Frances Trussell - You Are Not Your Thoughts: The Secret Magic of Mindfulness

*****

This fantastic little book makes a big impact. A must read for those wanting to know what mindfulness is really all about and how to easily bring that into their lives. Every teenager needs a copy of this, probably most adults too.

Olivia Buxton, Mail On Sunday Health

I love this book. This level of simplicity and clarity is a tremendous achievement.

Zen Master Daizan Skinner Roshi, author of Practical Zen

There are thousands of books out there to help us combat our inner self-destructive voice some good, some not so good if I could go back in time and read only one book on the subject, this is it Frances Trussell has the answer trust yourself with this book and trust Frances everything you need is here at your fingertips and the most amazing thing is it was there all the time! Let Frances guide you to it!

Joe Pasquale, Comedian and Actor

As a how-to-do guide this book contains everything you need to know. Useful for anyone who needs to learn to live in the moment, the techniques and method taught by Frances are easily implemented.

Marisa Peer, leading International Celebrity Therapist and Best-selling Author

First published by O-Books, 2018

O-Books is an imprint of John Hunt Publishing Ltd., 3 East St., Alresford,

Hampshire SO24 9EE, UK

www.johnhuntpublishing.com

For distributor details and how to order please visit the Ordering section on our website.

Text copyright: Frances Trussell 2017

ISBN: 978 1 78535 816 6

978 1 78535 817 3 (ebook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017951931

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publishers.

The rights of Frances Trussell as author have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Design: Stuart Davies

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY, UK

We operate a distinctive and ethical publishing philosophy in all areas of our business, from our global network of authors to production and worldwide distribution.

Theres a quiet revolution going on, people everywhere are beginning to wake up from the daydream of their thoughts. All around eyes are blinking into the light of consciousness where millions have chosen to show up and be more present in their lives. Perhaps you are already living this way, or have had a glimmer of how it feels to be truly awake to the reality of the right here and now.

I was depressed, painfully, sometimes suicidally so, for as long as I could remember. Most people wouldnt have necessarily known this as I happen to be a fantastic actor, but thats what it was an act. I was a fraud. My life outwardly appeared a story of success; I found academic achievement easy, my career took off, I had a wide circle of friends and a wonderful partner, I had nothing to feel miserable about. And yet my inner world was a mess. I was wracked with anxiety, a constant feeling of dread pervaded every part of my life, it would sit on my chest and wake me in the night. I was an over-thinker and cycles of rumination would spin faster and faster around my mind. This spin would weave intricate stories about others opinions of me or write contingency plans for the many disasters that were just about to occur. It would retell stories, rewriting conversations and old events, dredging up emotions from the bed of the past that would engulf me in a murky fog of sadness. Behind a fixed smile and great shoes I lived constantly in the worlds of past and future that only by getting out of my head on drink and drugs could I seem to escape. I was my thoughts and my thoughts were me, my thoughts were the facts that my reality was built on. Thick, heavy and persistent thinking smothered me repeatedly until I could no longer breathe. I was addicted to the sound of my own voice rumbling around my head, the deafening echoes of my opinions, beliefs and judgements, judging other people and usually most harshly myself. Lost within the confines of a solid skull everything I looked out on through sober eyes was grey and dark and boring.

When I finally got mindfulness it was like someone had flicked a light on; the world that had been dull now shined vividly and vibrantly in full fabulous technicolor. I was astonished that something so simple contained the power to change everything. I wrote this book so that people have to spend less time fumbling around in the dark, and as the light begins to fade (which it will) they will remember where to find the switch.

Theres a filter on our experience of this life and that filter is our thoughts, luckily its all an illusion. Once we know the truth of things for ourselves we really can live more freely and be genuinely happier.

This is just a little book, purposely so, look beyond the letters, take your time to feel what the words point to. Breathe and enjoy. It is easy to miss the most important message of mindfulness, the miracle hiding in plain sight. So here it is, let me share with you the secret magic of mindfulness You Are Not Your Thoughts.

You are not the voice inside your head.

There is a gap, a space, a silence when that voice shuts up.

And this is a space worth exploration.

So put down all judgement and come diving with me.

Letting go of the world of things.

Together lets plunge beneath the surface of separation into the vast pool of absolutely everything.

Here you come home to who you really are.

Its a lovely place to live and its all here right now.

Mindfulness is having your mind full of the thing you are doing right now in this moment.

Do you find that your mind is usually somewhere else worrying about the future, regretting the past, reliving conversations that have already taken place? You are not alone; most people are rarely in-the-moment.

We spend so much of our time lost up in our heads whilst out there our lives are passing us by. When we fail to engage in the fullness of life we can get left with a feeling of emptiness, a void which we try to fill with stuff and people and achievements, yet it is a hunger that cannot be satisfied from the outside in.

When we have our mind full of the experience of life rather than our thoughts we can change the way we feel about our lives for the better. Stop thinking about what might make you happy and start living; you just might find that happiness is already here.

The majority of what we think are thoughts weve had before, the same old, same old, going around in our heads. This kind of repetitive thinking serves no purpose, except to drive us mad.

So how do we get our minds to stop over-thinking and make room for some happiness? We need to swap some of our basic beliefs for new ones, so find some quiet

Usually we are at our happiest when we are doing the things that put us in the zone, things that are so absorbing we dont have space to think at the same time. If you try to remember your happiest moments it is unlikely to be those when you were lost in thought but rather lost in what you were doing.