How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day

If you have ever thought about a meditation regimen but thought that it was too "new age hippie crap" think again. This book shows the research behind what mindfulness and meditation can accomplish. After just a few weeks of practicing, I find myself less worried and stressed during my day. This book was a really good introduction to the practice and even better, you only need about 10 minutes a day to meditate and experience the results. I was a skeptic but I thought if even a small percentage of the claims were true, it was worth exploring. I'm glad I did.

Use this book together with the Headspace application and you will see that it is feasible to incorporate meditation in your routine. Highly recommend this book and related tools, the Author and his company had really found an effective way to use reference materials, the web and mobile applications to create useful solutions for our chaotic "ways of living". The book is pleasant and easy to follow, based on research and full of stories and real examples. The app enables the practice, the book clarifies the approach and invites you to integrate meditation without treating it as hippie subject or rocket science at all.

This book is a companion to the online platform and mobile apps. Taking 10 minutes a day to practice mindfulness is so incredibly easy and helpful. The book itself, while teaching techniques, tells some of Andy's fascinating story of being a monk for 10 years, anecdotes from his lab, scientific research, and how he uses in how own life. I recommend for any mediation beginners

Andy has written an incredible book. It's not only easy to read, it has great depth without being 'heavy'. The metaphors are spot on, shared with us thanks to the many teachers that Andy has studied with. Andy has clearly experienced meditation himself at a masters level and has a deep understanding of how to communicate his journey to us.

Very good book to learn how to meditate. Not trying to brag, but I could clear my mind after a couple of days practice.

A neat trick...when meditating, if you notice a thought, ask who the thought belongs to?

LOVE this book. If you are familiar with the app, the book will give you a little more insight into Andy and the process of meditation. If you are not familiar with the app, this is a great introduction. Who doesn't need a little more Headspace?

I love Andy's teachings & meditation app. This book provides even more detailed & background about the practice of meditation & we get to know even more about Andy himself. He's a gift to us!

Andy Puddicombe gets it, and he's developed an approach to meditation that is so simple and practical that it's nearly impossible for someone who is interested in meditation to not be successful in developing a steady routine.

This headspace book is very much a companion to the Headspace app, which has all the companion audio for the meditations in this book. What I like about this book is that it's more than just a "how to meditate book", Puddicombe gives a great amount of context on the practice of meditations in an approachable and easy to understand way.

Puddicombe has stripped away many of the layers of Meditation and presented it in is most basic and fundamental form. The different mediations in the book are well spelled out, easily understandable and they work.

If you are using the Headspace app, some of the things in the book will be a repetition of what you know, but the depth of explanation and background make it a well worth reading.

Andy Puddicombe really needs to be accoladed for bringing meditation to the masses in a way that is so approachable and more importantly something that you can truly build a solid foundation of meditation practice on.

This book talks about mindfulness and meditation in a way over never heard before. It's so practical and completely relatable. I would recommend this book to anyone. I have the audiobook and the author reads it, which I love. Listen to him talk has to be one of the most calming experiences I've ever had. I love that this book talks about how to deal with emotions and even depression through meditation. It's touching in the root of the problems, not just a quick fix. I'm only half way through, so if I find anything I don't like, I will update my review.

Having meditated on and off for the better part of a decade, the challenge always arises - I don't have hours a day to spend on this practice, and what happens when I inevitably miss due to travel or family, and how do I do this with two kids under the age of 10 screeching like banshees?

Andy Puddicome wrote the book that bridges the gap between the 18 hour monastic meditation tradition and the 18 second focus that we tend to have in our lives as engaged Westerners. The book is extremely practical, guiding the reader through exercises that are both easy to try and tough to master. The beauty, however, is that the practices take 10 minutes or less. Puddicome makes you feel like it is OK to do something as opposed to nothing, and he recognizes and embraces the fast pace of Western life by offering up methods that are usable anytime, anywhere, and don't consume hours of your day.

Maybe you are not into "meditation", and thus the view of "mindfulness" that Puddicome espouses makes you feel more comfortable, less New Age, or just more normal. Regardless of whether you call it meditation, mindfulness, awareness or mental calming, the approach is something that anyone can do, and Puddicome sets you up for success."

I started reading this book after I've already started using the app. Still it contained a lot of useful information for me. The writing was quite good and even funny at times. After finishing it I still go back to it as a kind of handbook on meditation.

I recommend it to basically anybody who has ever tried meditation and to those who would like a little help starting it.

Solid 5 stars!

This is probably the easiest book on meditation I've read. I'm not sure if it will live up to all the promises on the cover, but I've been very pleased at the author's style and his stories that illustrate concepts. Sort of a Mediation 101 or for Dummies book, it covers his experiences in mediation as a former Buddhist monk. Most of it is easy to perform and doesn't require a lot of the stereotypical chanting or other exercises Westerners associate with meditation. A must read for someone just getting into meditation.

If you're looking for something in-depth into Buddhism or meditation, you're looking at the wrong book. As a self-help book, the idea is to get you to work on your mind and the rest of your life will hopefully fall into place. This isn't a quick fix into solving all your problems, but it is a step into becoming less caught up in your thoughts and will help you learn to be more aware about your body and your environment.

I've done some meditation in the past without understanding what it was all about. I always thought I was to empty my mind, but the author makes it clear that it's not necessarily about that. It's about not being carried away by thoughts. He gives good analogies that seem to work well.

If you want to learn the basics about mediation, this book is for you. It can help you get the basics down and even gives you good practice for short periods of time. I would recommend this book for anyone suffering from anxiety or depression. It can really help break the cycle of negative thoughts.

Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk, is recognized as the UK's foremost mindfulness meditation expert. He shares powerful excises, stories and techniques to help calm the chatter in the mind in "Get Some Headspace: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day."
He says meditation isn't about becoming a different person. It's about training in awareness, understanding how and why we think and feel the way we do and getting a healthy sense of perspective in the process.
He was drawn to meditation or "headspace" in his early 20s because he felt his mind was permanently switched on, going round and round like a washing machine. In addition to his 'busy head' he felt as though he was always drifting into unnecessary worry, frustration and sadness.
He says he prefers the word 'headspace' because it describes the underlying sense of peace and contentment no matter what emotion might be at play. He says mindfulness is the ability to be present, meditation is the best way to learn the skill and 'headspace' is the outcome.
The theme of "Get Some Headspace" is awareness and an understanding of ourselves and others. It's about developing a gentle curiosity: watching, noticing and observing what's happening in every aspect of our life. It's about finding a sense of ease with ourselves right now, choosing how we see life and how we communicate and relate with others, cultivating kindness, compassion and appreciation towards ourselves and others and developing greater dedication, balance, equanimity, acceptance, presence and composure.
Andy says there are three components of mindfulness training: understanding how to "approach" the technique, how to behave while "practicing" the technique and how to "integrate" that quality of mind into everyday life.
I found Andy's metaphors for the mind helpful. He says the underlying essence of our mind is like a clear blue sky. When the mind is busy with thoughts and feelings the sky is temporarily obscured by the "clouds." He says the blue sky is the headspace. It's always there. Meditation is not about keeping all the clouds at bay. It's more about setting up a deck chair and watching the clouds roll by. It's resting the mind. It's not trying, not doing, just being.
A second helpful image is the mind being like a wild stallion. We need to take it slowly, be gentle and give the horse all the space it needs until it comes to a natural space of rest. If the horse struggles, just loosen the rope again slightly and gently repeat the process.
A third image is a very still clear pool of water. If we throw a pebble in the water it creates a ripple on the surface and it takes awhile for the water to settle. The pool reflects the surface of our minds. If we throw many pebbles in the water it stirs up the bottom and it's impossible to see anything at all. There's no clarity.
If we experience physical discomfort during meditation another helpful exercise is to imagine it's the discomfort of a person we care about. It's an act of extraordinary generosity to sit with their discomfort so they don't have to.
Andy says meditating just ten minutes a day increases productivity, clarity and focus, reduces stress and anxiety, and helps with weight loss, improves sleep and personal relationships.
"Get Some Headspace" (building mind-fitness) also brings us the extraordinary science behind mindfulness meditation. The research shows there is increased blood flow and physical changes in the part of the brain brain that helps to control emotions and behavior. Studies show mindfulness training can be an effective treatment for addictions and eating disorders, enhance peak performance in stressful circumstances, halve the time it takes to get to sleep, improve cognitive skills and alertness, activate parts of the brain related to happiness and reduce the intensity of negative emotions, anxiety and the harmful effects of stress. Mindfulness lowers blood pressure and heart rate and increases oxygen consumption.
"Get Some Headspace" is a must read for beginners and seasoned mindfulness students. I highly recommend this book.

This book takes a very practical approach. The author's intent is to get people to start meditating only 10 minutes a day and being mindful the rest of the day. He takes a very laid back approach and is not aggressive or preachy. He has an interesting background as a monk who wondered around the world looking for enlightenment at various monasteries and he has some very helpful stories from those experiences.

This should be considered introductory and practical material for people who are either not familiar with meditation or mindfulness or those who have tried it and been unsuccessful. It's easy reading and a method that can easily be integrated into anyone's life. It got me to try meditation again. I have not been successful at sticking with it on previous attempts.

I think it will be useful to those who are looking for a way to lead a more fulfilling and less stressful and hectic life. The author repeatedly says he is not asking anyone to change what they do or telling them what to do. He is simply asking them to try to do it with more awareness. I think he succeeds pretty well and have no problem recommending this book.

Several years ago I suspended my cynicism, switched off my mobile phone and went on a two-day meditation course. After an awkward forty-eight hours of chanting, bell ringing and deathly silences I was sent home with a personal mantra and a recommendation to practice `doing it' for thirty minutes twice a day. Guess what happened? I didn't do it. Every time I sat down, hoping to find calm, I ended up compiling mental to-do lists. When the time was up I'd leap out of the chair feeling frantic and annoyed that I'd wasted half an hour of my life. Over the years I've read other books on the subject and dipped in and out. Sometimes the advice to `imagine my thoughts like fluffy clouds on a summer day' has worked but, more than often, it hasn't. I started reading Get Some Headspace after a friend's enthusiastic recommendation. I really like Andy's down-to-earth language and his personal stories. I can relate to his desire to manage the negative/rambling voice in his head and his initial struggles to achieve positive results from meditating. I've registered online, downloaded the app (which is brilliant because you can have a guided meditation anytime, anyplace), and I'm enjoying my ten minutes everyday. I think this system works because it offers accessible support and encouragement and it enables me to easily incorporate meditation into a busy day. To my amazement, I'm beginning to think ten minutes isn't long enough!

love the way Andy writes his stories. It makes it so much easier to recognize the typical problems that arise while meditating!
One big failure in the Book: I bought the Kindle version about 3 weeks ago. As the links presented in the text gave always a error website, I contacted directly HEADSPACE, inc. Well... the links are obsolete. They always try to redirect you to the site to installed the App and purchase the Abo ( which I already have). I got an answer: there is a newest version of the book and I should send them a list of the links that I will like to see. You have 2 options: you buy this book now and e-mail the company for each link or you wait for the newest book but do not rely on the availability of the links for too long. Sad. I really thought the Headspace inc was about to make accessible meditation to all. I suppose it is still a company.

This book helps you deal with worry and negative thinking. The author is a monk and describes in many pages what the life of a monk is like, how they may meditate eighteen hours a day. It made me wonder what can you find to meditate about for that long. He also describes life in a monastary. He begins the book with a very long introduction - thirty six pages - of what to expect when reading this book. He devotes pages to his personal life and experiences in taking ten to relax. He explains how to meditate and how to breathe. He lists exercises to do in every chapter. I had heard about mindfulness before so I found that most of this book was common sense. It is basically to be very aware of everything that you are doing at the moment, this will take you away from negative thinking and worry. Be aware of the sounds and sights around you, what your body is doing etc. At the end of the book he has lists of questions to ask yourself every day to measure your success in doing the take ten procedure.

I have become very interested in this topic since taking a class on the subject. I felt this was a good book for beginners, offering a good introduction to the subject which can be supplemented through the author's website. It's easy to read and quite understandable for laypeople.

Amazing book for both meditation starters and just those who are interested in the concept of mindfulness. Definitely +1 to my shelve of books that contain well formulated concepts for simply living life to the fullest with harmony and happiness within yourself.

I have been meditating for about ten years now, I read this book, because I like to see what is new on the meditation scene, and how it is growing and developing in the west. Having read many books on meditation I would say now that this is to my mind the best book for westerners to start with. I only wish it had been around when I started.

Ach yes, meditation. This book is an ad for Puddicombe's company Headspace, which packages ancient meditation/spiritual methods into 5-10 minute segments.

The purpose of meditation in Advaita, Shaivism and Buddhism is to learn insight into the nature of reality (self) and to develop an ethical/moral stand towards life. Its Sanskrit root ('dhyana') can be translated as 'familiarization' with the nature of one's mind. This is not weight-lifting, spinning or marathon running - but rather about getting insight into who we are. Headspace is hired by corporations that aim to make their peons more profitable. The idea of paying for meditation instruction would strike the Buddha as contradicting the essence of moral life itself.

I would be very - very - surprised if beyond the entertainment Puddicombe provides to TED audiences he helps to reduce people's suffering. If you want to learn meditation without falling into the clutches of a corporate marketeer, you might start with Lorin Roche's Meditation Made Easy. Or Suzuki roshi.

It was inevitable that spirituality and meditation would eventually be invaded and co-opted by the corporate world. There are widgets and apps out there that purport to teach you to meditate... with results that may be not unlike teaching a rat press a lever. People who developed meditation methods did so to help us recognize the roots of our suffering. They never charged money for it. I went to a hipster meditation place in NYC recently, which charges $30 for a 30 min mindfulness session. Like Headspace, they are brazen and trying to get out what they can. But this is not what meditation should be about.

My experience in meditation is very limited. I've only read two books on the subject, but wanted to continue learning. I chose "Get Some Headspace" because it offers the Take 10 program which integrates mindfulness with active lifestyles.

I discovered not all self-help books are created equal. Andy Puddicombe's book is easy to read, but lacks substance. At 214 pages, it's a smattering of analogies and snippet pieces of advice. It reminded me of an old home repair book--not enough useful information conveyed to actually get anything fixed. The first one hundred pages are basically stories about Andy Puddicombe's difficult attempts at learning how to meditate at various monasteries. Supposedly these tales are in the book to help readers better grasp the Take 10 program without having to go through the same grueling ordeals Andy did as a monk. Some are extreme anecdotal examples. I wondered why many were even included.

The actual Take 10 program is explained in just a few brief pages in the middle of the book, and involves the most basic breathing routine. By comparison, another book I read, The Power of Prana, also offers a breathing routine. Master Stephen Co's entire 189 page book stays focused around this routine, but he incorporates meditation, enhanced breathing exercises and advanced practices which encompass a complete spiritual and energetic framework. Every page of this very organized book is packed with useful information that even a beginner like me can appreciate.

"Get Some Headspace" might offer enlightenment, but not by reading the book. Using modern marketing techniques, Andy Puddicombe encourages readers to log onto his website for free guided meditations, only it's the same basic information found in the book, and that's not much. Once at the website, readers soon discover additional advice or help (like the Take 15 program) all cost money accessed through monthly, yearly or forever subscriptions.

Look elsewhere if you're truly interested in meditation, even mastering the most basic concepts. Learning Andy's way literally comes at a cost.

This review is for the Headspace app in the iTunes store.

the store-ers -- I am also writing this review for anyone working for the company Headspace who might read.

The first 10 days (Take 10) are free. I signed up for these on a recommendation from a friend, and I enjoyed them a lot. So I decided to sign up for a monthly subscription so that I could enjoy Take 15. I was uneasy at first signing up for a "membership" or monthly subscription because I have worked for a company before that deliberately tried to con its customers into "memberships" and so I try to avoid them myself now when I can, but it said "cancel any time" and it was month to month so I figured, all right fine, because I really wanted some more meditation in my life and I thought it was worth it, having meditation led "on the go" on my phone seemed fantastic.

I decided after a while that this app and its style wasn't for me after all (I liked the first 10 days and the videos but once I went farther I found it to become kind of corporate) and went on their website to cancel my subscription. I was surprised to find that there was no cancel button in plain sight. I thought okay... so I searched around their site, clicking on every different page I could find, for 10-15 minutes looking for a cancel button. Nothing. Not in my account, not on the main page, not even on the payment page where you can enter in alternate payment information! I realized what I had gotten myself into. The fact in and of itself that I couldn't find a cancel button made me frantic to cancel immediately!

I found some email addresses (no phone numbers are to be found anywhere on the site) and emailed them requesting to cancel. I did not receive any response back (other than an automated reply saying "we're very busy with all our changes! we'll get back to you!") for two entire days. When I did get a response back, it was: "I have forwarded your information to our cancellation team to get this taken care of for you. We hope this helps and if you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Take care and happy meditating!"

You hope this helps? Why is there any "hope" involved in cancelling? I want to cancel - why does this involve forwarding my request to a "cancellation team"? Also - you have an entire team of people who deal with cancellations? Why do you need so many people dealing with cancellations? Answer to all of the above and this is completely my own opinion I am stating, not a fact: Because this company is preying on people who have miserable desk jobs with the promise of peace and calm and happiness in their lives, that's why :( -- (That's who they cater to -- my friend who recommended this to me has a 1-year free account promoted through the huge corporate company she works for, and at which she is utterly miserable. And so since her account is free... no, she hasn't had this issue.).

I emailed back and asked how I would know when my account had been cancelled. The response was: "Yes, once your have been cancelled, we will send a confirmation email." A) typo. B) There was no date or deadline given, leaving me in a position where I needed to check back in indefinitely until I heard something.

A couple days later I got an email saying my most recent payment had failed to go through. I thought that was odd because there was no payment scheduled to go through in the first place at that time so I thought hmm, maybe this means my account has been cancelled. I took no action and figured hey, if they are having problems processing my payment (through no action of my own -- I didn't change anything), then regardless of whether they cancelled my account, they won't be taking my money.

I left it at that. Cut to - Today, a week after the start of this process and still no confirmation that my cancellation has actually gone through other than the email in the paragraph above -- I get a new email saying "Thank you for your subscription!" --- What? I have taken NO action on my "account" with this company in the past week other than to email the help desk to ask for a cancellation. I checked my bank account and sure enough, money is pending withdrawal on today's date.

I still have no idea how to cancel. I emailed the help email again immediately after I saw this, complaining and re-iterating my desire to cancel.

Headspace: This is absolutely unacceptable. This is SO EASILY RESOLVABLE! Just make a cancel button on your web page! If you truly have helping people as an interest in your company. I believe that this company has got to be aware of this and that it has been a deliberate choice to make the cancellation process so difficult. Shame on you for pulling this trick with a practice like meditation, of all things.

the store-ers: If you have money to spare and don't mind potentially never being able to cancel, and if you're a corporate yourself and are into that world... sure, try out Headspace. Anyone else.... I'd recommend find something else. I feel like now I understand the anger of the customers who used to chew me out at my old company! So glad I don't work there any more. I purposefully keep most of my reviews objective and not emotional but I am seriously so angry! This deserves emotion!