Present and Whole: Mindfulness Meditation Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe mindfulness meditation. Writers describe why they sat down — anxiety, chronic pain, a bereavement, burnout, a clinician's referral to MBSR or MBCT, a recovery programme, or a workplace scheme — and the first eight weeks, including the body scan almost everyone falls asleep during. There is the daily practice and the honest arithmetic of it: the ten minutes that became three, the streaks broken, the apps and their gamification, the difference between a course with a teacher and a phone in a dark room. Writers describe what shifted with commendable restraint. Later chapters cover mindfulness in hospital pain clinics, in prisons, in cancer care and in relapse prevention for depression, teachers' perspectives on what is being oversold, adverse experiences on intensive retreats, and the people for whom it did not help.

Who it's for

For anyone starting or restarting a meditation practice, people referred to MBSR or MBCT, and readers who want the limits acknowledged alongside the benefits.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 298 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.