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2023/07/05

Mindfulness in Silicon Valley | Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School

Mindfulness in Silicon Valley | Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School

Mindfulness in Silicon Valley

BUDDHISM CASE STUDY – TECHNOLOGY | 2019

Soren Gordhamer, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), and Jon Kabat-Zinn on a panel at Wisdom 2.0 in 2011. Photo by elizaIO via Flickr Creative Commons: https://bit.ly/2F8wkhk

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NOTE ON THIS CASE STUDY

New technologies present both opportunities and challenges to religious communities. Throughout history, many religious people have created and used new technologies on behalf of their religious traditions. At times, religious needs have driven technological innovation. Yet many religious people have also tried to limit the use of certain technologies that they felt violated principles of their tradition. The relationship between religion and technology is complex and highly dependent on context. As you read these case studies, pay attention to that context: Who are the groups involved? What else is happening in their context? Who benefits from new technologies? Who get to decide if they are legitimate or not?

As always, when thinking about religion and technology, maintain a focus on how religion is internally diverse, always evolving and changing, and always embedded in specific cultures.

Silicon Valley, a region of central California, is a major economic center and home to many companies that specialize in technology like the internet, computers, social media, and more.

Over the last decade, many of these companies have heavily invested in trainings in “mindfulness,” which is the English name for a diverse set of Buddhist religious practices that have a history going back thousands of years. In particular, the forms of mindfulness promoted by these companies are influenced by 20th century Theravada Buddhists in Myanmar and Zen Buddhists in Korea. Because of Silicon Valley’s economic, political, and social power, this approach to mindfulness has spread rapidly. The mindfulness industry is now worth over $1 billion in the US, and corporations like Monsanto, Goldman Sachs, General Mills, and Aetna have joined Silicon Valley in offering mindfulness training. Some estimate that 20% of US companies now teach mindfulness, and many of them fund mindfulness training in public schools. Even the US military has used mindfulness to calm soldiers before they are sent into combat.

In Silicon Valley, major companies including Google, Facebook, and Twitter have adopted mindfulness practices. Companies have claimed meditation is a “technology,” and they market this technology to tech-savvy consumers under trendy names. Jon Kabat-Zinn offers “mindfulness-based stress reduction,” Kenneth Folk promotes “open-source enlightement,” Google talks about “neural self-hacking,” and Soren Gordhamer developed “Wisdom 2.0.” In 2010, Gordhamer started an annual event to discuss mindfulness in tech companies, also called Wisdom 2.0, which has drawn thousands of high-powered CEOs and tech workers. In 2011, Google invited celebrated Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh to Google’s headquarters to lead mindfulness practice. Many companies claim mindfulness trainings have reduced employee stress and increased productivity and profits. However, studies with control groups are inconclusive in proving these claimed benefits.

While many trainers in Silicon Valley acknowledge that mindfulness is a Buddhist practice, they also claim to remove religion from it. They often characterize their programs “Buddhist-inspired,” making the connection to Buddhism while reassuring their largely non-religious audience that they are not promoting religion. For example, Kenneth Folk described Wisdom 2.0 as “a networking opportunity with a light dressing of Buddhism.” Some question if corporate mindfulness is Buddhist at all; companies usually claim that these trainings are “secular,” even when they bring in well-known Buddhist leaders for trainings. However, some Buddhists claim that “secular” mindfulness is “stealth Buddhism,” which allows Buddhism to be exported to businesses, schools, and hospitals without accusations of proselytizing.

Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who gave a keynote address to Google employees in 2011. Photo by Duc Truong in 2006 via Wikimedia Commons: https://bit.ly/2F4hqZt

Despite support from some prominent Buddhists, other Buddhists are concerned by the proliferation of these mindfulness practices. At the 2014 Wisdom 2.0 conference, Buddhist practitioner Amanda Ream and other members of a local meditation center protested the event. They called attention to the hypocrisy of the nation’s richest CEOs discussing an escape from suffering for themselves while they were causing suffering for poorer Americans through gentrification in central California. Security removed the protestors without their concerns being addressed. Ream later wrote that true dharma “directs us to feel the suffering of others.”

Ream’s protest was one example of some Buddhists’ concerns about mindfulness in the tech world. Several prominent Buddhists have accused companies of promoting “McMindfulness,” meaning the values of neoliberalism instead of Buddhism’s call to end suffering. Neoliberalism is a dominant economic philosophy in modern American industry that promotes profit-driven, free market capitalism in which workers are responsible for their own well-being. From this perspective, individuals can “choose” between being stressed and sad or being happy and healthy. McMindfulness enables this view by offering a technology workers can ostensibly use to choose health and happiness. However, Buddhist critics claim that this use of mindfulness only shifts the blame for stress onto the employees and discourages them from questioning stressful working conditions. Plus, Buddhist critics note, Silicon Valley profits from mindfulness as a solution to problems it is partially responsible for creating. These Buddhists worry that Silicon Valley is funding McMindfulness because it teaches workers to be “unquestioning consumers” and “compliant” workers. Buddhist monk Bhikku Bodhi noted, “Absent a sharp social critique, Buddhist practices could easily be used to justify and stablize… consumer capitalism.” In his view, mindfulness has become a “handy buzzword” to sell products.

With billions of dollars in funding from Silicon Valley and American consumers, mindfulness has impacted Buddhism worldwide. Historically, many Asian Buddhists have focused on ending suffering, destroying the self, and escaping from samsara, but American Buddhists have increasingly focused on mindfulness for personal, inner healing rather than future liberation. Asian Buddhists have begun to similarly emphasize mindfulness in new ways, reflecting the growth of Buddhism in the West and transforming the tradition as it encounters new cultures.
Buddhism Case Study – Technology 2019
Additional Resources
Primary Sources:

• Google video on well-known Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh’s visit to their corporate headquarters in 2011: https://bit.ly/1yKInY1.
• CNBC video of Google’s chief mindfulness expert teaching corporate mindfulness on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (2013): https://cnb.cx/2VG9yT0
• Huffington Post article by company founder Arianna Huffington on the money to be made from promoting mindfulness (2013): https://bit.ly/2RaKUeH
• Editorial by Zen Buddhist teacher David Loy on the dangers of “McMindfulness” (2013): https://bit.ly/2kI9vHO
• Amanda Ream on disrupting Wisdom 2.0 (2014): https://bit.ly/2RhyBxe.
• Editorial by journalist Kevin Williamson critical of corporate mindfulness (2018): https://bit.ly/2GYjx2G
• Editorial by Buddhist scholars Ronald Purser and Edwin Ng critical of corporate mindfulness (2015): https://bit.ly/2C2GyvJ
Secondary Sources:

• RLP video explaining the concept of neoliberalism (2018): https://bit.ly/2TuwYZx
• NPR radio program on Wisdom 2.0 and the 2014 protests: https://n.pr/2GVF4Jj
• Wired article on the importance of mindfulness to Silicon Valley CEOs and employees (2013): https://bit.ly/2d0Eiek
Discussion Questions

• Why might Buddhists have such diverse views on the spread of mindfulness in corporations?
• What is neoliberalism? Why do some Buddhists see corporate mindfulness as a neoliberal tool?
• Why might corporate mindfulness trainers continue to teach the Buddhist origins of their trainings, while still claiming to be “secular”?
• Is corporate mindfulness Buddhist? Who gets to decide what is Buddhist and what is not?
• Watch the CNBC video of a corporate mindfulness training. How might you imagine different Buddhists would responds to this video? What about their cultural context might cause them to respond differently?
• Compare the two Huffington Post articles by Arianna Huffington and David Loy. Where do they agree and where do they diverge?
• Why has mindfulness become common in public schools? Why are some people concerned about this trend?

ENDNOTES
1. Richard King, “‘Paying Attention’ in a Digital Economy…,” in Handbook of Mindfulness, ed. Ronald E. Purser, David Forbes, & Adam Burke (New York: Springer, 2016), 31-33, 36.
2. Kevin D. Williamson, “’Mindfulness’ is Just Commercialized Corporate Speak for Buddhist-inspired Help Training,” Dallas News, Jan. 9, 2018, https://bit.ly/2GYjx2G; Ronald Purser & Edwin Ng, “Corporate Mindfulness is Bullsh*t…”, Salon, Sept. 27, 2015, https://bit.ly/2C2GyvJ; David Forbes, “Occupy Mindfulness,” CUNY Academic Works, July 1, 2012, https://bit.ly/2sbc3z3.
3. Noah Shachtman, “In Silicon Valley, Meditation is No Fad, It Could Make Your Career,” Wired, June 18, 2013, https://bit.ly/2d0Eiek;
Bret Stetka, “Where’s the Proof that Mindfulness Meditation Works?” Scientific American, Oct. 11, 2017, https://bit.ly/2xzyaiP.
4. Shachtman, “In Silicon Valley…”
5. Candy Gunther Brown, “Textual Erasures of Religion: The Power of Books to Redefine Yoga and Mindfulness Meditation as Secular Wellness Practices in North American Public Schools,” Mémoires du Livre 6, no. 2, Aug. 18, 2015, https://bit.ly/2TStZ1I.
6. Amanda Ream, “Why I Disrupted the Wisdom 2.0 Conference,” Tricycle, Feb. 19, 2014, https://bit.ly/2RhyBxe.
7. David Loy, “Beyond McMindfulness,” Huffington Post, July, 31, 2013, https://bit.ly/2kI9vHO; Purser and Ng, “Coporate Mindfulness…”; David Forbes, “They Want Kids to be Robots…” Salon, Nov. 8, 2015, https://bit.ly/2Qp2PJj; Bhikku Bodhi, “The Transformations of Mindfulness,” in Handbook of Mindfulness, ed. Ronald E. Purser, David Forbes, & Adam Burke (New York: Springer, 2016), 14.
8. Bhikku Bodhi, “The Transfomations of Mindfulness,” 6, 14.
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2023/07/04

The Headspace Guide to Meditation & Mindfulness by Andy Puddicombe | Goodreads

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The Headspace Guide to... Mindfulness & Meditation: As Seen on Netflix Kindle Edition

by Andy Puddicombe (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 4,615 ratings

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'If you're thinking about trying mindfulness, this is the perfect introduction....I'm grateful to Andy for helping me on this journey.' BILL GATES

'It's kind of genius' EMMA WATSON

Feeling stressed about Covid/Brexit/everything? Try this...

Demystifying meditation for the modern world: an accessible and practical route to improved health, happiness and well being, in as little as 10 minutes.

Andy Puddicombe, founder of the celebrated Headspace, is on a mission: to get people to take 10 minutes out of their day to sit in the now. Here he shares his simple to learn, but highly effective techniques of meditation.

* Rest an anxious, busy mind

* Find greater ease when faced with difficult emotions, thoughts, circumstances

* Improve focus and concentration

* Sleep better

* Achieve new levels of calm and fulfillment.

The benefits of mindfulness and meditation are well documented and here Andy brings this ancient practice into the modern world, tailor made for the most time starved among us.

First published as Get Some Headspace, this reissue shows you how just 10 minutes of mediation per day can bring about life changing results.

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225 pages

Language

English

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Product description

About the Author

ANDY PUDDICOMBE is currently the only Clinical Meditation Consultant in the United Kingdom with Medical Advisory Committee clearance for private practice. As a former Buddhist monk, he has trained extensively in meditation all over the world for more than 15 years. He returned to the UK in 2004 and set up the Headspace organization with one simple aim in mind: to demystify meditation and make it accessible and relevant to as many people as possible.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"[Puddicombe] teaches techniques that can be practiced on a crowded subway or even while wolfing a sandwich during a quick lunch break at your desk.... Ed Halliwell ["The Guardian"] said Mr. Puddicombe is 'doing for meditation what someone like Jamie Oliver has done for food.' And like Mr. Oliver, he's ready to conquer the United States." - "The New York Times"

"The expert's expert." - "The Times" (UK)

"There is definitely no religion, and nothing touchy-feely about the [Headspace] workshop... By the end of the day, with the online resources for support, I feel equipped to join the ranks of those who make daily meditation part of their busy lives." - "Time Out"

"Om's the word, meet the "Sunday Times Style"'s amazing new meditation guru." - "Sunday Times Style" (UK)

"Andy bubbles over with enthusiasm and is so easy to follow that most of us leave convinced and with every intention of an attempt to sustain our relaxed/alert state." - "Easy Living Magazine"

"Mindfulness is a hot topic in neuroscience. I consider the techniques in this book essential for maintaining a healthy brain and a happy mind. Andy is living proof that the ancient practice of mindfulness benefits modern day living." - Dr. Elena Antonova, Neuroscientist, King's College London

[Puddicombe] teaches techniques that can be practiced on a crowded subway or even while wolfing a sandwich during a quick lunch break at your desk.... Ed Halliwell ["The Guardian"] said Mr. Puddicombe is 'doing for meditation what someone like Jamie Oliver has done for food.' And like Mr. Oliver, he's ready to conquer the United States. "The New York Times"

The expert's expert. "The Times (UK)"

There is definitely no religion, and nothing touchy-feely about the [Headspace] workshop By the end of the day, with the online resources for support, I feel equipped to join the ranks of those who make daily meditation part of their busy lives. "Time Out"

Om's the word, meet the "Sunday Times Style"'s amazing new meditation guru. "Sunday Times Style (UK)"

Andy bubbles over with enthusiasm and is so easy to follow that most of us leave convinced and with every intention of an attempt to sustain our relaxed/alert state. "Easy Living Magazine"

Mindfulness is a hot topic in neuroscience. I consider the techniques in this book essential for maintaining a healthy brain and a happy mind. Andy is living proof that the ancient practice of mindfulness benefits modern day living. "Dr. Elena Antonova, Neuroscientist, King's College London""

[Puddicombe] teaches techniques that can be practiced on a crowded subway or even while wolfing a sandwich during a quick lunch break at your desk.... Ed Halliwell [The Guardian] said Mr. Puddicombe is 'doing for meditation what someone like Jamie Oliver has done for food.' And like Mr. Oliver, he's ready to conquer the United States. The New York Times

The expert's expert. The Times (UK)

Om's the word, meet the Sunday Times Style's amazing new meditation guru. Sunday Times Style (UK)

Andy bubbles over with enthusiasm and is so easy to follow that most of us leave convinced and with every intention of an attempt to sustain our relaxed/alert state. Easy Living Magazine

Mindfulness is a hot topic in neuroscience. I consider the techniques in this book essential for maintaining a healthy brain and a happy mind. Andy is living proof that the ancient practice of mindfulness benefits modern day living. Dr. Elena Antonova, Neuroscientist, King's College London

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description

Demystifying meditation for the modern world: an accessible and practical route to improved health, happiness and well being, in as little as 10 minutes. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

"[Puddicombe] teaches techniques that can be practiced on a crowded subway or even while wolfing a sandwich during a quick lunch break at your desk.... Ed Halliwell [The Guardian] said Mr. Puddicombe is 'doing for meditation what someone like Jamie Oliver has done for food.' And like Mr. Oliver, he's ready to conquer the United States." --The New York Times

"The expert's expert." --The Times (UK)

"Om's the word, meet the Sunday Times Style's amazing new meditation guru." --Sunday Times Style (UK)

"Andy bubbles over with enthusiasm and is so easy to follow that most of us leave convinced and with every intention of an attempt to sustain our relaxed/alert state." --Easy Living Magazine

"Mindfulness is a hot topic in neuroscience. I consider the techniques in this book essential for maintaining a healthy brain and a happy mind. Andy is living proof that the ancient practice of mindfulness benefits modern day living." --Dr. Elena Antonova, Neuroscientist, King's College London

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

The expert's expert - Britain's top meditation guru. - The Times

Learn to live in the moment with GET SOME HEADSPACE by top meditation guru Andy Puddicombe. His practical guide will help you de-stress and have a calmer, happier life. - Grazia

If you've always wanted to try meditation, then this is the perfect guide to 'mindfulness' and finding yourself ten minutes of Zen. - Scotsman Magazine

Andy bubbles over with enthusiasm and is so easy to follow that most of us leave convinced and with every intention of an attempt to sustain our relaxed/alert state. - Easy Living

A quiet mind is the key to feeling less stressed, less tired and having a new level of calm and contentment. - Woman's Way --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Publisher

Andy Puddicombe is a meditation and mindfulness expert. An accomplished presenter and writer, Andy is the voice of all things Headspace.

In his early twenties, midway through a university degree in Sports Science, Andy made the unexpected decision to travel to the Himalayas to study meditation instead. It was the beginning of a ten year journey which took him around the world, culminating with ordination as a Tibetan Buddhist monk in Northern India.

His transition back to lay life in 2004 was no less extraordinary. Training briefly at Moscow State Circus, he returned to London where he completed a degree in Circus Arts with the Conservatoire of Dance and Drama, whilst drawing up the early plans for what was later to become Headspace.

He has been featured widely in international press, appearing in Vogue, NYT, FT, Entrepreneur, Men's Health and Esquire, to name but a few. He also makes regular appearances on TV and online, having been featured on BBC, Dr Oz, Netflix and TED.

Andy currently lives in Venice, California, with his wife Lucinda. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0050C863G

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Coronet (26 May 2011)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

File size ‏ : ‎ 1653 KB

Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported

Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled

X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe

Print length ‏ : ‎ 225 pages

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From Australia

Becca

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely read

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 25 July 2022

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I loved this book. I am so grateful that Andy’s shares his knowledge in such an approachable way. I have been an on and off meditator for about 2 years and I still learnt so much reading this. It links in so well with the Headspace app too. I love having theories and stories that link to concepts so I can better understand them & that is what this book does.

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CassW

5.0 out of 5 stars Great start to getting into mindfulness

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 29 March 2021

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I found this book a great support whilst getting into mindfulness. I also used the app, but the book was useful to know the 'how' and 'why' of mindfulness. Would recommend to others!

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Ben

3.0 out of 5 stars Good starting point

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 1 December 2020

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A good book for beginners to meditation. Helped a lot with starting a practice and understanding how to use it in every day life/activities.

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Matt

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 11 February 2019

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Really good book as an intro to Headspace and just some background story on Andy’s adventures.

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Amazon Customer

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking10

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 6 December 2015

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This book is great. Covers every hitch I came across, and prepared me for some I hadn't reached yet. Assured me I wasn't hopeless at meditating, but had to focus on the actual meditation time and being mindful instead of the end result.

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Ahmed Ibrahim

5.0 out of 5 stars A Guiding Light to Inner Peace: The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 8 June 2023

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The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness is an absolute treasure. With clarity and simplicity, this book offers a practical and accessible approach to meditation. It provides invaluable guidance on navigating the journey towards inner peace and mindfulness. The author’s expertise shines through as he demystifies meditation and offers a wealth of techniques and insights. Whether you’re a beginner or experienced practitioner, this guide is a must-have. It has transformed my daily practice and brought a sense of calm and clarity into my life. A resounding five stars for this transformative gem.

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Ismael de Leon H.

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good and easy-to-follow guide to meditation

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 10 January 2021

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I have read several books about meditation and none is as good as this one. It is well explained, easy to read, to-the-point and concise. It is an excellent read that explains what is meditation, mindfulness, their benefits and the way to practice them. I highly recommend it.

For many years I have dedicated considerable effort to meditation, with no results that I can be proud of. However, since I was a child I became familiar with those concepts for having read Timothy Gallwey’s books (The Inner Game of Tenis, Golf, etc.). At that time books did not mention the term “mindfulness” as they do now, but I understood the existence of different levels of consciousness, which Gallwey referred to as “egos”, inside our minds. I learned that it was necessary to quiet one of those egos in order to perform better at sports. Quieting that ego was no easy task though, but it was possible with the help of certain mental tools that ended up astounding me when I could perform considerably better than expected, with no effort, much pleasure, as if by magic, as if the performance was done by someone else. Such result is what today is called “being in the zone”.

But in spite of this, I could never show such results in other aspects of my life just by practicing meditation. Mindfulness and other techniques helped me in sports, but I cannot say that I had a similar success in my professional or personal life. Up until now, meditation has been to me just another chore.

Puddicombe says in his book that he is concerned about some people considering it a chore, but I am concerned about his concern. The great majority of meditation instructors insist on the importance of routinely meditating, time and again for longer periods, in order to get some results, which not always show-up. In fact, there is a section in his book in which he narrates the experience of a monk that invested a long time to improve his patience, just to end up comically showing that he did not succeed. Evidently it is easy to end up practicing many long meditation sessions fruitlessly and that is when meditation becomes a chore.

Being deeply aware of life’s simple and not-so-simple experiences (mindfulness) is something that can be intellectually understood and I do have had the opportunity to obtain its benefits in a few occasions, although more frequently in sports. But what is important is to be able to apply meditation and mindfulness concepts to our everyday lives. In other words, we need to be able to export mindfulness tools to our jobs and personal relations in such a way that we can keep a good balance among our performance, learning and enjoyment in every aspect of our lives. To explain these tools and the means to export them is what Puddicombe does so well.

Puddicombe says that no book can give you the benefits of mindfulness just by reading it. In fact, that same statement is mentioned in an 80’s movie “The Razor’s Edge”, when a miner hands a book (The Upanishads) to the main character, a monk-to-be. But I do not completely agree. I do have the experience of having consciously read Thureau's classic, “Walden”, and experienced a profound sense of acceptance of everything, that I am OK and that I do not need anything at all to continue being that way, only by reflecting about the writing and my own past experiences. Even so, I do agree that it must be easier to experience the benefits of mindfulness by practicing it.

This is the best book I have read in this subject and made me want to come back to the practice, from a freshly new perspective. I have invested an important amount of time and money in books and apps and even so, I will try it again.

7 people found this helpful

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DEBASIS MONDAL

5.0 out of 5 stars mind reading

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 10 March 2023

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ThePocketJ

5.0 out of 5 stars ✅ If you've ever wondered what it means to meditate, this is the right book! Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on 1 April 2021 Verified Purchase Several years ago in an attempt to find a way to reduce anxiety, brain full of thoughts, I suspended my cynicism, turned off my cell phone and tried to take a meditation class of two days. After forty-eight awkward hours of chanting, bell ringing, and dead silences, I was sent home with a personal mantra and a recommendation to practice "doing it" for thirty minutes twice a day. Guess what happened? I did not! Every time I sat down, hoping to regain my composure, I ended up making mental to-do lists. When time was up, I'd leap out of my chair feeling frantic and annoyed that I'd wasted half an hour of my life. I've read other books on the subject over the years and been in and out. Sometimes the advice to "imagine my thoughts as fluffy clouds on a summer day" worked but, more often than not, it didn't. I started reading Get Some Headspace after an enthusiastic recommendation from a friend, who also used the Headspace app. I really like Andy's simple language and his personal stories. I can relate to his desire to handle the negative voice

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rahulraj

5.0 out of 5 stars A perfect book for a novice

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 14 December 2022

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A perfect book for someone who wants to know what is medidation and mindfulness. It is written in a very easy to understand language which i thoroughly enjoyed. Definitely recommended.

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Providential

5.0 out of 5 stars Get Some Headspace

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 8 February 2019

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Headspace combines a lot of great ideas.

Mindfulness. There was a time in America when meditation was the domain of gurus and cults. After a bevy of research proved that meditation has long-term benefits for the brain, many practitioners began using the term mindfulness. Mindfulness is also a specific aspect of meditation which seems to have the most clear benefits. In short, even for the most jaded person who doesn't understand meditation, you can still see how beneficial it would be for someone to practice sitting still and being quiet for a few minutes a day. Do this every day, perhaps first thing after you wake up, and you're almost guaranteed to have a better day.

A completely friendly approach. The author opens the book with a story about how he escaped by night from a monastic compound because- at that point in his life- silent meditation just wasn't for him. Keenly aware that other people might have a similar reaction, Headspace first and foremost builds a happy and safe environment for all. Cute animated characters, anecdotes, and self-reinforcement messages are sprinkled here and there to help you stick with this new skill.

A lovely voice, and a lovely perspective. Andy Puddicombe has the sort of voice to put anyone to sleep. He's honed this talent into a relaxed, soft speaking method for guided meditation. I'd highly recommend anyone interested in this book to also download the Headspace app to try a guided meditation directly from the master. It's really something special. Failing that, there's plenty in the book to help you understand the ins and outs. I would at least encourage everyone to find a video of Andy speaking online, because reading the book in his voice will certainly make it a more enriching experience.

The Headspace book covers it all. The benefits of meditation. The history of meditation. How to get started meditating. Roadblocks you might hit during your meditation- from your first session to your second decade practicing. It's all here, it's all friendly, and it exists to benefit you. Give it a try.

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Brad Feld

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid Addition to the Headspace Online Program, Which is Awesome

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 2 March 2014

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My exploration into meditation continues. I started on February 5th when I wrote the post Learning To Meditate. Since then, I've been practicing every day, read a few books on meditation, talked to a lot of people about it, and explored several iPhone / web apps.

The impact on me has been awesome.

After talking to Jerry Colonna for a few hours about meditation on the snowy Sunday after I started, he recommended I take a look at Headspace. I signed up that night and started doing the Take10 meditations. For the first few days, I did it once a day, but then quickly starting practicing twice a day, once in the morning and once before I went to bed. Occasionally I'd toss in another session at lunch time, although sometimes I just did a silent meditation instead for 10 to 15 minutes.

After about a week I was deeply hooked. I grabbed the iPhone GetSomeHeadspace app and untethered myself from my desk. We've got a meditation room in our new house and even though it's very sparse right now (just one sitting pillow), it's a magnificent sanctuary for my meditation.

I noticed that Andy Puddicombe, the founder of Headspace, had written a book called Get Some Headspace: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day. I downloaded it and read it last night and this morning. Since I'm deep into the Headspace program, a lot of it was familiar to me. But Andy's description of his own meditation journey is fascinating, and reinforces a lot of things he guides you through in the Headspace program.

Near the end, he has a great chapter on different forms of meditation beyond sitting. He covers walking, sleeping, eating, and running. These are forms that intrigue me, especially since I run a lot, eat too fast, and am exploring different sleep patterns.

Overall, the book is a nice addition to the Headspace program. If you are intrigued about meditation, it's a fast, easy, helpful read. But there's nothing like just practicing. For that, I recommend you hop on line and try the free Headspace Take10 program.

13 people found this helpful

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Kushal

4.0 out of 5 stars Opened me to meditation

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 16 January 2022

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Very detailed analysis of what the mind goes through. You will the issues relatable. The solution offered through meditation is also very practical and easy to implement.

Andy is a true entrepreneur. He has made meditation accessible for all people which was before a thing that only closed group did.

I hope I can continue following Headspace as it making small difference in my every day life. I do have a habit of getting back into old habits of doing things. So it is going to be a long journey before I feel more comfortable and confident about this.

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Ken

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice Book

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 10 February 2023

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Nice book. A lot of good information.

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Eggy

5.0 out of 5 stars Read at the same time as starting the Headspace App - latter very good for actually training oneself to do it!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 16 April 2013

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I have rather liked the "idea" of meditation after doing a brief Buddhist meditation intro years ago & being impressed that they didn't push religion in anyway. Unfortunately I was always too busy/ stressed/ happy to get into the habit of doing it. Anyway after a stressful Xmas, when I didn't get a break, I was searching for something easy to teach me a bit of mindfulness & came across this as a sample on Kindle. I know that mindfulness is trending in NHS circles as being a useful aid to prevention of depression & can make changes in the brain on MRI scans. This book is a remarkably easy & down to earth read. It didn't quite make me cross the barrier of actually doing it - however then I realised that there was a Headspace App & this really has changed inner thought processes. the1 st 10 x10 min are free & gave me the thought holiday I needed. then I was curious, but somewhat cynical, as the hard sell to buy in is rather off putting- however I coughed up the money & 4 months down the line I now do daily, - well almost, & it is great!

I was a bit embarrassed to have signed into & paid for this sort of thing to admit it to anyone at 1st, but now i tell everyone!

I have calm ( well a bit more than I had before) & often increased clarity & surprisingly more creative thoughts which I hadn't looked for. I noticed my spouse, ha,ha, so they are pleased too.

On the App site & website there are some animations which are similar to the book but I still feel that reading the book at the beginning of commencing the App was useful & gave me extra impetus to try. As did signing up to the Lift motivational App. The Andy Puddicombe TED talk on YouTube & some of the Guardian web articles on him & BBC ones on mindfulness are also worth a look for anyone thinking about mindfulness meditation.

9 people found this helpful

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PrideOfNottingham

4.0 out of 5 stars The start of the journey

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 2 December 2012

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I read this book about a year ago after reading another book on Mindfulness called "The Mindfulness Manifesto".

I found Get Some Headspace to be easy to read and generally entertaining, and it gave me a good introduction to Mindfulness and meditation. I have been practising meditiation since. It is a long and sometimes difficult journey, but I can honestly say that it has changed me for the better. I am a bit calmer and less of a slave to my emotions, and am also able to stop and appreciate things a bit more. There is still a long way to go, and I couldnt tell you exactly how mindfuless has made a difference, but it has. I would say that somehow it has increased my self-awareness, and therefore given me more choices about what I do and how I behave in certain situations. The start of that was reading this book and also The Mindfulness Manifesto (and I should probably give Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Dummies a mention too, as that helped me at times).

I would therefore have to say this this book is well worth the money. I have been following the guided meditations on the Headspace website for some time now, and these are good also in my opinion. However only the first 10 are free, just to make everyone aware.

So for me, this book was the start of a difficult but rewarding journey that will probably go on for the rest of my life.

25 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

5.0 out of 5 stars Looks like it's going to be a good read for me as a beginner

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 22 January 2023

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Just arrived and new to meditation. The reviews look great

One person found this helpful

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Kishore Jasotani

5.0 out of 5 stars It's really genius

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 29 August 2020

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The book covers everything and details everything in a story telling manner with great wisdom embodied in each story. Some books on meditation while describing the approach repeat the same thing again and again. Andy keeps focusing on approach but with something extra to learn in each lesson. Andy was a former monk and now runs a clinic, so he explains the concepts scientifically, with logic and at the same time the wisdom he gained in monastery reflects in everything he explains. Best thing about the book is that it really makes the barrier to entry low enough for the people who are new to the world of mindfulness, both in understanding and in practice, at the same time explaining everything. I don't think there could have been any better or wise explaination condensed in a 200 pages book. You never feel the redundancy and your wisdom earns a new badge with every paragraph in it. If you are really exploring "The Book" on mindfulness, your search ends here. I searched a lot, read a lot. Trust me, this is "The Book" you are looking for.

6 people found this helpful

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Kelly

4.0 out of 5 stars Good companion to the app, definitely not Eat Pray Love

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 20 February 2015

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This book is a great companion to the headspace app, which I am really enjoying these days. It answered some of the questions I had, and I suppose I'm old enough that I'd rather find answers in a book than in on-line help forums. How would it stack up against other "how to meditate books?" Good question. I think the genius of Andy's approach is his ability to hit all the salient points with phenomenal brevity, and a generally encouraging tone that contributes to making the material very accessible. He's very matter-of-fact, never overplays anything. In fact, I would have liked some vivid descriptions. But I am not very far along on the headspace journey, i.e., learning to meditate, and I am still attached to thoughts that are organized into stories. I must confess I was hoping for more detail about the personal journey from regular guy to monk to secular meditation guru. I mean, it is after all a book by a guy whose story gives him amazing cred. He includes some food-related insights and escapades, but I never found out whether he went through anything trippy, mystical or otherwise really compelling in all those years of meditation. I don't think the book as much as alludes to, let alone describes, a single religious experience. So to sum up, the book has a lot of good pointers for new meditators, but it could have been juicier, in the conventional sense of what a lifetime of reading conditions one to expect from a book.

6 people found this helpful

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Sandeep Gondhalekar

3.0 out of 5 stars Very bad print too light

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 18 October 2022

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Hope the printing was better and easy on eyes to read

One person found this helpful

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====

The Headspace Guide to Meditation & Mindfulness

Andy Puddicombe

4.03

12,337 ratings967 reviews

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This program was previously published as Get Some Headspace: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day.

Quiet the mind, feel less stressed and less tired, and achieve a new level of calm and fulfillment in just ten minutes a day.

Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk, the Voice of Headspace, and the UK's foremost mindfulness expert, is on a mission: to get people to take 10 minutes out of their day to sit in the here and now.

Like his readers and students, Andy began his own meditation practice as a normal, busy person with everyday concerns, and he has since designed a program of mindfulness and guided meditation that fits neatly into a jam-packed daily routine - proving that just 10 minutes a day can make a world of difference.

Accessible and portable, The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness offers simple but powerful meditation techniques that positively impact every area of physical and mental health: from productivity and focus, to stress and anxiety relief, sleep, weight-loss, personal relationships...the benefits are limitless. The result? More headspace, less stress. Andy brings this ancient practice into the modern world, tailor made for the most time starved among us.

Switch off after work

Fall asleep at night

Feel less anxious, sad, or angry

Control your cravings

Find a healthy weight

Genres

Nonfiction

Self Help

Psychology

Health

Personal Development

Spirituality

Philosophy

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224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Book details & editions

4,031 people are currently reading

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About the author

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Andy Puddicombe

64 books534 followers

Andy Puddicombe, born September 23, 1972, is the founder of Headspace; an award-winning[1] digital health platform that provides guided meditation sessions for its users. A former Buddhist monk with a degree in Circus Arts. According to The Times, he is also considered the "international poster boy for the modern mindfulness movement".[2] As both author and public speaker,[3] Puddicombe is known for his simple, accessible and secular approach, which has led to over 1 million users of the Headspace platform. The New York Times claims "Puddicombe is doing for meditation what Jamie Oliver has done for food". (source: Wikipedia)

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 967 reviews

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Bill Gates

10 books · 510k followers

December 4, 2018

I stopped listening to music and watching TV in my 20s. It sounds extreme, but I did it because I thought they would just distract me from thinking about software. That blackout period lasted only about five years, and these days I’m a huge fan of TV shows like Narcos and listen to a lot of U2, Willie Nelson, and the Beatles.

Back when I was avoiding music and TV in the hope of maintaining my focus, I knew that lots of other people were using meditation to achieve similar ends. But I wasn’t interested. I thought of meditation as a woo-woo thing tied somehow to reincarnation, and I didn’t buy into it.

Lately, though, I’ve gained a much better understanding of meditation. I’m certainly not an expert, but I now meditate two or three times a week, for about 10 minutes each time. Melinda meditates too. Sometimes we sit to meditate together. (We use comfortable chairs; there’s no way I could do the lotus position.)

I now see that meditation is simply exercise for the mind, similar to the way we exercise our muscles when we play sports. For me, it has nothing to do with faith or mysticism. It’s about taking a few minutes out of my day, learning how to pay attention to the thoughts in my head, and gaining a little bit of distance from them.

Andy Puddicombe, the 46-year-old cofounder and voice of the popular Headspace app, was the person who turned me from skeptic to believer. Prior to finding Headspace, I had read several books about meditation, all of which intimidated me. They made me think that the investment in terms of time and energy was just too high. Headspace made the barrier to entry low enough for me. It’s just 10 minutes a day of listening to Andy’s soothing British accent and trying to stay with him. Andy has taken some heat from hard-core meditators for his low-barrier approach, but he got me to take up meditation and stick with it. I’m glad he did.

If you want to try meditation for yourself, one good way to ease into it—especially if you’re as skeptical as I was—is to pick up a copy of Andy’s book, The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness. Andy’s a witty storyteller and offers lots of helpful metaphors to explain potentially tricky concepts, which makes the book an easy, enjoyable read. Andy presents the evidence base behind these practices in sections called “What the research shows” so you know the benefits are legitimate. And the book also helps you see that Andy himself is legitimate. He’s an ordained Buddhist monk who trained for many years in monasteries in India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Australia, Russia, and Scotland.

The book begins with Andy describing one of them: “Locked in, day and night, surrounded by high stone walls and with no way of contacting anyone on the outside, at times it had felt more like a prison.”

At another monastery, the monks served trainees curry and rice every day, and they made the trainees eat it very slowly over the course of exactly an hour. One super hot day, the monks placed in front of each trainee a wonderful surprise: ice cream. “It was like being a child at a birthday party when the cake comes out.” Unfortunately, the trainees soon discovered they were not allowed to touch the ice cream until they had eaten their curry and rice in the painfully slow way they’d been taught. As the ice cream melted in front of him, he felt angry, then sad and guilty for feeling angry—just as the monks knew would happen.

It turns out that monastic life wasn’t right for Andy. As we learn in the book, after ten years he left and—I kid you not—became a circus clown in London. He wanted to be fully engaged in the world rather than cloistering himself away in artificially quiet retreats.

While he was a clown, he started teaching meditation to those with severe anxiety and other conditions. A few years later, he started Headspace to bring meditation to the masses. He felt that meditation was a skill everyone could learn without sitting behind high stone walls or being subjected to mind games.

Melinda and I enjoyed Andy’s work so much that we reached out to him to see whether he might be willing to spend some time teaching our family. He was glad to do it, which was a real treat for us. For a day and a half, Andy helped us and two of our kids through exercises that are similar to the ones you’ll find in the book. Andy was just as warm, humble, and real as we’d imagined from reading his book and listening to him on the app.

I’m not sure how much meditation would have helped me concentrate in my early Microsoft days, because I was monomaniacally focused without it. But now that I’m married, have three children, and have a broader set of professional and personal interests, it’s a great tool for improving my focus. It’s also helped me step back and get some ease with whatever thoughts or emotions are present. I like what I’m getting from my 10 minutes every few days. I’m grateful to Andy for helping me on this journey.

853 likes

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Graham Sharpe

1 book · 21 followers

January 27, 2013

Several years ago I suspended my cynicism, switched off my mobile phone and went on a two-day meditation course. After an awkward forty-eight hours of chanting, bell ringing and deathly silences I was sent home with a personal mantra and a recommendation to practice ‘doing it’ for thirty minutes twice a day. Guess what happened? I didn’t do it. Every time I sat down, hoping to find calm, I ended up compiling mental to-do lists. When the time was up I’d leap out of the chair feeling frantic and annoyed that I’d wasted half an hour of my life. Over the years I’ve read other books on the subject and dipped in and out. Sometimes the advice to ‘imagine my thoughts like fluffy clouds on a summer day’ has worked but, more than often, it hasn’t. I started reading Get Some Headspace after a friend’s enthusiastic recommendation. I really like Andy’s down-to-earth language and his personal stories. I can relate to his desire to manage the negative/rambling voice in his head and his initial struggles to achieve positive results from meditating. I’ve registered online, downloaded the app (which is brilliant because you can have a guided meditation anytime, anyplace), and I’m enjoying my ten minutes everyday. I think this system works because it offers accessible support and encouragement and it enables me to easily incorporate meditation into a busy day. To my amazement, I’m beginning to think ten minutes isn’t long enough!

66 likes

4 comments

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Brad Feld

42 books · 2,348 followers

March 3, 2014

The impact on me has been awesome.

meditation

23 likes

5 comments

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Amirography

198 reviews · 113 followers

January 16, 2019

It was a relaxed, slow-paced, lite book on meditation and a method of doing it.

I enjoyed the book, however, it didn't gave me a heavy insight into meditation, but it gave me fairly good understand of what involves in a good practice of meditation. And also it brought the importance of its integration into other parts of my life. I should mention that though the book explains some meditation practices, it cannot do the job of the app, and vice versa. Although I think the book was intended as an independent product with the same aim as the app.

by-the-bed-books

philosophy

15 likes

2 comments

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Florencia

649 reviews · 1,915 followers

June 14, 2021

Often in life we get so caught up in the analysis, the dissection of every possible outcome, that we miss an opportunity altogether. Of course, some things require careful consideration, but the more we live mindfully, in the moment, the more we start to get a sense of what feels right. Whether you think of it as a gut feeling, intuition, being guided, or just knowing for yourself that it’s the right thing to do, this can be an incredibly liberating discovery.

Do your thoughts define the way you feel? Or does the way you feel define your thoughts?

May 21, 21

non-fiction

philosophyland

14 likes

2 comments

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Devo62

3 reviews

April 21, 2012

Beginners Only!!

This book contains very basic information on mindfulness and meditation. If you are a beginner or have been having trouble following a practice, this may contain the guidance you need. I was a little upset about the blatant commercialism of this book. The use of cute copyrighted terms like "headspace©" and "Take10©" turned me off. The book also repeatedly references the author's website where very little information is available without registering. It looked and smelled like a moneymaking machine that I would prefer to avoid. I did enjoy reading about the author's experiences as a Buddhist monk, especially the "Screaming Man Story".

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reading is my hustle

1,488 reviews · 294 followers

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April 11, 2015

Wow. I sort of cannot believe how much I liked this book. I have never been good at quieting my mind and that was BEFORE having kids. And since? It is so noisy- I want a break from my thoughts. Enter this book. I think I read somewhere that meditation is a gym membership for the mind. It's true, guys! I have downloaded the Headspace app and I LOVE it. It is perfect for a beginner like me b/c the app uses guided meditation. All it requires is ten minutes of your time a day. And after that ten minutes? So relaxed.

non-fiction-general

14 likes

6 comments

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Arimo

95 reviews

October 28, 2017

[I've also written a longer review of the book in my blog. You can find it here.]

I had already used the Headspace meditation app for a year before reading the book. Still, the book was definitely worth it! For example, the Headspace book goes deeper in the theory and reasoning than the app. The clear explaining also helped me correct some misconceptions I still had about meditation.

The Headspace book does a great job of teaching mindfulness in a very easy-to-understand way. Instead of giving the reader an information overload, the book has a clear focus on the most important information. It also helps that Andy Puddicombe is a very engaging and entertaining writer.

If I'd need to recommend just one book for someone who wants to learn mindfulness and meditation, I'd hand them "The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness".

Ps. "The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness" and "Get Some Headspace" are listed as different books in Goodreads, but make no mistake: "The Headspace Guide..." is just a re-branded version of the exact same thing.

ei-fiktio

11 likes

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TS Chan

706 reviews · 872 followers

September 14, 2020

3.5 stars.

I am quite convinced of the benefits of mindfulness and meditation, which was why I read this book. The instruction surrounding the concept of mindfulness as a form of meditation made more sense than the 'traditional' idea of meditation, i.e. a state of having no thoughts in one's mind. I had tried that kind of meditation many times with all those breathing techniques with picturing one's third eye and the flow of prana, etc etc, but it never worked. The only thing that left me feeling a bit cold is the whole idea that people who are already so reliant on their smartphones are now reaching for it to help them meditate through an app. This is truly a sign of our times.

non-fiction

10 likes

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Sumit

232 reviews · 26 followers

February 6, 2019

While this book was an entertaining, gentle, and refreshingly irreverent introduction to meditation, from my perspective it didn't live up to the glowing reviews I'd heard about it. I've read a number of books and guides to meditation over the years, from Western approaches to Eastern religious texts (Hindu and Buddhist), and it's true that many of them can make the practice of meditation seem incredibly intimidating. This book takes a much less formal approach, and guides the reader through both the why and how of basic meditation techniques with joy and humor. As others have pointed out in their reviews, the book is made stronger both by his reference to studies that have demonstrated the value of meditation, as well as the endless personal stories which bring color to the sometimes dry material. In the end, though, the book just doesn't contain that much real information about meditation, and most of what it has to teach could easily have been covered in a chapter or two. It was an enjoyable read, so this is acceptable, but intermediate or advanced meditators are not going to find much new here.

I will admit that this book, unlike the many others I've read, did get me to start a meditation practice, both at home and in some of the situational mindfulness practices he describes (walking, riding the bus). I don't follow his take-10 methodology exactly, but I did find the framework he presents helpful in coming up with a practice that works for me. Only time will tell if this will prove useful for me, but this is more committed than I've been to a practice than ever before.

A note about the audiobook - the author reads very slowly, and it was hard to handle this book at less than 2.5x. As such, I found the HeadSpace app unbearable, as you must listen to the guided meditations at 1x. The last chapter in the book does have a version of each guided meditation, but I did not find this particularly useful.

[update 12/20/18]

Though I stand by the content of my review, I've updated my rating from three stars to four. This is primarily because I've found the lessons and techniques in this book to be remarkably "sticky" - it has not only led me to consistent practices of both sitting and walking meditations, various concepts, images, and techniques from the book keep coming back to me as I shape my own practice. It's a book I'll definitely be recommending to others, and as such it deserves at least four stars.

[Update 2/5/19 - bumping up to five stars. Despite its quirks, this book was incredibly helpful to me, and it has taken a couple of months to see the full benefits. As I mentioned in my last update, the book got me to finally start a meditation practice, and now I've found several real world situations where being able to use that muscle of clearing my mind has been incredibly useful. I'm now going back through "Peace is Every Step," and even that book is proving far more meaningful now that this one got me on the path to a daily practice.

8 likes

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