How to Be a Mindful Christian

This book, by Sally Welch, is very much what it says on the tin - a practical and helpful guide to incorporating aspects of 'mindfulness'* to one's walk as a Christian. The bulk of it consists of forty bitesize chapters, sectioned by how we engage with silence, sound, smell, sight, touch and taste; each of these is a passage of scripture reflecting an aspect of the glory of the gospel, or life with God, and then a short reflection on how we can have such feelings of restfulness or gratefulness or gracefulness as perhaps are inspired by these passages present in our minds more and more, the aim being constant enjoying and rejoicing in God in the moment. Exercises are provided (meditative breathing etc) to help orient minds thus. A further seven chapters along these lines are given for each day of Holy Week, and a final section about pilgrimages. This book has, I feel, really helped me develop a stronger, deeper, more persistently self-aware relationship with God - though I suspect most Christian readers will be wary of a book claiming that a practice more commonly associated with Buddhism can help in any way.** To these people, I simply say this: don't be daft. You are called to love God with all your mind - and oriental practices of mindfulness, even if unattached from Christian traditions, are demonstrably effective in clearing out the kind of mental clutter that prevails so much in our 21st-century culture of distraction, anxiety, and entertainment. Why not use these tools to help properly orient your mindset and thoughts in such a way as to consciously inhabit Christian truth more fully? If you keep a firm grasp of your Christian identity and Christian theology, you have nothing to possibly lose from trying a meditative breathing exercise or two - and from me at least, using the kinds of exercises outlined in this book have truly helped me become more pervasively cognizant of the gospel's centrality in my life and thoughts, bringing me joy and peace and motivation to serve others and glorify God; and while the murk of the world still clouds my mind with tremendously normal regularity and intensity, the gospel is the ultimate anchor, and practicing mindfulness with it in sight a tried-and-tested means of bringing your own knowledge of the gospel to spread itself out in your mental and emotional life. Give it a go!

* A buzzword that gets bandied around all too much these days, but still an important and culturally-timely concept.

** Interesting articles on this topic (linking is easier than paraphrasing): one, two.