![]() ![]() Often it’s the experience and expertise of the author that makes the difference between a mindfulness book that is authentic and helpful, and one that uses the term as “a buzzword,” as Georgia Hughes, editorial director of the northern California-based New World Library puts it. “That five percent of people who are introduced to mindfulness in a more simple way will move on and want to know more and make this a lifelong practice.” “That’s our reader,” said John Hays, v-p and director of sales and marketing at Inner Traditions, which is based in Rochester, Vt. But others springboard from encountering the term when learning, say, to knit, to diving more deeply into the spiritual practice and provenance of mindfulness. Some readers are eager for the practical aspects of mindfulness like help with productivity and focus, relaxation and stress management, and healthy habits including diet and exercise. “The word is definitely becoming more mainstream and part of the popular language,” said Perdoni, “but I guess that’s inevitable when things become popular and there are apps and shopping categories where mindfulness is alongside homeware.” The most recent book in the series, Fiona Buckland’s Thoughtful Leadership: A Guide to Leading with Mind, Body, and Soul, takes on the topic without putting “the M-word” on the cover. Over the past 10 years, Leaping Hare has published 26 titles on mindfulness, and future books will be practical, illustrated takes on similar topics, said Monica Perdoni, commissioning editor at Leaping Hare. However, he said, “despite the term’s use, misuse, and perhaps overuse, mindfulness continues to offer enormous potential for those willing to do the work in applying the practice to a secular discipline.”Īt Leaping Hare, a U.K.-based imprint of Quarto Group, the use of the term is shifting from introducing mindfulness as a way of thinking to showcasing it as a way of approaching practical life skills, from swimming to gardening to crafting. “Despite the term’s ubiquity and popularization, its promise remains mostly misunderstood…and largely untapped,” said Nikko Odiseos, president of Shambhala. ![]() Shambhala Publications has around 900 titles currently in print on the subject of mindfulness, beginning in 1969 with Meditation in Action by the Tibetan Buddhist master Chögyam Trungpa. It does so much work that I can’t think of another word in which you aren’t saying 30 words or long sentences to get at what most people think of as mindfulness.” Broadleaf Books publishes a number of Christian authors, like Steve Weins’ 2020 title Shining Like the Sun: Seven Mindful Practices for Rekindling Your Faith.” Christian authors often want to avoid acknowledging the Buddhist roots of mindfulness as a practice, connecting it instead with Christian contemplative practices they trace to the early church, or merely using “mindfulness” as a substitute for words like “presence” or, in the Quaker context, “quietude.” Still, Copan said that even amid concern about using the term, mindfulness is “such a good word. The term mindfulness can be “very fraught,” agreed Lil Copan, senior acquisitions editor at Broadleaf Books, particularly if it has been “diluted in its origin” in Buddhism. Kabat-Zinn is a medical researcher and student of Zen Buddhism whose books and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) courses have pioneered the mindfulness category for decades. However, she adds, “My concern is that the overuse of the term renders it meaningless, open to criticism, and too easy to dismiss as a self-help gimmick." In 2022, the Colorado-based publisher will publish Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief: Guided Practices for Reclaiming Your Body by Jon Kabat-Zinn, drawn from his earlier CD and audio of the same title. Jennifer Yvette Brown, executive editor at Sounds True, said, she's "delighted that mindfulness has become a household word in the 21 years since I studied Buddhism at Naropa University,” which is named for an 11th-century Buddhist sage.
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