Read more
A no-nonsense, no incense guide to mindfulness and meditation. It explains and trains an essential human capacity: clear awareness in and of our experience of everyday life.
Practically Mindful specifically targets smart, curious readers interested in the nuts and bolts of mindfulness, but skeptical of the crystals and granola.
List of contents
Table of ContentsForeword
Introduction: Just Take A Breath, Would Ya?
PART I
1 We Can Always Change Our Minds
2 First, We¿ll Need A Map
3 Yoüd Better Sit Down For This: A Few Preparatory Words On, Uh, Sitting
4 Sitting: The Setup
5 All Right, Let¿s Start Already
6 Lost and Found
PART II
7 Another Map: Your Mind, The Operating System(s)
8 4.0: What¿s New? (How Is The Vibe Treating You?)
9 Back to the Cushion: Body And Heart
10 Emotions Practices: Just Dropping In
11 ¿I Think¿ Becomes, ¿There¿s That Thought¿
12 It¿s A Bee-you-tee-ful Day For Meditation!
13 The Mind Hacker¿s Toolkit, For Those Special Moments
PART III
14 It¿s All Home: Deeper Awareness
15 Into The Deep End: Vibe Practices
16 Home Again, Home Again
Some Final Words On Mindfulness
Afterword: Practically Finished
Appendix: See Om, Do Om, Teach Om: Spreading The Goodness
Index
About the author
Greg Sazima, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist, educator, and author, based in Northern California. In addition to a busy psychotherapy practice, he serves as Senior Behavioral Faculty at the Stanford/O'Connor Family Medicine Residency program in San Jose. Practical Mindfulness is his first Mango book, a no-nonsense guide to introductory meditation. He has been a practitioner and teacher of mindfulness meditation for many years, creating curricula for both adults and children. Dr. Sazima has written on mental health issues for newspapers and periodicals, including the Sacramento Bee and the Philadelphia Inquirer. His serves on the boards of directors of Capital Public Radio, Northern California's NPR network, and Snowline Hospice, a nonprofit palliative care provider in the Sacramento/Sierra Foothills region.
Summary
A no-nonsense, no incense guide to mindfulness and meditation. It explains and trains an essential human capacity: clear awareness in and of our experience of everyday life. Practically Mindful specifically targets smart, curious readers interested in the nuts and bolts of mindfulness, but skeptical of the crystals and granola.
Foreword
Target Audience
The appetite for mindfulness is growing and clearly hasn’t peaked yet. The CDC reports that the number of American adults who meditate has increased from 4% (12.8 million) in 2012 to 14% (44.8 million) in 2017. Meditation and mindfulness practices have become a cornerstone of stress management in virtually every arena of modern life, including the workplace, healthcare organizations, schools, and spiritual groups.
Many books on meditaton are New-Agey, clothing meditation in more mystic and mythic costuming, or are larded with medical and psychological jargon. Practically Mindful instead aims directly at a specific niche: well-educated, science-minded readers who are curious about mindfulness and the benefits of meditation but are skeptical of approaches that lean toward the devotional or are gilded with unnecessary “academese.”
Marketing Plan“Traditional” media
The author is comfortable with radio/TV interviews, book signings, sandwich board couture in the town square, etc. He has been in a board leadership role since 2011 at Capital Public Radio, a large network of NPR stations based in Sacramento and covering most of Northern California, including parts of the Bay Area—now flourishing as one of the top 10 NPR networks in the US. Through his activity chairing CPR’s Programming/Technology committee and contributing to their Marketing, Strategic Planning, and recruitment committees, he has cultivated friendships and contacts that he can use to get interviews and other publicity.
Podcasts
There are three podcast series that the author is developing and/or collaborating on.
- Practically Mindful Moments will showcase featured concepts and practices from the book in a "bite-size" (~5-10 minute long) series of brief podcasts to promote Practically Mindful. The author has identified around fifty subjects—some about mental health and consciousness, others practical tips on meditating. He intends to produce these to "drop" as part of the promotional run-up to the release of the book.
- 123 Focus is an introductory meditation curriculum targeted at elementary school age children that the author created for his local school district about ten years ago; it ran as a pilot project for two years. He is working with the American Academy of Pediatrics’ publicity arm, as well as some talented vocal performers to develop a children’s podcast form of that curriculum targeting childhood obesity, entitled 123 Focus’ Good Dog, Scarfy! The team have proof-of-concept sample recordings available to the public for market research. (https://www.dropbox.com/home/123%20Focus%20Scarfy%20podcasts)
- SHRINK/EXPAND, a mass-market podcast on demystifying and highlighting mental health issues, is the next project on the author's radar. A national NPR content provider that he consulted reinforced the absence of this subject area in the podcast “ecosphere,” and agreed it could both be a good public service and a popular one. Content developers/editors at his “home” NPR affiliate have responded very favorably to the idea, including consideration of recording and hosting it there.
Other Social/Online Media
The author has his own professional website (gregsazimamd.com) that includes links to his academic and mass media writing. A more book-specific website (prac0callymindful.com) is secured and can include introductory meditation exercises, guided meditations on video or audio, and a blog.
TED Talks
These 5-15 minute presentations are popular and influential for briefly introducing a particular thesis or “take-home” point. The author has developed some ideas for a TED talk about lowering the bar for awareness training using mind “maps” featured in the book.
