14 Best Mindfulness Books

You might have heard about how mindfulness practices or most precisely practices to “Living in the Moment” help you reduce your everyday stress, mental health issues and enhance your standard of living. You also have an idea about the mindfulness books helping you to live a mindful living and you might be ignoring this fact but, it’s time to stop! You don’t need to worry to search thousands of books on Mindfulness, read a bit of them, and then pick the best of them to continue. Here we are, to bring you out of this hassle. 

These books are a complete guide having mindfulness techniques and instructions, the logic and the basis of it, which mindfulness practices you should adopt for successful living. If you are hesitant in reading a book, you must go for an audiobook or any journal, etc. 

List of 14 Best Books that are undoubtedly going to change your life:

In simple words, mindfulness is nothing but a constant practice to live in the moment and these mindfulness practices are described in these books. You must give a chance to at least one of these books below and enjoy the blessings of your life instead of living in the past or overthinking about the future. So, let’s dive into it.

If you are motivated to adapt all mindfulness practices to lead a happy life and you are all ready to be strict on your routine, then this book is probably the best one for you. This book will make you learn how to deal with tough situations in your life, how to deal when things go wrong and you feel stressed. 

This book is all about handling your thought pattern and changing it in a way that takes you to see the brighter side of everything and of course living and enjoying the moment to its fullest. It’s all about how to treat ourselves when we encounter different circumstances.

It is always terrible to start a new thing when we feel anxiety or depression but the issues always get solved when we are all willing to solve them. Understanding our thought patterns and changing them towards good is the basis of this book. For that, this book offers multiple action plans that make you concentrate on a mindful life.

Its writer is a Buddhist novice, Thich Nhat Hanh incited mindfulness to the western side of the planet. The book was written in 1975, now available in many editions with advanced online exercises for a mindfulness meditation practice that eventually helps when you practice mindfulness. Though he wrote more than 100 books in different eras of his life, this one is the best book known for his light and humorous writing tone. He stresses taking mindfulness into execution by mindful acting, working, speaking, and contributing to the world around him.

This book is the best as it has very small and self-contained chapters, explaining all about mindfulness focusing on mindfulness meditation. A big part of the book contributes to activities related to staying mindful in the present. Explain things by black-and-white sketches and drawings that are quite captivating to the readers. It involves many meditation practices that eventually help you in staying calm.

Some practices involve, practice when talking to someone while cleaning the dishes or your home, and taking a bath slowly. These are actually people’s own mindfulness practices. You can also find many relevant mindfulness exercises on the website of this author.

If you are feeling the need to learn about mindfulness, what it is and why it is needed, why it turns people’s lives into better ones, then this book is for you. Different people have different definitions of mindfulness and ways to deal with it, this book also discusses the false concepts of mindfulness. This book relates mindfulness to science and how mindfulness teachers are studying it and what are the beliefs about it. 

This book not only discusses mindfulness but describes many mindfulness exercises to practice mindfulness that have a strong impact on the psychology of human beings. It clearly shows that people who make mindfulness practices as their habitual practices experience sustained blood pressure levels, less anxiety, and no depression. People take antidepressants to deal with depression, but this book proves that mindfulness exercises work as effectively as antidepressants for people suffering from depression.

This mindfulness book is the best among all mindfulness books since it explores all the aspects that come along in the way of staying mindful. The book covers from the very basic to very advanced world’s best practices to handle your mental health problems.

This welcoming book was written in 1994 by teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn, one of the wisest mindfulness teachers who established the Stress Reduction Clinic (1979), which later became part of the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

You can easily order an audiobook or a CD of “Guided Mindfulness Meditation Series 2” in which Kabat-Zinn explains many mindfulness meditation practices and mindfulness exercises to stay mindful in case you prefer an audiobook to reading a book.

This book shares the personal experiences of the author that make it stand out from all other books. You can relate to these experiences and eventually turn your life into a better one. 

Jon Kabat-Zinn, the author of this book is among the best mindfulness teachers who believe that mindfulness is nothing but an awareness to live, do things, understand ourselves, and make decisions, all mindfully. It is all about controlling our minds ourselves.

In this book, he explains the connection of mindfulness with science and our mind. He discusses the effect and impact of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on our minds and proves it to be as effective as the use of antidepressants for people suffering from depression.

This mindfulness book focuses on the importance of mediation practices. He proves the fact with an incident when his patients got well by these meditation practices instead of using medicines.

6. “Mindfulness” by Williams

This book explains the impact of mindfulness on our daily routine activities. This book offers a course that lasts for almost 56 days originally organized by Oxford University. It doesn’t restrict you to finishing the course in straight in 56 days but you can complete this course at your speed. This book is a life savior if you feel like diving into difficulties day by day and can’t find the way out.

The extremely talented writer of the book, Williams along with Zindel Segal, and John Teasdale organized it to put an end to the deterioration caused by depression. This mindfulness book is the easiest of all to understand as it has a very engaging and appealing tone. Not only this, it provides many mindfulness exercises to practice in daily life.

7. “In Courage Journal” by Alexandra Elle

If you are still struggling with a constant feeling of anxiety, disturbed sleep, complicated thinking patterns then this journal is for you. The root of this book is how motivation can be the best help in leading a mindfulness life. This journal teaches us to be kind, grateful, and helpful all the time, helps in making goals and in achieving them. 

This journal focuses on staying motivated and mindfulness. It states many mindfulness exercises as well instead of only motivational quotes. It displays many action plans and helps in controlling the emotions, reacting to different situations. It deals with small things like self-care and how it proves to be the best mindfulness practice. 

This journal has a very light and engaging tone. Do check it out as it can be read anywhere and can be taken everywhere.

8. “How to Train a Wild Elephant” by Jan Chozen Bays

The book that has the lightest tone of all and the one that you can take out at any place at any time, or if you are visiting your dentist’s place or doing groceries, waiting in a queue, or going on the bus, this book must sit on the bedside table to welcome when you are sleeping or waking up. This book shares very little and easy to exercise mindfulness activities and brings your life at ease.

The writer of this book, Jan Chozen used a very engaging yet humorous tone throughout the book that keeps you addicted to it. 

The best part of this mindfulness book is, it doesn’t only write about the mindfulness practices but also shares the stories along with their morals. It talks about many tips e.g., taking deep breaths before talking to someone over the phone, enjoying the food and staring at it, taking deep breaths when you move out of the room or the car. Shortly, it shares everything that assists us in staying mindful in almost every part of our life.

You can avail an audio CD so that you can listen to all the practices and won’t require to read it all.

9. A “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction” Workbook by Jon Kabat-Zinn

A well-known movement known as Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (commonly known as MBSR initiated to decrease the severity of symptoms of anxiety, depression, panic attacks), organized by none other than Jon Kabat-Zinn, is now instructed in medical clinics worldwide. The second edition of the book explains more exercises and practices that assist you in reducing stress along with an audio download option.

This book majorly explains how to handle depression, overthinking, and stress. Undoubtedly, everyone faces stress or depression at some stage of their life, but the successful learn to handle stress or make a living out of it which is healthier. The website of this book also lists some yoga tips, different and easy exercises to stay mindful of. 

You can trust this book as its author is very experienced and a mindfulness teacher as well. This book also offers many worksheets to log your activity as well.

10. “Pass-Through Panic” by Claire Weekes

Australian doctor Claire Weekes presented this eight-part radio series (1967). Adults who were facing extreme panic attacks, depression, and other anxiety-related disorders used to get help from her as she taught the best ways to handle these mental health issues, thus helping in staying mindful. 

Her book proves a light for the people who feel dull and can’t perform their daily life tasks passionately and properly. She motivates the people and gives them an optimistic approach to see their life. In her book, she explains that the patient asked her “How do you know me so well when we’ve never met or known each other”, to which, she brilliantly replies “Of course, I don’t know you but I know the illness very well”.

The best thing about this mindfulness book is, it has a very engaging and light tone and is undoubtedly a complete mindfulness guide to your everyday life issues. Even if you can just complete it in 2 hours. Not only this, it has the best reviews and the reviewers say that the effectiveness of this book has changed their lives. 

11. “Start Where You Are” by Meera Lee Patel

This journal explains all about mindfulness in the beginning and provides many exercises and many other pursuits that assist you to live in the present. This journal is based on how writing or venting out emotions helps in becoming more productive.

This mindfulness book is full of motivational quotes that inspire the readers daily and make them stay productive all the time. The root of this book is to focus on ourselves and finding our true selves.

If you are having a bad day, then this book will surely uplift your mood. The beautiful images make our mood and it provides enough space to express ourselves and our aspirations and goals.

12. “Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson

Are you still struggling with a dull life and you don’t feel happiness any more than this book is only for you? This book will fill the colors in your dull life. The writer of this book wrote many other books as well but this one got international recognition.

Remember when we were kids, we used to love coloring because it gave us joy, and internal happiness. This idea firms the root of mindfulness in your heart as joy, happiness, and concentration are undoubtedly the main outcomes of mindfulness.

Coloring reportedly makes someone feel good, decreases depression and anxiety, and also increases creativity and cognitive ability. This mindfulness book is based on how mindfulness-based cognitive therapy helps in attaining mindfulness. The facts say that the coloring reduces high levels of mental health problems and it has a longer impact than any other medication.

This coloring book hits nature, the beautiful trees, houses, the birds, the flowers, the gardens, or the parks as nature has a strong impact on our minds. The book is full of brain exercises in it, like blank pages to make your drawings, sketches, complete different patterns, etc. It focuses on creativity. Not only that, but this coloring book also has many other things to be found, like birds, beetles, butterflies, and a shark.

The best part of the book is its focus on nature and raises the fact that how nature impacts creativity and proves to be the best mindfulness exercise.

13. “Growing up Mindful” by Christopher Willard

Undoubtedly, this book proves to be the best piece when it comes to coaches, teachers, parents who are essentially the first coaches to their kids, or the students about mindfulness. This book is unique as it shares almost 75 mindfulness activities that can be adopted at different stages of life. The index page of the book is full of all the emotions or personality traits so that you can find your child’s traits and get the most suitable mindfulness exercise. This book is applicable for almost all the kids or teens who face different issues while growing up.

In our society, some children go through some childhood traumas, or phobias so this book shares excellent ways to deal with factors that prevent emotional development. It makes children learn about how to respond when they feel stressed, how to focus on something productive, how to make decisions, and fight anxiety. It focuses on how to create the root of mindfulness that will help them a lot in the future.

This book talks about the modern age teaching how we can control ourselves and make useful and limited use of everything even if it is technology or the internet. It fascinates the kids with the help of drawings and sketches that proves helpful in making the kids understand the mindfulness exercises.

14. “My Magic Breath” by Alison Tailor and Nick Ortner

Yes, children too need to learn how to stay mindful and enjoy the beauty of the present moment. It teaches kids an interactive breathing game that helps them in learning mindful breathing. This book is a mindfulness meditation guide that lets the kids take a lungful breath when they feel happy. Later they are taught their simple act of lungful breathing helps in enjoying the beautiful moments to their full. It also makes the kids learn to develop the habit of deep yawning before going to bed. This gives the foundation of mindfulness from the very small age of children through mindfulness meditation.

It asks the kids to remind themselves of the best moment that happened today and make them learn to take lung breath while remembering the moment. Practicing mindfulness meditation exercises gives a long-lasting impact and helps the kids in their later stages of life as well.

This book is a miracle for those kids of at most six years old. This book helps them in learning to take a deep breath while thinking about smiling moments at the night of each day instead of youngsters who have worries, phobias, anxiety, problems with social circle, and depression when they go to bed.

This book is worth reading as its tone is very enjoyable and fascinating for the kids. It makes the mind of our small kids blow away sad moments and only remember the happy times of the day.  Kids always get fascinated with colors and interactive drawings and luckily, this book makes use of these drawings so that children can understand them better.

FAQs

Final Thoughts on Mindfulness Books

The effectiveness of practicing mindfulness activities can’t be declined as it helps in growing mental health and most importantly, physical health. If you are not feeling well, less motivated, and feeling boredom to an extent that it is affecting your daily activities then it is time to take action for yourself.

These mindfulness books play an important role in uplifting your mood, motivation and in making you more productive. You only need to place your favorite mindfulness book at your bedside and develop a habit of reading some lines at the end of every day. This will keep you at a high morale.

Once you learn to live in the present moment, you may want to collaborate with other people, join meetings to make people come out of their depression, disturbing patterns of sleep, overthinking, stress, and anxiety disorders. Mindfulness is self-accepting and exploring yourself instead of living in the past and pondering over the future. Share your thoughts, inspirations, ambitions, and experiences with others and grow together.