Needle Park Baby

Overwhelmed with insomnia and an incurable autoimmune disease, Shannon Harvey needed to make a change. But while the award-winning health journalist found plenty of recommendations on diet, sleep and exercise, when she looked for the equivalent of a 30-minute workout for her mental wellbeing, there was nothing. Worried for the future mental health of her kids who were growing up amidst epidemics of stress, anxiety, depression and addiction, Shannon enlisted a team of scientists to put meditation to the test. Could learning to quiet our busy minds be the simple solution the world so desperately needs? Throughout her year of living mindfully Shannon is poked, prodded, scanned and screened as she travels the world to interview 18 of the world’s leading mindfulness scientists and pioneers. But after a 30, 000 kilometre journey from the bright lights of Manhattan to the dusty refugee camps of the Middle East, what begins as a self-experiment, transforms into a life-changing experience. My Year of Living Mindfully, is filled with compelling stories, groundbreaking science, and unexpected insights that go to the heart of what it means to be human in the twenty-first century.