book club: in this moment

Summer is here, and because of COVID19 there are few places to go to. You may not be on summer vacation anywhere tropical, but it might be the perfect opportunity to get to that stack of books you have been keeping beside your bed. I recently finished the book “In this Moment” by Kirk Strosahl Phd and Patricia Robinson Phd, published in 2015. 
This quick read informs the reader of a mindfulness approach to managing stressors. What I enjoyed most about this book was that it is was not focussed on developing a meditation practice, rather, it was focussed on bringing mindfulness skills in our every day lives. This book focuses on five facets of mindfulness and dedicates chapters to teaching skills in each of these five domains. The five facets of mindfulness discussed by Strosahl and Robinson include:          1) Observe, 2) Describe, 3) Detach, 4) Love yourself , and 5) Act Mindfully. 
I enjoyed reading this book because it helped to break down the illusive concept of mindfulness into tangible steps and concrete exercises that can be practiced to target each of these five skill domains. I appreciated that this book was not just theoretical but included components of the The Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire Short Form (Baer et al. 2008; Baer 2003). This tool helps to assess areas of strength and deficit before starting to develop the skills included in the book. After reading each chapter and practicing the exercises you can reassess yourself within the particular domains and recognize your areas of growth. Each chapter also included a section dedicated to explaining the particular mindfulness facet from a neuroscience perspective, helping the reader to explore what area of the brain is in charge of that skill. 

My favourite quotes from In This Moment:
“We've been taught to reject the growth-producing aspects of daily stress and instead focus our energy on finding ways to eliminate or control our symptoms of stress. Instead of seeing those important symptoms as signals that life might be out of balance in some important way, we try to kill the messenger” (pp. 17). 

“The only medicine we know of that can cure the problem of living life on autopilot is to live life deliberately, according to what matters to you...listen to your stress, accept that it’s there, and adopt a deliberate, mindful approach that will help you transcend it…. If you aren’t willing to have stress, then stress will have you… the mere fact that you have daily stress means there are things in your life that you care about. If nothing mattered to you, you wouldn’t have any stress at all” (pp. 18).

If you have given this book a read already let us know what you think on our social platforms. 
If you have any books that you would like Wellness Wednesday to review please send your recommendations to our instagram page.