Mindfulness is the practice of observing, rather than reacting to, thoughts and impulses. It is developed primarily through meditation and exercises that train the mind to be in the moment and refrain from attaching value judgments to experience and thoughts. In recent years, psychologists have begun to integrate mindfulness and meditation into their treatment programs for a variety of conditions, including anxiety and depression. That’s because cutting-edge research has established these ancient practices as powerful tools for combating the psychological conditions that trouble so many of us.

New Harbinger has launched several books that incorporate mindfulness into their self-help programs. These include Calming Your Anxious Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Anxiety, Fear, and Panic [LINK TO PRESS KIT] (December 2003), which has been a great success. Within a year of publication, it has been reprinted three times. The author of mindfulness into their self-help programs. These include Calming Your Anxious Mind, Jeffrey Brantley, MD, is a psychiatrist with the Duke University’s Center for Integrative Medicine. Brantley has seen the practice of mindfulness transform his patients’ lives, and his book shows readers, step-by-step, how to develop a daily practice of meditation and mindfulness to overcome anxiety. He has been interviewed by national and local media. and has trained with Thich Nhat Hanh (The Miracle of Mindfulness), Christopher Titmuss (Transforming Our Terror), Joan Feldman, and Jon Kabat-Zinn (Wherever You Go, There You Are, Full Catastrophe Living). Calming Your Anxious Mind features a foreword by Kabat-Zinn.

Peaceful Mind: Using Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Psychology to Overcome Depression [LINK TO PRESS KIT] (May 04) grew out of a study that authors John McQuaid, Ph.D, and Paula Carmona, RN, MSN, conducted of the veterans enrolled in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program at the VA San Diego. They found that mindfulness techniques like meditation and body scanning helped to reduce depressive symptoms, improve social functioning, increase attention to positive facts about life, and decrease rumination on thoughts that could trigger depression and anxiety. The authors have appeared on local television and done numerous national and local radio interviews.