Aria Campbell-Danesh - A Mindful Year: 365 Ways to Find Connection and the Sacred in Everyday Life

Praise for A MINDFUL YEAR

Drawing on a multitude of contemplative and scientific thinkers, this book is full of wonderful ideas for mindfulness practices for each day of the year that lift us out of the treadmill of the automatic pilot.
Prof. Paul Gilbert, PhD, OBE, author of
The Compassionate Mind and Living like Crazy

They show us how to incorporate small, simple, but meaningful changes toward mindfulness/presence in our own and our clients lives. A welcome and practical addition to any clinicians toolbox!
Kevin T. Kuehlwein, PsyD, coeditor of
Cognitive Therapies in Action: Evolving Innovative Practice

This book is meant to be read one breath at a time. It will slow you downin the best of ways. More importantly it will allow each step that you take to carry you at a more healthy and a more savoring pace.
The Rev. Dr. Charles Lattimore Howard,
University Chaplain of the University of Pennsylvania
and author of Pond River Ocean Rain

This book is a gift! Here are two real people who have made a deep connection in their own lives. Out of that they are offering us riches from their experience.
Bishop Alison White, Diocese of York, Church of England

A Mindful Year is jam-packed with entertaining, thought-provoking insights and creative invitations to be mindful as you go through your day, every day, for an entire yearA wonderful book.
Joel Minden, PhD, clinical psychologist and author of
Show Your Anxiety Whos Boss

Copyright 2019 by Dr. Aria Campbell-Danesh and Seth J. Gillihan, PhD
E-book published in 2019 by Blackstone Publishing
Cover design by Sean M. Thomas
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Trade e-book ISBN 978-1-9825-0201-0
Library e-book ISBN 978-1-9825-0200-3
Self-Help / Personal Growth / Happiness
CIP data for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Blackstone Publishing
31 Mistletoe Rd.
Ashland, OR 97520
www.BlackstonePublishing.com

For Marcia, Lucas, Ada, and Faye,
with love and affection.
You are the sacred I find in everyday life.
Seth
For Emma and Alfie.
You remind me to find the joy in the little things each day.
Your enthusiasm for life (and dog walks) is unending.
All my love.
Aria

FOREWORD

When my colleague Dr. Seth Gillihan asked me to write the foreword for A Mindful Year , I was immediately excited to read it. Seth told me that he and Dr. Aria Campbell-Danesh, a British psychologist and cherished friend of his, had written to each other for a year, taking turns sharing a mindful message for the day, on good days and bad. As I read, I had a strong sense that the daily messages theyd written to each other were like having a friend, guru, and psychologist all rolled into oneand always available! Not only are Aria and Seth whip smart, theyre emotionally engaged and engaging, toosomething each one of us can use in a friend and companion.

In modern life many of us feel scattered. Our weeks are so busy that its difficult to find time to take a step backto get a thirty-thousand-foot perspective on the decisions we make. Often we feel disconnected from whats important to us, guilt about whether were maximizing every opportunity, and regret about getting hung up on things that, in the long run, dont really matter.

Perhaps you have a sense that youre not living your life to the fullest and feel powerless to break the pattern. Maybe you gravitated to this book because youre going through a difficult time, youre worn down by adulting, and youd like some psychological support to prop you up. Maybe youre embarking on an exciting project and need some stress relief to cope with its emotional ups and downs. Or maybe you just feel stagnant and want to introduce an element of spontaneity to energize and motivate yourself. If you can relate to any of these hungers, youll find them satisfied by the insight and nurturing in this book.

In A Mindful Year , theres one short passage for you to read each daya format that makes each daily message manageable to digest and easy to take with you. The entries will help you feel more content, peaceful, grateful, courageous, and groundedand less empty, irritable, anxious, and envious. Youll feel more in tune with your inner and outer worldsyour thoughts, feelings, goals, and relationships.

There will be times when you read an entry and its immediately obvious how the insights it contains apply to your current life. There will be a lot of days when the message seems to come at just the right time, which speaks to the universality of the themes covered. There will be other days when nothing springs to mind as you read. But taking the time to ponder how a less-obvious principle applies to you as you move through your day might even lead to a delayed aha moment. Sometimes reading an entry may even help you recognize a strength you didnt realize you had or an area of life in which youre already experiencing a deep sense of connection.

Reading A Mindful Year is like having a conversation with the most mindful, brilliant, and emotionally accessible psychologist-friends you can imaginewhich is, in effect, exactly what it is. If youve ever wanted instant wisdom at your fingertips, youll find that here. Take a mindful moment and see for yourself.

Dr. Alice Boyes

PREFACE

seth : Aria and I met in the fall of 2010 when I was on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a visiting student from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and took my psychology seminar called Anxiety and the Brain. He was a standout. It was evident from early in the semester that there was something unique about him. He related easily to his classmates and seemed to be as kind as he was bright. I never knew a harder-working student.

aria : On more than one occasion, Seth and I would talk after class as we left the building together. Id ask him questions related to the syllabus, and wed end up discussing various areas of psychology. We clearly enjoyed each others company and shared a mutual respect. I had recently cofounded Mindfulness at Penn (MAP), the University of Pennsylvanias first mindfulness group, and mindfulness became a strand in our conversations.

seth : Once the class was over, our roles as professor and student began to fade. Aria and I became friends. We shared many lunches together on our breaks. There was never enough time to talk, and our meals together always ended too soon. I dreaded his departure at the end of the school year as he returned to St. Andrews.

aria : On two occasions, Seth kindly invited me to have dinner at his house. Spending time with him and his family formed some of my fondest memories of my time in the States. Seth and his wife, Marcia, obviously loved each other dearly and welcomed me so warmly into their home. Baby Ada had recently been born, and Lucas was a hilarious little boy. We had so much fun together, sharing food, playing games, and laughing. I remember thinking that if one day I had a family unit like this, I would be a very fortunate man.

seth : During our times together, I felt what Ive often sensed about Aria: that he brings out the best in others. In the short time Id known him, he had encouraged me to pursue my hope of making a major career transition and had fostered the growth of my nascent mindfulness practice. I had an intuition that he would continue to be an important part of my life in ways I couldnt identify at the time. It was with great sadness that I said goodbye to him when he moved back to the UK in May 2011.