Author Guide · Mindfulness & Health
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In 1979 a molecular biologist with a PhD from MIT opened a Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and offered patients an eight-week course in meditation and yoga. Jon Kabat-Zinn, born in New York in 1944, had studied in the laboratory of the Nobel laureate Salvador Luria and learned meditation from Zen and Theravada teachers, but he taught it without the religion. The course became Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which his own site says is offered in more than 720 hospitals and clinics. His books explain the practice to the people who never get to a class. This guide covers his twelve key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 12 key books · 1990–2019 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Jon Kabat-Zinn’s best-known books are Full Catastrophe Living (1990), the handbook of his eight-week MBSR course, and Wherever You Go, There You Are (1994). Twelve key books run from 1990 to Mindfulness for All (2019); four of them, from 2018–2019, are his 2005 book Coming to Our Senses split into shorter volumes. Start with Wherever You Go, There You Are; below is what each of the others is for.
Where to Start with Jon Kabat-Zinn
If you want a short way into meditation
→ Wherever You Go, There You Are (1994) — short chapters, one practice or idea each.
If you want the full eight-week course
→ Full Catastrophe Living (1990) — the book behind MBSR, for stress, pain and illness.
If you have been depressed before
→ The Mindful Way Through Depression (2007) — the programme written with three psychologists.
If you are a parent
→ Everyday Blessings (1997) — written with his wife, Myla.
12 Jon Kabat-Zinn Books, in Order
Full Catastrophe Living
The eight-week programme of his Stress Reduction Clinic, written out for readers at home: the body scan, sitting and walking meditation, mindful yoga, and chapters on stress, pain and illness. The title comes from Zorba the Greek, where Zorba sums up married life as “the full catastrophe”. It carries a preface by Thich Nhat Hanh, is regarded as the foundational text of MBSR, and was revised in a second edition in 2013.
Wherever You Go, There You Are
Short chapters, most a few pages long, each on one aspect of practice: stopping, patience, letting go, sitting, walking, lying down. It contains his most quoted definition of mindfulness and was a national bestseller in the US. A 30th anniversary edition with a new foreword and revised afterword appeared in 2024.
Everyday Blessings
Written with his wife Myla, a childbirth educator, about bringing mindfulness to raising children. It offers no method for getting children to behave; the book treats parenting itself as the practice. A revised and updated edition followed in 2014.
Coming to Our Senses
A long book ranging from the basics of meditation through the science of mind and body to the state of the world and politics. In 2018–2019 it was reissued in four shorter volumes, each with a new foreword (books 9 to 12 on this list).
The Mindful Way Through Depression
Written with the three psychologists who developed Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), a programme based on MBSR and designed to stop depression from coming back. It explains how rumination keeps people stuck and takes the reader through the practices and is accompanied by guided meditations narrated by Kabat-Zinn.
Arriving at Your Own Door
A small book of 108 short passages drawn from Coming to Our Senses. It is meant to be opened anywhere rather than read through.
Letting Everything Become Your Teacher
A companion to Arriving at Your Own Door: 100 short passages, this time selected from Full Catastrophe Living, on stress, pain and the attitudes the practice depends on.
Mindfulness for Beginners
A short introduction, aimed at both beginners and experienced practitioners, that was first sold with a CD of five guided meditations in his voice. It covers the same ground as Wherever You Go, There You Are more briefly.
Meditation Is Not What You Think
The first of four volumes made from Coming to Our Senses, with a new foreword: what mindfulness is, where it comes from and why it matters. His own site calls it “the what and the why” of mindfulness.
Falling Awake
The second volume, “the how”: what a formal meditation practice looks like and how to deal with the usual obstacles to fitting one into a working day.
The Healing Power of Mindfulness
The third volume, on the science: neuroplasticity, what meditation may do to biology and health, and how mindfulness bears on illness, pain and mortality.
Mindfulness for All
The last volume, drawn from the final two parts of Coming to Our Senses, takes mindfulness from the individual to the “body politic”: democracy, public life and the future of the planet.
In What Order to Read Jon Kabat-Zinn
His books do not build on each other the way a series does, and many cover the same practices. It helps to know there are three kinds: the course books (Full Catastrophe Living, The Mindful Way Through Depression), the short books for daily practice (Wherever You Go, There You Are, Mindfulness for Beginners and the two collections of lessons), and the long reflection, Coming to Our Senses.
Do not buy both Coming to Our Senses and the four 2018–2019 volumes: they are the same text, revised and with new forewords. The four smaller books are easier to carry and can be read on their own; Falling Awake is the most practical of them.
A reading path
1. Wherever You Go, There You Are (1994)
2. Full Catastrophe Living (1990)
3. Falling Awake (2018)
4. The Healing Power of Mindfulness (2018)
5. Mindfulness for All (2019)
Everything Else Jon Kabat-Zinn Published
Beyond the 12 key books: 4 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Dialogues and edited volumes
3
3 books · 1997–2013
- 1997The Power of Meditation and Prayerconversations with Sogyal Rinpoche, Larry Dossey and Michael Toms
- 2011The Mind’s Own Physiciana Mind and Life dialogue with the Dalai Lama on meditation and health, edited with Richard Davidson
- 2013Mindfulness: Diverse Perspectives on its Meaning, Origins and Applicationsessays first published as a 2011 issue of Contemporary Buddhism, edited with Mark Williams
Later practice books
1
1 book · 2023
- 2023Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Reliefan illustrated book of practices for people living with chronic pain
The years · 1944–2024
Quick facts about Jon Kabat-Zinn
- Known for
- Founding Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the University of Massachusetts in 1979, and bringing meditation, stripped of its religious framing, into hospitals and mainstream medicine.
- 1944
- Born in New York City
- 1971
- PhD in molecular biology, MIT
- 1979
- Opens the Stress Reduction Clinic at UMass
- 2024
- 30th anniversary edition of Wherever You Go, There You Are
- Born
- 5 June 1944, New York City; his father, Elvin Kabat, was a biomedical scientist, his mother, Sally, a painter
- Education
- Haverford College (BA, 1964); PhD in molecular biology, MIT (1971), in the laboratory of Salvador Luria
- Founded
- The Stress Reduction Clinic at UMass Medical School (1979) and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society (1995)
- Teachers
- Philip Kapleau, Seung Sahn, Thich Nhat Hanh, and teachers at the Insight Meditation Society
- Married
- Myla Kabat-Zinn, daughter of the historian Howard Zinn; three children
- Honours
- Pioneer in Integrative Medicine Award (2007); Mind and Brain Prize, University of Turin (2008)
The red mark is 1990: Full Catastrophe Living, the book of his eight-week MBSR course.
How Jon Kabat-Zinn Writes: Instructions You Can Follow
Most of his books began as teaching. Full Catastrophe Living follows the eight weeks of the course at his clinic, with the body scan, sitting meditation and yoga set out step by step, alongside chapters on stress, pain and illness written for the patients who took it. The short books keep that form on a smaller scale: a chapter makes one point and usually ends with something to try.
He writes as a scientist who meditates rather than as a religious teacher. He trained in Zen and Theravada practice but deliberately frames MBSR in medical rather than Buddhist terms and rejects the label “Buddhist” for himself. The later books, especially The Healing Power of Mindfulness, lean on the research on stress, the brain and the immune system, some of it his own.
His style repeats itself on purpose: the same few phrases — “on purpose”, “non-judgmentally”, “beginner’s mind”, “non-striving” — come back in every book, and long books such as Coming to Our Senses circle rather than argue in a line. That is why the excerpt books and the four shorter volumes work: almost any passage stands on its own.
Frequently asked questions about Jon Kabat-Zinn’s books
How many books has Jon Kabat-Zinn written?
His official site counts fifteen books, in more than 45 languages. Twelve key books are on this page, from Full Catastrophe Living (1990) to Mindfulness for All (2019); four of those are the 2018–2019 reissue of Coming to Our Senses in four volumes. Four more dialogues, edited volumes and practice books are listed further down.
What are Jon Kabat-Zinn’s books in order?
Full Catastrophe Living (1990), Wherever You Go, There You Are (1994), Everyday Blessings (1997), Coming to Our Senses (2005), The Mindful Way Through Depression (2007), Arriving at Your Own Door (2007), Letting Everything Become Your Teacher (2009), Mindfulness for Beginners (2012), Meditation Is Not What You Think (2018), Falling Awake (2018), The Healing Power of Mindfulness (2018) and Mindfulness for All (2019).
Where should I start with Jon Kabat-Zinn?
Wherever You Go, There You Are (1994): short chapters, each with one idea or practice. If you want the complete eight-week course, or you are dealing with stress, pain or illness, go to Full Catastrophe Living next.
What is Jon Kabat-Zinn’s most famous book?
Full Catastrophe Living (1990), the book of the MBSR course, which has been cited more than fifteen thousand times. Wherever You Go, There You Are (1994) is the one most general readers know.
What is MBSR?
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, the eight-week course he started in 1979 at the Stress Reduction Clinic of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. It combines meditation, the body scan and gentle yoga, and is set out in full in Full Catastrophe Living.
Where does the title Full Catastrophe Living come from?
From Zorba the Greek. Zorba describes married life as “wife, house, kids, everything” — “the full catastrophe”. Kabat-Zinn uses the phrase for the whole of life, including its stress and pain.
Is Jon Kabat-Zinn a Buddhist?
He trained with Zen and Theravada teachers, including Philip Kapleau, Seung Sahn and Thich Nhat Hanh, and was a founding member of the Cambridge Zen Center. He nevertheless rejects the label “Buddhist” and designed MBSR as a secular, medical programme.
Why is Jon Kabat-Zinn criticised?
Mainly for the secular mindfulness movement he started. Critics argue that taking mindfulness out of its Buddhist ethical setting turns it into a stress-management technique. Ronald Purser’s McMindfulness (2019) criticises him by name for treating social problems as occasions for personal calm, and the adaptation of MBSR for the US military, which he apparently approved, was controversial among practitioners.
What is The Mindful Way Through Depression?
A 2007 self-help book he wrote with Mark Williams, John Teasdale and Zindel Segal, the psychologists who developed Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). It adapts MBSR to prevent depression from coming back.
Is Jon Kabat-Zinn still alive?
Yes. He was born on 5 June 1944 in New York City, is professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and published a 30th anniversary edition of Wherever You Go, There You Are in 2024.
Footnotes
- Jon Kabat-Zinn — Wikipedia
- Full Catastrophe Living — Wikipedia
- Jon Kabat-Zinn — official site, books
- Kabat-Zinn, Jon 1944– — Encyclopedia.com
- Mindfulness for All — Hachette Book Group
- McMindfulness, by Ronald E. Purser — Times Higher Education
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”
— Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are (1994)
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