1. Mindful of Race
Transforming Racism From the Inside Out
Ruth King • Sounds True, 2018
While Mindful of Race was published in 2018, King wrote it in 2016, when social conversation and coverage was ablaze with racial reckoning, climate anxiety, and protest—a description that can be just as easily applied today as it was nearly a decade ago. Similarly, just as the tools, teachings, and stories offered in this book were revolutionary and deeply needed then, the same is true now. “The world’s heart is on fire, and race is at its core,” she writes. “Racism is a heart disease… If we cannot think clearly and respond wisely, we will continue to damage the world’s heart.”
What King offers in Mindful of Race is an invitation and instruction manual to excavate racial experiences and understandings, digging them up at the root and examining them in a new light. First, she lays the groundwork, setting a tone of compassion, honesty, and vulnerability by sharing some of her story, inviting the reader to adopt a similar attitude for the journey that lies ahead. From there, she guides us through an exploration of our racial narratives, followed by a buffet of mindfulness meditation practices to support self-learning and inquiry.
While the topics and calls to action in this book are sometimes heavy, the foundations of mindfulness are woven throughout as tools to ease the load, soften, and stay engaged. For her, King writes, through meditation, she was “learning to sit with difficult feelings without coming apart.” From this place of openness and care, we’re better equipped to move forward into the final section where we explore what it means to “cultivate a culture of care,” and bring what we’ve learned off the pages and off the meditation cushion out into the world. – AWC
2. Fully Present
The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness
Susan L. Smalley, PhD, and Diana
Winston • Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2022
It’s easy to think of mindfulness as happening in contrast to moments of stress, obligation, or boredom. But authors Susan Smalley and Diana Winston bring mindfulness right back to the middle of our real lives. Can you stand in line mindfully? And does it matter if you do?
Smalley and Winston run the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center (MARC) and have had a front seat to seeing mindfulness at work in both theory and practice for the last decade. In this approachable volume—now in its second edition—they explore the latest mindfulness research, its real-life applications, and how simple practices can be incorporated into daily living. – SM
3. Better in Every Sense
How the Science of Sensation Can Help You Reclaim Your Life
Norman Farb and Zindel Segal • Little, Brown Spark, 2024
Better in Every Sense is dedicated to “everyone choosing hope over fear.” What follows is a deeply compassionate offering that meets the moment by laying out an accessible resource for all those struggling in our age of attention economy, individualism, and anxiety. In part, it does so by acknowledging that for so many of us, this is also an age of abundance, of freedom, and connection. The authors take the reader on a journey of empowerment with new science, historical context, and simple tools that make a path toward fulfillment and happiness feel uncomplicated. This book is not a step-by-step guide to success or optimal living, but a deep dive into rediscovering our inherent capacities for presence, curiosity, and joy. – AWC
4. The Heart of Who We Are
Realizing Freedom Together
Caverly Morgan • Sounds True, 2022
Throughout The Heart of Who We Are, Caverly Morgan reminds us of this paradox of inner growth: Self-discovery doesn’t happen apart from the world, but within it. We can believe aphorisms like We are all love, but we also need real help sometimes seeing and understanding what that means—in our bodies, our self-talk, our relationships, our communities.
Caverly Morgan reminds us of this paradox of inner growth: Self-discovery doesn’t happen apart from the world, but within it.
For Morgan, this isn’t just some interesting thought experiment. It has immense and important implications for life together, because something crucial happens when we realize that love is actionable: We experience collective liberation. This return to the truth of our connection has the power to transform not only personal struggle or trauma, but also systems of separation and suffering. In her own warm and welcoming style, Morgan guides this potential journey to freedom together by using personal stories, spiritual insights, and mindfulness practices to guide readers toward understanding their true essence. – SM
