Learn Calmness, Contentment, and Coping SkillsMaster the nuts and bolts of meditation, without the crystals and granola. Practical Mindfulness is a no-nonsense, no-incense training guide to the life-changing benefits of mindfulness. Training exercises that work. Practical Mindfulness approaches mindfulness and meditation from a hands-on, how-to, irreverent perspective–appealing directly to smart readers curious about meditation. By applying Dr. Sazima's training routines, learn to spend more time in real engagement with the world. Cultivate a deeper appreciation of experiences, from the everyday to the extraordinary, and live your life more fully, wisely, and joyfully. A practical approach to finding "home." We all search for that safe, comfortable feeling of peace of mind–our inner "home." When we face challenges–economic crisis or a life-threatening health problem–we can realize with blinding clarity there is no sustainable outside solution. Those without a more developed interior awareness are prone to suffer stress, anxiety and depression. Practical Mindfulness shows our real home, a place we can always return to no matter what, is actually inside of us. We're practically there. Meditation training from an author, doctor, teacher, meditator. . .and survivor. Dr. Sazima is a board-certified psychiatrist, educator of family doctors-in-training at Stanford's Family Medicine Residency, and long-time meditator and meditation teacher. He is also a survivor of a rare bone cancer who has used the powerful practice of meditation to navigate his own medical crisis. Now, he is on a "pay it forward" mission to help us gain a practical understanding and basic mastery of mindful awareness. In Practical Mindfulness, he leverages lessons from his experience in a personal, informal style to show why and how meditation works. Curious readers of books such as 10% Happier ; The Untethered Soul ; Wherever You Go, There You Are ; or Buddha's Brain, will love Practical Mindfulness . About the Author Greg Sazima's initial exposure and interest in mindfulness began in the mid 1990s, while working to incorporate Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) tactics into chronic disease management programming at the Family Medicine Residency Clinic. His personal passion for the benefits of an individual meditation practice followed. He has studied and practiced vipassana (insight) meditation with a teacher and training group in the Tibetan Kagyu lineage for almost twenty years. Over time, he has gradually integrated awareness practices into his clinical and teaching work. His writing career began with medical lectures and journal articles. Academic publications and presentations include works on doctor/"difficult" patient relationships and incorporation of meditation training into outpatient clinical practices. More recently he has written for mass media, with opinion essays on mental health issues published in the Sacramento Bee and The Philadelphia Inquirer . Dr. Sazima is currently in sustained remission after a riveting decade of recurring medical crises due to chrondrosarcoma, a form of bone cancer, located in his cervical spine. In many ways, Practically Mindful, conceived out of his crucible of suffering and uncertainty, was a parallel process to keeping his personal and professional life on track in the midst of chaos. His "pay it forward" mission in Practically Mindful is to help others gain a practical understanding and basic mastery of the built-in, human privilege of mindful awareness, so that meditation becomes a potent, sustained act of self-care. Dr. Sazima's wife of thirty years is a family physician. They have three adult sons. Besides his volunteer work at Capital Public Radio, he serves on the Board of Directors of Snowline Hospice, a non-profit palliative care provider in the Sierra foothills and Sacramento. |