The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness
by Andy Puddicombe
One of the Five Books rules is that you shouldn’t recommend your own book. At the same time, the people we approach to interview are supposed to be leaders in their fields, so often it’s a shame not to mention their own books. Our interview about meditation, with Andy Puddicombe, is a case in point. Andy is the co-founder of Headspace, an app which is trying to bring meditation to everyone. It even turned Bill Gates from a skeptic into a believer in meditation. We spoke to Andy about his favourite books, including the book that inspired him to shave off all his hair and become a Buddhist monk.
But his own book, The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness, is itself a really good introduction to meditation. As Bill Gates puts it on his book blog, “If you want to try meditation for yourself, one good way to ease into it—especially if you’re as skeptical as I was—is to pick up a copy of Andy’s book, The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness. Andy’s a witty storyteller and offers lots of helpful metaphors to explain potentially tricky concepts, which makes the book an easy, enjoyable read.”
Commentary
“I’m certainly not an expert, but I now meditate two or three times a week, for about 10 minutes each time. Melinda meditates too. Sometimes we sit to meditate together. (We use comfortable chairs; there’s no way I could do the lotus position.)…Andy Puddicombe, the 46-year-old cofounder and voice of the popular Headspace app, was the person who turned me from skeptic to believer.”
“There’s much more material in the [Headspace] app than in the book but I find it easier to read chunks of text rather than remember the preambles to the guided meditation sessions which is where the material from the book is found in the app.”
The book, according to the author