If you're looking for a good friend of a book, a book you're going to want to live with and keep around for a while. This is the book. I have lived with it for over a year know and here is what I feel everyone should know about it.1- It’s a book for everyone, not just meditators.It’s for anyone interested in having more authentic relationships in their lives. Being mindful, or mindfulness, simply means to start paying deeper attention to our relationships. While meditation is a practice that is certainly recommended, the content of the book is, in itself, highly transformative and will elevate your view of life, and impact it in all the ways that living a more real life can bring.2- It is a practical book.As a handbook, the material is designed to be applied. This isn’t a book that lives on my shelf. I keep it around, often times in my car, and I pick it up any time I’m in need of a dose of sanity (I drive in Los Angeles). The mindful inquiry and daily practice sections are particularly helpful to that end. You’ll find really helpful questions and ways to practice that will help you see what is true for you.2- Doesn’t matter where you startAnother thing I enjoy about the handbook format, is that it reinforces the “start anywhere” aspect of mindfulness practice. Because as you start practicing, you rapidly get a clear sense that something so incredibly simple can also be so incredibly powerful. So it does not matter what you start paying attention to, the effects will be felt everywhere in your life.I started in the middle, relationship with one another, because I was more drawn to that topic at that particular time. I just re-read the “From I consciousness to We consciousness” chapter, that made me realize how much of the material had sunk in and how much I had applied in the past year and how life-changing it has truly been. Something as small as making a point of looking people in the eye, is changing my relationships and I now find it much easier to establish trust around me.4- It is an encouraging book.This is the aspect that brings the book over the top for me. The author shares her own struggles and life story, so you never feel that that stuff is only attainable to a zen monk. In fact, she really dissects the mental process of separation from life and how it manifests in her practice. That helps the reader tremendously when applying the material in their own situation. What’s particularly appealing to me is that the practice of mindfulness is presented as subversive, even revolutionary in the current world situation. That encouragement is the key for my motivation in living mindfully on a day-to-day basis, because I know that’s ultimately the most concrete opportunity offered to each of us to change the world.