Author

Jon Kabat-Zinn

16 key ideas across 2 books, each explained in our own words.

Full Catastrophe Living

IDEA 1
A programme for living with stress
Kabat-Zinn describes the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programme he developed at a university hospital. It teaches people with stress, pain and illness to use mindfulness, alongside their usual medical care, to relate differently to their difficulties.
IDEA 2
Life includes the full catastrophe
Kabat-Zinn borrows the phrase the full catastrophe to describe life's joys and sorrows together. Mindfulness helps people face all of it. Kabat-Zinn uses the phrase to say that the good and the hard parts of life come together.
IDEA 3
Eating a raisin slowly teaches attention
The programme begins by eating a single raisin very slowly, noticing its texture, smell and taste. This shows how much we usually miss. Kabat-Zinn presents this simple exercise as a way to begin paying closer attention to ordinary things.

IDEA 1
Mindfulness is attention on purpose
Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, without judging. He argues that most of us live on autopilot, missing much of our own lives because our minds are elsewhere.
IDEA 2
You cannot escape yourself
The title reflects the idea that wherever we go, we bring our minds with us. Changing location does not solve inner problems; awareness does. Kabat-Zinn suggests that the first step is to notice how our own minds work.
IDEA 3
See with beginner's mind
Kabat-Zinn encourages seeing things freshly, as if for the first time. This beginner's mind makes ordinary experiences interesting. Kabat-Zinn suggests that this fresh attention helps us notice things we normally pass by without a glance.

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