The eighth meeting of the First Thursday Book Club will take place via Zoom. The May book will be Mindfulness for Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

We hope you register and join us for the virtual book club discussion. We're looking forward to discussing the book and connecting as readers...all from the comfort of home! Register and you will receive a link on the day of the program to connect via Zoom. 

About the Book: 

An Invitation to the Practice of Mindfulness

We may long for wholeness, suggests Jon Kabat-Zinn, but the truth is that it is already here and already ours. The practice of mindfulness holds the possibility of not just a fleeting sense of contentment, but a true embracing of a deeper unity that envelops and permeates our lives. With Mindfulness for Beginners you are invited to learn how to transform your relationship to the way you think, feel, love, work, and play―and thereby awaken to and embody more completely who you really are.

Here, the teacher, scientist, and clinician who first demonstrated the benefits of mindfulness within mainstream Western medicine offers a book that you can use in three unique ways: as a collection of reflections and practices to be opened and explored at random; as an illuminating and engaging start-to-finish read; or as an unfolding "lesson-a-day" primer on mindfulness practice.

Beginning and long-time meditators alike will discover in these pages a valuable distillation of the key attitudes and essential practices that Jon Kabat-Zinn has found most useful with his students, including:

• Why heartfulness is synonymous with true mindfulness

• The value of coming back to our bodies and to our senses over and over again

• How our thoughts "self-liberate" when touched by awareness

• Moving beyond our "story" into direct experience

• Stabilizing our attention and presence amidst daily activities

• Three fundamental mental factors that cause suffering

• How mindfulness heals, even after the fact

•Reclaiming our wholeness, and more

The prescription for living a more mindful life seems simple enough: return your awareness again and again to whatever is going on. But if you’ve tried it, you know that here is where all the questions and challenges really begin. Mindfulness for Beginners provides welcome answers, insights, and instruction to help us make that shift, moment by moment, into a more spacious, clear, reliable, and loving connection with ourselves and the world.

Borrow the Book: 

Copies of the book will be available at the circulation desk. You can also download the ebook or audiobook for free with your library card with no holds or wait! Use our new library e-resource, Hoopla. The book can then be read or listened to on a phone, tablet, or e-reader. There is even a Hoopla app! Not sure how to use Hoopla or download ebooks and digital audiobooks? Our technology librarian Abby is happy to help! Call her at 978-671-0948 ext. 4105 for one on one technology help. Abby can also help if you are unsure of how to connect to the book club through Zoom.