Perhaps it's women's curse- natural born multi-taskers that we are- or perhaps it's just the constant barrage of sensory stimulus society aims at us at any given moment, but the idea of simply 'being', no matter what task is being done is a foreign concept to many in this day and age. I'm pretty guilty of this myself. God forbid anyone take time to simply eat and focus on eating, rather than doing a 'working lunch', or to take time to walk to just walk, or even worse, to just sit quietly and meditate. There never seems to be enough time to concentrate on only one thing.

Enter 'mindfulness', the idea of being fully present, aware in each moment, rather than endlessly anticipating the next. Kabat-Zinn is pretty much the go-to guy for mindfulness studies in the United States. Here, in this very simple, elementary guide to mindfulness, he walks beginners step-by-step through the basics of the practice. A sort of 'crash-course' in mindfulness, if you will. His voice is soothing and appealing as he leads the interested from simple definitions through to meditation excercises.

If you have any experience with this sort of meditation, the information offered here will probably be insufficient for you. But for beginners, this introduction can't be beat.