Janet Slom - An Artful Path to Mindfulness: MBSR-Based Activities for Using Creativity to Reduce Stress and Embrace the Present Moment

A practical guide to unleashing our inner artist! Slom beautifully helps us step out of self-consciousness (and everything else that gets in the way) into awareness, connection, and self-expression.

Jud Brewer, MD, PhD , author of The Craving Mind , and director of research and innovation for the Mindfulness Center at Brown University

This is a wonderful and wise book inviting us all to explore both our creativity and heart. Take a few moments to pause, feel into your body and mind, and experience its aliveness that seeds all possibility. An Artful Path to Mindfulness is filled with wisdom, kindness, and hopethat love and awareness will see us through and through.

Bob Stahl, PhD , coauthor of five books: A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook , Living with Your Heart Wide Open , Calming the Rush of Panic , A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook for Anxiety , and MBSR Every Day

An Artful Path to Mindfulness offers step-by-step, clear, and practical techniques for understanding, absorbing, and learning mindfulness that allows us the experience of actually being mindful. There are many teachers of mindfulness, but none before offered such detailed ways to understand the steps that lead us to mindfulness. In my opinion, the beauty of this book rests in the practicality of its content which is both concrete and softly esoteric, allowing us to absorb the tools for understanding and owning the steps to mindful inner peace. Thank you, Janet, for the gift you have given to all of us.

Rabbi Roger Ross , chair of New Vision Interspiritual Seminary; executive director of the Rabbinical Seminary International; United Nations (UN) representative of the NGO, United Religions Initiative; and cochair of the Committee on Spirituality, Values, and Global Concerns at the UN

Enter this book with an open mind and let Janet Slom guide you on the path of creativity. The joys of absorption, fearlessness, and discovery await. Give yourself enough time, take patience with youand the rewards will be life-changing.

Amy Gross , former editor in chief of O, The Oprah Magazine ; and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) teacher

An Artful Path to Mindfulness based on activities from MBSRevokes innate, spacious awareness while cultivating curiosity, creativity, and freedom. Janet Slom wholeheartedly extends an invitation to play at the edges of not knowing, and discovery of natural rhythms through each exploration with mindful art encounters. The workbook offers the structure and inspiration to draw from deep inner resources, seeing clearly, and resting in the unfolding of intimacy and interconnection with self, others, and the natural world.

Florence Meleo-Meyer, MS, MA, LMFT , program director of global relations and professional education for the Mindfulness Center at Brown University

Janet Slom invites the reader to consider drawing, not as an object but as a processa personal journey. Through a series of practical exercises, she avoids teaching drawing as the acquisition of empty skills. Instead, she encourages the reader to consider drawing as a visual process that can effectively explore the space of thought and feeling. Janet Sloms book, An Artful Path to Mindfulness , is ambitious; she believes if the act of drawing is fully embraced as a mindful vehicle for rigorous self-discovery, not only will the resulting drawings be more meaningful and deeply compelling, they may change your life.

Power Boothe , professor of painting in the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford

This is a thinking-out-of-the box program author Janet Slom calls mindfulness-based self-expression, or MSBE. She encourages creativity, various art exercises, and entertaining possibilities we havent dared to. Instead of living reactively, Slom urges we engage life as it is to experience our true selves and live joyfully.

Sharon Salzberg , author of Real Happiness and Lovingkindness

Create, preserve, destroy in order to recreate freshly! Through an ingenious, inventive, and mature reimagining of the MBSR curriculum, Janet draws us lovingly into the dance of making marks. Holding firmly to the essence of mindfulness, this book is a point of light shining forth from the depths of Janets heart and the brilliance of her art.

Saki F. Santorelli, EDD, MA , educator, meditation teacher, writer, and pioneer in integrating meditation and mindfulness into medicine, health care, and the broader society; former executive director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society; director of the internationally acclaimed Stress Reduction Clinic; and professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School

MBSE is an invaluable and innovative practice for accessing our unique creative flow, and applying it to our lives. Whether making a mark on canvas or in the world, mindfulness and creativity are essential resources. Janet Slom is an inspiring and compassionate guide who offers an easy-to-follow methodology; even after just a few exercises, MBSE effectively replenishes and enriches us. This book is an invitation to a dynamic exploration of self-discovery and self-expression.

Jeff Elster , eco entrepreneur and artist who has been studying and practicing meditation in the US and India for more than thirty years

In a world where there is much being written about mindfulness, it is refreshing to discover a novel and accessible book which retains fidelity to the core tenets of both contemporary mindfulness and its dharmic roots, while skilfully synthesising these practices with creative and artistic forms that will nourish, heal, and reveal in equal measure.

Simon Whitesman, MD , medical psychotherapist in private practice in Cape Town, South Africa; and director of the Institute for Mindfulness South Africa, and postgraduate training in mindfulness-based interventions at Stellenbosch University

In her outstanding book, Janet Slom invites us to set aside preconceived notions, assumptions, beliefs, and assessments, to fully engage the present moment with an open mind and heart. As a participant in her workshops, I have experienced the positive and enduring impact of her unique approach to stress reduction through exploring creativity and presenting our true selves to the world. Thankfully, now, many more people can access her theories and approaches in this workbook. Janet combines the multiple roles of teacher, artist, poet, and dancer to guide readers through their personalized ninety-day program toward a healthy life. As a psychologist assisting others in their own challenging journeys, I look forward to incorporating this timely book into my work.

Dale Atkins, PhD , practicing psychologist, lecturer, media commentator, and author of seven books, including The Kindness Advantage ; Sanity Savers ; Wedding Sanity Savers ; Im OK, Youre My Parents ; From the Heart ; and Sisters

Every mining expedition begins in the dark. We dont know what riches are hidden in the depths, yet the process demands that we move into the unknown. Janets expert guidance supports a path of soulful discovery towards self-expression, creativity, and self-knowing. Skillfully integrating practices of mindful awareness with various means of artistic expression in original and deeply embodied ways, Janets methods include meditations, reflections, experiments, and mindful art encounters. Through this progression, we can touch jewels of courage and tenderness, experience play and wonder, and illumine freedom in forgotten places. The light of awareness is the perfect beacon to penetrate layers of old judgments and limitations. The motherlode, we discover, is the journey itselfpriceless and beyond compare.