Best Mindfulness Books – The 11 Choices You Should Read

Bringing your attention to the current situation without judgment allows you to stop rehashing the past or imagining the future. This is what mindfulness is all about. Mindfulness can be developed through meditation and other types of therapeutic techniques or training. According to Forbes, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy has been proven to effectively treat both depression and anxiety.

When someone is being mindful, they can calmly acknowledge their feelings, thoughts, and emotions without judgment, achieving a state of both alertness and relaxation. Learning more about how to practice mindfulness can be of great benefit to your life. Let’s take a look at the best mindfulness books that can help you learn more.

Best Mindfulness Books

Allowing you to establish contentment, focus, and concentration, mindfulness has the potential to benefit various areas of your life and foster appreciation for the current moment. Below are the 11 best mindfulness books, teaching you not only its importance but also how to cultivate mindfulness practices in your day-to-day life. 

1. Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn 

This national best-seller has sold over 750,000 copies worldwide since it was first published in 1994. In this, Jon Kabat-Zinn maps out a simple plan on how to cultivate mindfulness in your life. He explains why mindfulness isn’t a niche specified for a particular group of people, such as Zen yoga instructors or Buddhists. Instead, mindfulness is a beneficial tool that anybody can practice in their day-to-day life to become more aware of both themselves and their surroundings. 

By reading Wherever You Go, There You Are, you’ll be able to unlock your mind’s calming powers that you didn’t have access to before. Through the mindfulness practices that Kabat-Zinn provides, you can finally fill the gap between your mind and your heart, living in peace with yourself and your values. 

2. The Little Book of Mindfulness by Patrizia Collard 

The Little Book of Mindfulness teaches you how to spend 10 minutes each day to live in more peace and less stress. By practicing the mindfulness techniques that Collard provides, you’ll be able to live in the moment by letting go of worries. 

Without chanting spiritual mantras or cutting out a specific time each day to meditate, The Little Book of Mindfulness provides the reader modern-day practices on how to thrive in a world full of mundane tasks and an overload of meaningless information.

3. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle 

Mindfulness is all about living in the present moment, and that’s precisely what Eckhart Tolle teaches you how to do in The Power of Now. This #1 New York Times best-seller is not just a spiritual guide, but a book on personal development helpful for anyone of any age.

The central claim: every minute you spend worrying about the future or regretting the past is a minute lost in the present. All you have is the present, and this is why Tolle emphasizes the urgency of paying attention to the current moment. In this book, he provides you actionable tools to start cultivating mindfulness in your own life. By cultivating mindfulness, you’ll be able to minimize worry and maximize happiness. 

4. Calming Your Anxious Mind by Jeffrey Brantley 

This book is made for anyone looking for a mindfulness-focused solution to minimize anxiety. Calming Your Anxious Mind puts a modern twist on traditional meditation techniques. While meditation is beneficial for calming anxiety, it does this by allowing you to tap into your own potential, stillness, and gratitude for the present moment. 

Not only is this book perfect for anyone looking to calm their anxiety, but for professionals who are also looking to learn more about treating anxiety disorders. 

5. Waking Up by Sam Harris

Waking Up is a guide to spirituality without religion, curated for a wide range of audiences looking to incorporate mindfulness into their lives. It discusses secular spirituality, meditation, and the illusion of the self. Harris’ main claim relates to the importance of spirituality and how it can play a positive role in the life of anyone willing to tap into their spirit. 

For an otherwise non-spiritual person, Waking Up is the perfect guide for using meditation to achieve mindfulness. Further, it teaches the reader how to explore the self and tap into their true potential. 

6. 10% Happier by Dan Harris 

This #1 New York Times best-seller was initially created to be a self-help book that works better than the rest. Going deep into his own personal discovery and experience with meditation, Dan Harris explains the inevitable adrenaline rush he gets as a news anchor who covers live stories. Meditation is a powerful force that has allowed him to thrive in this type of chaotic environment.

According to Dan, meditation does precisely what the title says, makes you 10% happier. Meditation increases happiness by making you more mindful and able to control your mind. While our ego always wants more and is never satisfied, meditation allows us to be grateful for what we have in the current moment. 

7. The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael Alan Singer

This book dives into how we can free ourselves from self-imposed limitations and discover a new form of peace. As it turns out, this form of peace can best be attained by practicing mindfulness. In this, Singer goes into the yoga of intellect, otherwise known as the process of Gyana, and the power of self-actualization. 

As the title states, Michael Alan Singer will teach you how to develop an untethered soul: embracing the ups and downs of life instead of trying to avoid the hardships. 

8. The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness by Andy Puddicombe 

Bill Gates referred to this book as “the perfect introduction to mindfulness.†Compact but valuable, The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness offers various meditation techniques that are created to positively impact both mental and physical sectors of your life. 

From productivity to personal relationships, meditation has limitless power to improve your life in various ways. Luckily, this book categorizes the various types of meditation, allowing you to go through and practice different types of mindfulness whenever it fits best.

9. Full Catastrophe Living by Jon-Kabat Zinn

Full Catastrophe Living is the perfect book for you if you’re looking to develop an individualized meditation and mindfulness structure in your life. Beyond a valuable introduction to the power of mindfulness, this book explains how meditation has the potential to improve one’s physical aspects.

From the teacher who founded The Stress Reduction Clinic, Full Catastrophe Living draws on both personal experience and scientific evidence to inform the reader of the benefits of mindfulness. 

10. The Mindful Path Through Worry and Rumination: Letting Go of Anxious and Depressive Thoughts by Sameet M. Kumar 

You must focus on nothing but the present moment to stop worrying about things you can’t control. Thankfully, this is what mindfulness is all about. In The Mindful Path Through Worry and Rumination, Sameet M. Kumar teaches the reader not how to avoid worries but also how to live through them mindfully.

Instead of ruminating over past difficulties or worrying about potential future hardships, Kumar claims that we must focus on the present moment to reduce worry and maximize joy. Instead of continually focusing on who we want to be, we will be happier celebrating who we currently are. This is the perfect book for finding contentment in the current moment and stop overthinking. 

11. Mindfulness in Plain English by Henepola Gunaratana

This introduction to both mindfulness and Buddhist meditation is created for anyone, since anyone can benefit from the power of mindfulness in their life. By focusing on the importance of attention to breath, Gunaratana dives into the power of mindfulness meditation and appreciating the present moment.

Practicing Mindfulness

Ultimately, mindfulness allows us to live in a more enlightened state, not by avoiding difficulty, but by embracing both our strengths and weaknesses. By cultivating mindfulness into your life, you’ll be able to stop overthinking things you can’t control and start appreciating your life in the present moment. Make use of one of our best mindfulness books and learn how to incorporate these practices into your life.

Looking for more knowledge on how to be your best self? If so, you may also enjoy our guides to the best self improvement books and best books on emotional intelligence. Relax your mind, calm your emotions, and better yourself.