Books by Mark Williams
Mindfulness is the Mark Williams book in our library, written with Danny Penman. Unlike most writing on the subject it is built as a course: eight weeks, one practice at a time, each week building on the last.
That structure is what separates it from the rest of the shelf. Most books on meditation explain an idea and leave you to work out what to do on Monday. This one tells you what to do this week, and then what to do next week, which is why it is the one to follow rather than read.
How to read it. This is the one book here meant to be worked through rather than read. If you are going to commit to one, commit to this one.
It sits in the Health and Meditation bundle as the one book here designed as a course rather than as a read. If you are only going to commit to a single practice from this shelf, commit to this one.
The book
Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World
Mark Williams and Danny PenmanMeditation presented as a structured course rather than an idea. The eight-week shape is what makes it practicable, because each week asks for one thing rather than for a transformation, and the sequence assumes you have done the previous week.
What it argues- Treat it as an eight-week course, and do the weeks in order.
- Each week adds one practice rather than replacing the last.
- Attention is trainable, and the training is short and repeated.
- Noticing where your mind went is the practice, not a failure of it.
- Formal practice and everyday awareness are treated as two halves of the same thing.
Suited to someone who wants a defined programme rather than an explanation, and who will actually do the weeks. Less useful if you want the theory, since the book is a course rather than an argument.
Where to start
Start the first week rather than reading ahead, and do the practice before reading the next chapter. The book is designed so that reading it straight through without practising defeats the purpose, which is the most common way it gets abandoned. If you fall behind, go back to where you stopped rather than catching up on the reading, because the sequence matters more than the pace.
Where this fits
This is the practical course on the shelf. Wherever You Go, There You Are supplies the practice to put inside it, and The Power of Now supplies the argument for why any of it matters. Read it before Self-Compassion rather than after, since the self-criticism that book addresses tends to surface once you start sitting with your own attention.
The rest of this shelf
The Health and Meditation shelf holds 5 books in total. These are the others, each condensed into a guide you can finish in about 15 minutes:
- Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
- How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger and Gene Stone
- The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman by Timothy Ferriss
- Own the Day, Own Your Life: Optimized Practices for Waking, Working, Learning, Eating, Training, Playing, Sleeping, and Sex by Aubrey Marcus
Work through it, with four more
Mindfulness is in the Health and Meditation bundle with Why We Sleep, How Not to Die, The 4-Hour Body and Own the Day, Own Your Life.
Five complete guides, about 15 minutes each.
Explore Health and MeditationOne practice at a time, for eight weeks.