Green Books Campaign: Mindfulness and the Art of Choice

This review is part of the Green Books Campaign. Today, 200 bloggers take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper.

I was asked to participate in this campaign as part of an effort to increase awareness of books printed using eco- friendly paper and to encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.

I am partial to the printed word, partial to the way a book feels in my hand, the turning of the page, the underlining of the good parts. I keep the environment in view, but love the experience of reading an actual book. That is why the campaign felt important to me. It celebrates the possibility that we can combine our love for the printed word with our desire to better serve the environment.

I feel even more fortunate to be reviewing the book called “Mindfulness and the Art of Choice” by Dr. Karen Sherman. This book is printed in way that is friendly to the enviornment, which is good as it’s the kind of book that you make your own, use fully, and go back to when you need it.

I try to make mindfulness a part of my life. I’ve read a lot of Thich Nhat Hanh, who started my mediation practice and since then has given me ways to find peace when I need it the most. The goal of my mediation practice, though, has always been to quiet my mind, to find peace amidst all that was going on around me. In essence, to take break from what was challenging me and settle myself into a peaceful place.

But as I read Dr. Sherman’s book, I discovered that mindfulness is not just a way to escape from the issues surrounding me, it’s a way for me to actually understand these issues and the emotions they create in a whole new way. By creating this type of understanding, I am better able to respond to those emotions in a truly authentic way.

The idea that we can choose how to respond to the events of our lives sounds fairly straight forward, but the book reveals how difficult that really is. How we react to events and relationships is based on the very early experiences we have as a child. The connections we make from those experiences leave impressions on us that we bring into our adult life.

So, when we are confronted with difficult situations as adults, we continue to use these same time-honored responses we had as children. We use them out of habit, because it’s what we have always done, it’s how we have gotten by. Whether or not these responses are authentic or serve us well doesn’t really matter; they are just the mindless responses that we come back to every time.

But what if we could change that and respond to these situations the way we really feel, with our whole authentic selves?

Like the supportive therapist that I imagine she is, Dr. Shearman takes us through a series of examples and exercises that help us use mindfulness to quiet our minds and connect with the events of our childhood that are causing these emotions to come up. In being still, we can get in touch with our real reactions and move from using the automatic response from the past to making a real choice in how we respond.

Once we make that connection, we can then decide what is best for us for our lives. It’s not an easy move, yet the book includes a multitude of exercises and meditations to guide us on this journey.

After I had read the book, I had a series of events happen at work that caused me to feel unsettled and angry. I took these feelings with me most everywhere I went; I couldn’t seem to shake them.

Then I worked through some of the exercises Dr. Sherman had provided in the book to get closer to these feelings. In that work, I realized that I was feeling emotions that existed from my childhood - anger and frustration from not being listened to, not being valued As I sat with those emotions, it was clear where those feelings came from, but I realized that I didn’t need them in response to this work issue, I could let them go.

The book has helped me to realize that I have choice in how I respond and that in the end, the only thing that really matters, indeed the only thing I can control, is how I choose to respond to a given situation. But to do that, I need to take the time to be still and understand where the response is coming from.

I didn’t just read this book, is experienced it. I went through the exercises, underlined key thoughts, and dog-eared many pages. I made the book mine, and I will go back to it again and again as I need resources for this journey.

So it makes me feel good to know that this book was printed in an eco-friendly way, using FSC paper. FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council. They are a third party certification organization who assess those who manage the care of forests, and ensures that the paper was derived using trees from a well managed forest. This includes complying with federal law and internationalagreements relating to the rights of indigenous peoples, enhancing the long-term social and economic well being of workers and surrounding communities, and conserving the biological diversity, water, soil and ecosystems surrounding the forest. Which all sounds like good news for the trees, the people, and the earth.

The campaign is organized for the second time by Eco-Libris, a green company working to make reading more sustainable. A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website. Visit them to join the discussion on "green" books and learn how you can support books printed in an eco-friendly manner.