Guided Mindfulness Meditation

Guided Mindfulness Meditation: A Complete Guided Mindfulness Meditation Program from Jon Kabat-Zinn Audio CD – Audiobook, September 1, 2005
Author: Jon Kabat-Zinn ID: 1591793599

About the Author

Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, is the founder and director of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and associate professor of medicine in the Division of Preventative and Behavioral Medicine. His clinic was featured in 1993 in the public television series Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers. Jon Kabat-Zinn is the author of Wherever You Go, There You Are and Full-Catastrophe Living: Using Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness.

From AudioFile

This set is an excellent introduction to meditation. The four meditations can be practiced at any level of intensity the listener chooses. Zinn encourages the listener to be flexible to make the meditations restful and relaxing. He has a gentle, quiet style, guiding the listener through each meditation to focus attention and increase mindfulness. He provides clear directions and offers suggestions throughout each aspect of the program. His encouragement and observations will be particularly useful for beginners, and this set of four provides a core of meditations that can be used in various orders and intensities. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine– Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Series: Guided Mindfulness Meditation (Book 1)Audio CDPublisher: Sounds True; 1 edition (September 1, 2005)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 1591793599ISBN-13: 978-1591793595 Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 0.6 x 5.8 inches Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Best Sellers Rank: #5,970 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1 in Books > Books on CD > Health, Mind & Body > Meditation #1 in Books > Books on CD > Health, Mind & Body > Relaxation & Meditation #1 in Books > Books on CD > Health, Mind & Body > Fitness
I have purchased this CD set despite some of the really bad reviews it got from some users. I have just started using it, and I list some of the good and some of the not so good impressions about it:

Good:
– The sessions are adequately long. 45 minutes is really required to achieve optimal state of relaxation and mindfulness. Many of the other meditation CDs I found way too short (eg. 10-15 minutes a session)
– Kabat-Zinn is a renowned researcher in his field, he really knows what he’s talking about. You can indeed reach deep levels of relaxation with his CDs.
– The set mixes Midfulness Meditation with Mindfulness Yoga. This is great, because it makes the practice more interesting.

Not so good:
– I really like meditating with some ambient music in the background, to block out disturbing noises. This meditation CD set is recorded with narration only – there’s no music. I have however resolved this easily by digitalizing the CDs and mixing them with David Miles Huber’s excellent meditation music. This resulted in MP3s that are truly excellent to listen to on my MP3 player.

My advice is that you buy the companion book, "Full Catastrophe Living" from Kabat-Zinn. Read the book first, and then start practicing with the CDs. It is very important to understand how Kabat-Zinn recommends you approach meditation, and without reading the book you will not be able to take full advantage of the CD.

Finally, although some said that Jon Kabat-Zinn’s voice is annoying, I did not find it so. It comes down to individual tastes I guess. Rather than concentrating on the quality of the voice, just listen to the message it carries. After all, meditation – among other things – is about being non-judgmental, right?
It well known that Jon Kabat-Zinn is one of the biggest names in meditation instruction and has done much to give the field academic credibility and validation. His work is valuable and this CD is no exception. However, it seems to be overly ambitious and incomplete without other information to augment it. At the least, you need his book FULL CATASTROPHE LIVING to go along with it.

For context, I am a former research scientist and taught physiology in a university and was a biochemist for Merck. I have a good background in yoga, meditation and have done graduate work in Integral Psychology which studies psychology within the context of the world’s wisdom traditions. I also teach meditation as part of my living including using biofeedback and other western aids to learning these concepts. This context will help you to judge the merit of my interview and the point of view I’m writing it for.

One thing I like about this CD is that in a sense it is one stop shopping. In one package, you get a Body Scan Meditation, A thorough Mindfulness Meditation methodology and some basic yoga instruction. This is a lot to get in one package and usually you don’t get a Body Scan Meditation along with a Mindfulness practice in the same set. All of these meditations and the yoga instruction is useful, but while technically accurate Jon Kabat-Zinn doesn’t have the most soothing voice, there was little though to music of any aesthetic dimension which helps one to enter various mind states and there is a bit of a clinical feel the whole series.

With respect to the yoga instruction, I think this information is useful for someone who has studied at least a little bit with a teacher or who has attended classes.

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