title: Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness
author:  Susan L. Smalley 
description: You wouldn't go through your day after having left your leg at home, so why are so many of us living lives with our minds left behind? Smalley, a former professor of biology, and Winston, a former Buddhist nun, answer this question and enable readers to remedy the absent-minded lifestyle. As founder/director and director, respectively, of UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center, the authors draw on their experience of bringing mindfulness to the masses and present the scientific side of mindfulness with an artful approach that results in a well-rounded synthesis accessible to scholars and laymen alike. Research studies, personal accounts, and practical applications illuminate mindfulness as a form of meditation; with activities as simple as breathing, listening, and walking, the practice can be easily incorporated into any lifestyle. Though a surprisingly extensive list of benefits from mindfulness is supported by what current research exists, the authors simultaneously acknowledge that more needs to be done and they find encouragement in positive results that reveal mindfulness as a simple yet profound solution to daily problems. Smalley and Winston will pique interest in living a completely present life, even if what that means has yet to be fully understood. <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: # Acknowledgments
  
  
  In an undertaking such as this one, there are a great many people to thank
  because the work of MBSR is so distributive and widespread now, and based not
  only in collegiality but in deeply meaningful dharma friendship. Space will
  not permit me to individually thank by name all my colleagues and friends who
  have contributed to the nurturance of mindfulness-based interventions and
  contemplative practices more broadly throughout the world in the twenty-five
  years since this book first appeared, and those who contributed to the work of
  MBSR in the years before that. You know who you are. Please know how deeply I
  honor what you have done, what you are doing, and even more, who you are. Your
  work and our past or ongoing connections in this growing community of purpose
  and practice have been an inspiration for revising and updating this book. I
  hope it contributes in some small way to furthering your work and to the
  ongoing flowering of mindfulness in the world.
  
  
  Many peop