific studies which have been done illustrating the positive effects of mindfulness, as well as the proven effects that stress has on your body in addition to pointing out why the human brain tends to focus on the negative. (If you’re interested in learning more about the science behind stress, I highly recommend watching National Geographic’s “Stress: Portrait of a Killer” which is available on Netflix.) Because this workbook focuses on the mechanics of retraining your brain through mindfulness, it is compatible with whatever personal/spiritual/religious beliefs its readers have.
I read through this workbook at the end of a very exhausting week. The authors encourage you to skim through whatever parts of the book you feel are relevant to you, which makes it very accessible to the time-strapped, stress-saddled people that need it the most. I only skipped a couple of parts that didn’t apply to me, such as the chapter on teaching mindfulness to children. I found this to be quite a profound read that elicited very visceral reactions from me; I broke down in tears at one point. In addition to being an excellent, no-nonsense primer on meditation techniques, the workbook gave me some insights I didn’t necessarily expect. I’m a perfectionist and I have high expectations, but only of myself, not other people; and I will find myself expecting that I need to feel a certain way or have specific experiences, which then makes it impossible for me to fully enjoy a lot of things. It’s a hangup I’ve always had that annoys me, because it doesn’t make any sense, but I wasn’t sure how to change it; in fact, this is the first time I’ve ever really been able to articulate it. The Mindfulness Workbook talked about this type of thing in reference to the way we think about the future and experience the present, which was helpful to me.
If you’re new to meditation, you’ll be glad to know that this book makes it very easy to understand and approachable. The meditations are broken down into simple exercises, with a kind and reassuring approach. You can do whatever you feel comfortable with – so if the 8-week meditation course provided in the book sounds as overwhelming to you as it does to me, then you can choose to do something very easy and accessible such as a three-minute morning tea meditation, where all you have to do is make a cup of tea and actually pay attention as you do. Many of the meditations could really be done anywhere, which makes it a lot more realistic to actually do them. I’m not suggesting that you be so busy that all you do is rush around with no time to do anything more than meditate for 30 seconds – far from it. I just know what it’s like when you are stretched to your absolute maximum, so think of this book as throwing you a life preserver with some meditations that you can really do in your current situation. It’s like anything else; once it becomes a habit, it’s not so overwhelming, and you’ll be able to make more time for it. The book even suggests mindfulness exercises you can do while cleaning the house – not because they’re trying to get you to be a highly productive multitasker, but rather so that you can get more out of daily experiences, and to provide ways that you can fit meditation in without having to become a monk for 6 months.
Speaking of multitasking – there are dozens of gems in this book, but this one really made me laugh:
I want to frame this and hang it on a wall for everyone to see! As someone who really likes to focus and not have my concentration broken, multitasking does not always come naturally to me, but I accept it as unavoidable and necessary in my job since I work in social media. But what disturbs me is that with the advent of cell phone culture, people seem to expect everyone else to be available 24/7 – there’s an assumption that I will have my phone on me regardless of whether I’m working, sleeping, or in the shower, and no matter how mundane and non-urgent the call/text/email may be. I have no problem with responding to business queries very promptly when I’m in the office, and if someone in my personal life is hurting I will drop everything, including work, to go be with them and help. But the amount of pressure put on me to be constantly “On call” for matters that could easily wait adds a great deal of stress to my life. People actually get quite upset and panicky if they want to get through to me to chit chat about the weather and they don’t get an instantaneous response because I am, say, on the other line with a client; Louis C.K.’s recent skit about cell phones filling a void seems even more apt after reading this book! I think a lot of people could really benefit from the principles behind mindfulness in today’s fast-paced world.
If you have an interest in meditation or just general well-being and stress relief, I would recommend this book. It has a gentle, easy-to-understand approach that is compatible with any lifestyle and does not require any special training or a huge amount of time. You can pick up a copy on Dummies.com for $19.99, and it is also available on Amazon.
Do you meditate?
Last year, I got a fun nostalgia flashback when I reviewed the 2012 Ripley’s Believe It Or Not annual. The book is back for its 2013 installment, Dare To Look!, so naturally I had to check it out. I grew up reading these books and they still suck me in with their endless lists of fun facts and tidbits. I have to say that these contemporary versions are a lot more squeamish to me than the old school installments, since we now see full-color photographs of things like cysts and a man with hooks through his eyes, but I just quickly skim over those pages. π
Now that I have a newer iPhone, I was also able to download the Ripley’s App, which allows you to scan pages in the book to access bonus content, like this video of a snowboarding possum. The app also has a daily comic, which is drawn in the same retro illustration style that Ripley’s used in their annuals that I grew up with – I love that!
As always, these books are a fun, light read. PDXers will also be proud to know that the basketball-playing sea otter at the Oregon Zoo got a mention in this year’s annual! π
Right now, you can pick up a copy of Dare To Look! for only $14.99 plus free shipping by clicking this link! This is a special discounted price for blog readers, so make sure you use this link to order and snag the deal!
I really enjoy getting the chance to meet up with local bloggers, which is partially why I’ve logged so much travel time this summer. So when Word of Mouth Women asked me if I’d like to organize a book club event for area bloggers, I was really excited. The book club was being coordinated to discuss “Fitness Confidential”
Usually, I would host an event like this at my house, but since I’m the only blogger in Seaside, I knew that wouldn’t work for this type of gathering since everyone else is either in or close to Portland. As I mulled over where to hold the event, I quickly decided on Pioneer Courthouse Square. This brick courtyard in downtown Portland has tons of places to sit, free Wi-Fi, and a Starbucks – where better to hold a book club than a coffee shop?
On Friday night, a great group of local bloggers came out to hang out, chat, and share their thoughts after reading “Fitness Confidential”. Pictured from left to right are Jennifer from The Quirky Momma, Jodi from The Mama Gut, Evelyn from Momsicle, myself, Mary Ann from A Cloth Life, and Krista of Mostly Mommyhood. We were also joined by my fiance and blogging tech guru Jai, who conveniently offered to hold the camera so he could get out of being in the picture. π
After we all got a cup of coffee and sat down, we began our discussion of “Fitness Confidential”. I was looking forward to hearing everyone’s honest opinions – I figured that if a few people really hated the book, we’d have some lively conversation fodder! But that didn’t end up happening, because our group unanimously enjoyed the book, even those who were expecting to dislike it. A couple of bloggers said that they had been dreading reading it because they thought it would be dull, and were surprised to find that they couldn’t put it down after they started. Lest you think me disingenuous, I’d like to mention that I lead the discussion with several critiques of my own, because I wanted the bloggers to feel comfortable sharing anything they didn’t like about the book.
All of us enjoyed the storytelling in this book and the no-nonsense way in which Tortorich conveys his diet and fitness advice. His philosophy on health is simple and does not involve any elaborate systems or steps: For losing weight, he believes that a no-sugar, no-grain diet is they key, and he also maintains that diet is more important that exercise for getting and keeping weight off. This brought up some really interesting discussion on how this approach could work for us – some of the bloggers had already taken steps by ordering their coffees without sugar, or making bacon for breakfast! What a lot of us appreciated about the book was the fact that he doesn’t tell you to eliminate sugar and grains 100% of the time, since deprivation can really sabotage healthy eating; instead, he advises that you simply avoid grains and sugar most of the time, even if you have cake on your birthday.
This brought up the interesting point of how much work can be involved in eating this way, since so much food contains sugar even when you don’t expect it. Obviously, making all your food from scratch is the ideal way to go, but our group pointed out the challenges that poses when you have several children as well as a full-time job. A working mom who pulls shifts at two jobs before picking her kids up at daycare faces different challenges than a celebrity – so we may have to adapt some of these strategies in order for them to be realistic for our own schedules. I’m sure personal trainers are sick to death of the excuses they hear from their clients, but I think it’s important to remember that some people have very good reasons why their health is on the back burner, so it’s important to look at their life as a whole when addressing potential solutions rather than dismissing everyone as just being lazy. If Tortorich comes out with a book on healthy living for families, I think it’d be a huge hit with our group, and I’m sure he could put together a great one since he’s actually trained children!
The bloggers really enjoyed how Fitness Confidential utilizes funny anecdotes and life experiences to entertain and inspire. The book is full of one-liners which the author refers to as “Vinnie-isms”, with stories ranging from hilarious and surreal moments training his Hollywood clientele to his own triumphs against unimaginable adversity. His style is very opinionated and blunt – our group didn’t seem to really be offended by the language used in the book, although they said they could have gone without some of the more explicit anecdotes about his conquests. In fact, the dismissive jokes about women in the first half of the book seemed to be the only thing that really got our eyes rolling when reading the book.
As the sun set over Pioneer Square, we wrapped up our book club and said our goodbyes. It was a great evening of thought-provoking discussion – I had such a wonderful time connecting with these great women. I’ll be sharing their reviews on the book with you as they post them, but in the meantime, I will leave you with mine and Jai’s take on Fitness Confidential.
I read this book in the car last week during our trip to Orcas Island. Fitness Confidential is a fast, light read – in fact, it took me almost as long to get the Kindle app working as it did for me to read the book! Tortorich and Lorey have created a book that is engaging, compelling, and funny. I loved reading his personal story and was glad that he made this book fun and humorous, because I’m so bored of traditional health books; I was reluctant to put Fitness Confidential down because I was absorbed in the story.
Tortorich’s skewering of the diet/fitness industry is entertaining, and while I don’t agree with him on everything, I think his overall approach makes a lot of sense. When I got to the portion of the book about “No sugar, no grains”, I thought, “Well, I’m out!”. π However, everything he says makes sense and the fact that he encourages his clients to still indulge occasionally makes it much more practical for real-world success. I certainly can’t argue that reducing my intake of sugar and bread helps me, because as a matter of fact, I try to avoid keeping those things in the house specifically because I know I will want to snack endlessly on them.
“This book covers a lot of ground in its 240 pages and, no matter your interests, there’s a little bit of something for everyone. Gym rats, weekend joggers, Ultra-racers, and people who just want to lose a few pounds will find something good to walk away with. Vinnie Tortorich has decades of real-world experience as a personal trainer and has seen fad diets come and go. He has a way of distilling a lot of complicated concepts into something that can be adapted into lifestyle changes that work. I can think of two major concepts that I’ll be taking from this book and integrating into my life. The first is the general approach to food. Notice that I didn’t use the word diet in that sentence. The other is the advice on which exercises are most important for weight lifting, and guidelines on the best way to increase the weights as you progress. I’m glad I got a chance to read this book!”
Fitness Confidential is available on Amazon for $9.99.