Yesterday I released my new mindfulness guide, via private email, to the small group of early-birds who signed up for email updates on it.
It was a huge hit. I really couldn’t believe it. Thank you so much everybody! I spent pretty much the whole day interacting with readers, it was just fantastic. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
Today, You Are Here: A Modern Person’s Guide to Living in the Present is available to everybody else. (Early-birds, this is basically what was sent to you yesterday — check your inbox!)
I know a lot of you have been waiting for this guide for a while, so if you want to skip the preamble and get it now, you can get it here.
But some of you will want to know more about it first.
If you read this blog you’ve definitely heard me rave about the endless benefits of mindfulness. Nothing has made a bigger difference in my quality of life, and I make this point over and over again with different anecdotes and points of view. I’m now more confident, more calm, less frazzled and less worried. Mindfulness has even made my cooking better.
The mindfulness habit does that. It has these incredible secondary benefits that work in the background. Aside from helping to reduce mental chatter, and experience more peaceful moments throughout your day, it brings new clarity and possibility to pretty much anything you do, because everything you do requires your attention.
Here are a few of the things mindfulness habits can do for a person. I have experienced all of these benefits personally, and a lot more:
- Lower your stress levels, and become less easily upset
- Stay relaxed when things aren’t going your way
- Overcome cravings more easily
- Find yourself looking forward to ordinary activities such as walking and driving
- Figure out your hangups (around sex, money, and other things) and begin to get over them
- Find a sense of inner peace in ordinary moments where nothing exciting is happening
- Have sensitive conversations without chickening out (asking for a raise, giving someone bad news)
- Enjoy un-glamorous activities you once hated (like cleaning, or taking out the garbage)
- Overcome your resistance to physical exercise
- Be content in situations that are uncertain or unsettled
- Rediscover a sense of wonder and personal freedom
You will also probably find yourself getting better at seemingly unrelated things: mowing the lawn, folding socks, maybe even throwing a Frisbee. You’ll see.
I want everyone to experience the benefits of learning to use your attention on purpose. So over the last few months (as you probably know by now) I wrote You Are Here, which is meant to be a complete manual to establishing the mindfulness habit.
The guide is centered on a dozen small, easy practices, which you can do virtually any time, even while you’re doing something else. Making a habit of even one of them is enough to make a significant difference to the ease and peace you experience during your day. (Even a Monday!)
I’ve made it as easy as possible to establish these new habits, by taking advantage of two principles:
1) Attaching the practices to simple actions that are already habitual for you, such as putting on your shoes, getting in your car, or dialing your phone. This makes mindfulness a regular habit very quickly, without the uphill battle of beginning a habit from a standing start.
2) The practices are short and simple (and often fun) instead of tedious and boring. This isn’t like trying to make a habit out of going running at 5:00 in the morning. These are simply better, easier, more effective ways to do what you already do, and they will leave you with several mindfulness habits in a short time.
I really think you will love it.
The guide is $27.
So for the price of a forgettable restaurant meal (without drinks) you’ll get:
- The three-part, 127-page guide You Are Here: A Modern Person’s Guide to Living in the Present (in PDF format). You can download it instantly.
- mobi and epub versions of the guide, for use with Kindle, Kobo and other e-readers (currently these are in beta)
- I’ll also be revising and expanding You Are Here, based on early reader feedback. I’ll be adding sections on specific mindfulness applications, including sections on Mindfulness for Overcoming Shyness, Mindfulness for Becoming a Fit Person, and more. You’ll get the first updated edition for free (End of May 2015)
Click here to get the guide now
Thank you so much everyone!
-David
NOTE: A lot of people have been asking for a credit-card-free way to buy You Are Here. So I’ve set up an option to use PayPal on this page. Please let me know if you have any trouble, and enjoy the guide.
I'm David, and Raptitude is a blog about getting better at being human -- things we can do to improve our lives today.
I am excited to read it.
But there isn’t print version available, is there?
I think i would definitely prefer to hold it in my hands, especially since i don’t have an e-reader on me.
It comes as a PDF, which can be opened in free software from Adobe: http://get.adobe.com/reader/
No, there’s currently no print version. I am going to look into self-publishing print options like CreateSpace for the next edition, but no plans for anything soon.
Blurb.com has a really easy format for Print on Demand, you can upload the doc and boom. Print book available for those who want it and no $ out of pocket for author. I have friends who use Lulu, same deal. Really like your work btw. very fresh and enlightened approach. Humble and insightful and never angry or defensive. Really great. yea, yea, I know. Shut up and buy the book. Support the cause. I’m on it.
Absolutely incredible job. Everything I hoped for and then some. You created a small masterpiece here. I can see re-reading this book every two or three months for a long time to come. It’s that good, and it’s that important. Thank you for putting this together. It’s fantastic.
PS: If you did create a print version, I would not only get myself a copy but probably buy at least half a dozen copies to give away as gifts.
Thanks Michael. I do recommend going back to it frequently. Once you’ve started experimenting with mindfulness in your life, you’ll probably get more out of certain sections the second time around.
I am going to look into CreateSpace and some other printing options today. Other people have said they’d like to give it as a gift.
Congratulations David. It must feel great to have it done and published.
BTW: Just bought it and am saving it to read on an upcoming overseas flight in a few weeks. Hope I can wait that long.
Hi David,
Congratulations on publishing the guide, I’m very much looking forward to reading it. Just letting you know I had no problems with the PayPal process. It didn’t ask me for any contact details so am I right in assuming my purchase is tied to my PayPal email address? I realised it’s not the same as the one I’m subscribed to your updates with so I just wanted to know which one to expect future updates on. Anyway it’s a tiny detail, the main thing is that I have it :)
David
Hi David. Thanks very much for buying YAH and for letting me know it went smoothly.
Yes, updates will use your paypal address. If you’d like to get updates to a different address, send it to me through the contact form and I’ll add it manually.
Just bought, great work – greetings from Poland :)
I’ve just got the book and I’m looking forward to learn many things that gets me stay at present and look back. However, looking back to the mistakes are natural and gives a lot of pain too. Staying focused to reality is difficult and that’s why asked for the book. I hope it will be beneficial to me.
Createspace is quite easy to use, though there’s a learning curve (as with anything). You can find great formatters who will put the text into the proper format for CS for about $75 (don’t fall for the people who charge $500+ — ripoff).
You have an eBook cover already and can use the CS cover creator to make the print version, or find a cover designer who will take your eBook cover and create the print wrap. CS will give you a free ISBN as well, or you can get your own if you want one. I think you’d sell very well in print. I would buy 10 copies myself and give them as gifts — I love your blog and follow it.
You might also want to consider developing at audio version through ACX.com. Non-fiction audiobooks do VERY well.
I self-publish for a living and am in the process of getting Gumroad in place, so it’s great to see an author using it.
Best of luck to you with the book!
Thanks for the info and ideas Julia. I am almost certainly going to do a print version now. And I’ll look into an audio version.
Hi David,
Been following your site for a long while and am quite interested in your book but I really have a hard time reading e-books. I can’t absorb the information as well and it really makes my eyes hurt. I hope you will look into a print version soon after making any necessary revisions. It doesn’t need to be fancy! Please keep us posted.
I’ve been increasingly becoming more mindful for about a year now but with this guide as a reference I foresee far less tendency to stray from it as regularly as I have in the past.
Personal favorite areas include being here for very small things, trains of thought and putting them down, and dealing intelligently with worry.
Walking through a door will never be the same. Thanks a million for your wisdom and insight David…job well done.
>Walking through a door will never be the same.
Then my job is done here :)
Hi David – so excited to read this! Any plans for an ebook that I can read on my Kindle? (the PDF file taxes the memory and won’t open – silly Kindles…)
I’m reading it on my Kindle (1st-gen Fire) right now. Did you try using “Send to Kindle” to get it there, rather than just uploading the PDF directly? http://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle
I am going to look in to .mobi and .epub format. Additional file formats will be sent automatically to people who have purchased the PDF version.
Is there a way to read a couple of pages before buying it? Like the option you have with Amazon to “look inside” a book and see if the style and the overall feel suits you.
For $37, I would also really love to be able to preview a chapter or section. I do think it’d likely be a good fit since I love all your posts, but just as a little security before plunking down . . .
Rogier and Kelli, check your email!
Could I please have a preview too?
Thanks (and thanks for all your interesting blog posts)!
Could I please review your excerpt? Thank you in advance.
hello, i like your posts and i would also be able to preview your book, thank you have a nice day
Such a fine blog. I too would love a preview of You Are Here, if possible. Thanks!
Another vote here for an audio version. I’m loving what I’ve read so far, and I’m a longtime Buddhist. Kudos, David. I’m recommending the book to friends and family.
I would love a preview too! The reviews are great so far but would love to see a little bit! Congrats David, big fan!
Hi, I would also be glad to have some pages as a preview. Thank you very much!
Hi David,
Are we able to purchase this with Paypal?
Thanks :)
Hi Jo. Yes, there is a paypal link at the bottom of this post
I just listened to an NPR podcast that has a segment about how research is showing that no matter what people are doing, they are happier if they are in the moment. When your mind wanders, you are less happy. This is a good reason to learn to be in the moment.
Here is a link to the podcast.
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510298
The most interesting part was about 6 to 8 minutes into the program.
You can also listen to the researcher’s (Matt Killingsworth’s) TED talks if you are interested. He says he knows that being in the moment makes you happier, but he admits that he does not really know how to stay in the moment. I guess someone should point him to “You Are Here”
I’ve been reading “Mindfulness in Plain English” and while it’s great, I find it difficult to finish.
Hopefully this book is what I need. Reading through the first part, it already seems promising. Either way, I bought this mainly to support the creator of my favorite blog, so money well spent :)
Hi Alex. I have found the same thing about Mindfulness in Plain English. It’s not quite plain enough.
I would love a preview of your book. Thank you.
David!!! This is absolutely fantastic, i am so proud of you, congratulations! i look forward to reading it.
This should be taught in every school. Usually mindfullness books tend to get airy and metaphisical, burdened with folklore, yet in this book each word is precise, every sentence well thought of. Have there been requests for translation? What would be the procedure?
I am just getting started with this whole idea and would love a preview!
Thank you!
I’d love a sample, too, if you don’t mind.
Publishing an eBook on Amazon and elsewhere is free and easy these days and can turn into a good source of passive income. A bit of a learning curve, but I’ve written a simplified guide for creating your own eBook. Perhaps we could do a swap. :)
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