The One-Minute Meditator: Relieving Stress and Finding Meaning in Everyday Life

On an average day, in an average minute, we can process over 240 billion bits of information per second. Such incredibly rapid brain activity can lead to confusion, fear, tension, stress, and anxiety. To stave off these pressures, our minds instinctively look for "one-minute escapes": exercise, drinking and drugs, smoking, sex, and entertainment. All efficient short-term distractions, none is a permanent salve. The One-Minute Meditator shows readers how to harness the innate drive for quick mental escapes and use that urge to quiet our thoughts from within. Proving that meditation is both physically and emotionally healthful, Nichol and Birchard show readers how to meditate whenever they have a solitary minute or more: on the walk from the parking lot to the office, while waiting in line, while on hold on the phone, or while trying to fall asleep. Both inspiring and instructive, The One-Minute Meditator gives readers the tools to incorporate the power of meditation into otherwise busy, harried lives.

David Nichol, M.D., is a graduate of the Karl Menniger School of Psychiatry and uses meditation in his clinical practice of medicine and psychiatry. He has taught meditation for more than twenty-five years to lay people and professionals alike. He lives in Amherst, New Hampshire.