Mindfulness and Meditation in France

Did I mention that I have joined NaNoWriMo? I think I may have, about a hundred times so far. I am writing another non-fiction book. This one is called Mindfulness and Meditation in the south of France.

My aim with Mindfulness and Meditation in the south of France is to answer my readers’ questions about mindfulness and meditation and to present scientific proof of the effectiveness of both mindfulness and of meditation as stress management strategies. I introduce my readers to a variety of different meditation methods, to help each reader find the meditation practice that suits him/her best. Especially if, like me, the reader has tried traditional sitting meditation and has found that it just doesn’t work for them. In the book, I discuss

• walking meditation,
• working meditation,
• writing meditation,
• music meditation,
• visualisation meditation,
• contemplative meditation
• equine-guided meditation
• as well as traditional sitting meditation.

To help people choose a meditation method, I provide them with a questionnaire that enables them to choose a meditation method that they will be able to incorporate seamlessly into their lives.

Each chapter starts with a letter written to me by a potential participant in one of the mindfulness meditation workshops we host here in France. Each letter reveals a specific problem, or a set of problems, that readers will be able to identify with. The letter is followed by a detailed explanation of how to solve the writer’s problems using mindfulness and meditation.

This book more or less wrote itself. I have been teaching stress management strategies to workshop participants for nearly ten years, so all I did was to organise what I knew into book form. I think I should finish the book sometime this week. I had better, because the book is already available on pre-order at Amazon and is due to be published on the second of December. This time, I am much better prepared for the editing process. It should be a much faster and less painful process than when I edited French Women’s Confidence Secrets. Talking about French Women, I had to start writing a new book. It was the only way I could stop myself tinkering with the last one.  First time round I had to learn everything about self-publishing from scratch. This time round I am hoping that I can avoid pulling out as much of my hair as last time.

This is the cover of the new book:

Now I only need to write two more books and then I will have written five in all. According to Joanna Penn, my self-publishing book writing guru,  one needs a series of books. Five sounded like a good number to me. Luckily a non-fiction book only has to have 45 000 words, although both these have more than 50 000. On the other hand, it is not so easy to condense a life-time’s knowledge and experience into a book of 50 000 words.

This week also heralds the publication of the November issue of my Mpower Magazine, so far standing at 3354 words and not quite finished yet. I have decided that my e-zine should also reflect our life here in France, so its full name now is: Mpower magazine: Living mindfully in the south of France. Each month, it contains the following:

• Mpowering main article: With Thanksgiving and the Christmas season just around the corner, this month’s article is about Mindful Eating
• Mpowering quote
• Mpowering meme
• Mpowering affirmation
• Mpowering prompt
• Living mindfully in the south of France – a short anecdote: this month my 93-year-old neighbour drives his battered old Citroen into a ditch
• Photos from the south of France: Autumn in the vineyards!
• News from the south of France featuring the Vendanges Tardives in Viella – last grape harvest on the 31st of December
• Mpowering free download of the month: A chapter from Susan Albers’ book Mindful Eating
• Mpowering Links including a link to a blog post by one of my blogging friends. This week it is a post by Molly Stevens.

If you would like to subscribe, please CLICK HERE. If you can think of anyone else who would like to subscribe, please share this post with them!

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