Sometimes (too rarely, these days) a book title strikes the reader with such promise that it becomes a compelling attraction without even turning the first page. This is an ideal most authors strive for; but very few achieve.

Clif Smith has accomplished this with the title of his book, Mindfulness Without the Bells and Beads, which promises a more pragmatic approach to the new age concept of mindfulness and its applications to daily life. He then reinforces his excellent book’s appeal to professionals with a clarifying subtitle: Unlocking Exceptional Performance, Leadership, and Well-being for Working Professionals.

With the subject firmly rooted in both new age and business worlds, Smith’s next task is to live up to his title’s potential. This is more than achieved in a survey that adopts a reasoned series of applications of mindfulness to business theory and routines, grounding it in a manner that most new age and psychology titles don’t begin to touch.

Take the meditation process which is one of the foundations of mindfulness training, for example. Smith points out that “Although many mindfulness teachers and practitioners are attached to the things on the following list and other things you probably associate with meditation, you do not need any of them to authentically practice and reap the benefits of mindfulness. Furthermore, none of these will make you “better” at cultivating mindfulness.” The list includes bells, beads, special meditation equipment, a trip to India, tiny statues of Hindu deities, and other approaches which assume a tongue-in-cheek humor about the typical things some will identify as requirements for successful meditation and mindfulness development.

He does note that, for some, these rituals or objects can be useful; but points out that they are not the requirements many claim are essential to the practice: “These things are like pearls, quite beautiful in some respects and wearing them helps people project a certain image to others, which is extremely important to many. However, that outer sparkle distracts from the true core without which there would be no pearl. With mindfulness, far too many get ensnared by and attached to the outer shell, the pretty accessories that project they are mindful people, and completely miss the true essence…The bottom line is that you don’t need to add any of these things to your life to practice mindfulness effectively, and in fact getting attached to them can be a real hindrance to your practice.”

Mindfulness Without the Bells and Beads‘ down-to-earth approach will prove particularly inviting to the audience who may need this practice the most: business professionals who typically eschew any mention of mindfulness or new age concepts as being relevant to better approaches to both business and life.

Mindfulness and meditation typically involve an especially big shift for nose-to-the-grindstone personalities. Smith makes his book accessible to this audience by addressing common criticisms and barriers to achieving mindfulness. In many ways, the practice might seem to counter common business sense. Smith acknowledges these in sections such as that on ‘Shifting from Doing to Non-Doing, aka Being’, pulling no punches as he confronts perception, reality, and the challenge of making such shifts: “It may seem strange to talk about shifting from a doing mode to a non-doing or being mode in a book that purports to unlock exceptional performance, leadership, and well-being. You’ve gotten to where you are in your career and life by getting things done and solving problems! Why would you stop now? It’s not about stopping; it’s about balance.”

Perhaps Smith is ideally suited to write such a book because his own career has been firmly grounded in pragmatic approaches. He’s a US Army veteran, a former diplomat, a CIA-trained former intelligence officer, serves as EY’s Americas Mindfulness Leader and Global Mindfulness Network Leader, and teaches mindfulness to tens of thousands of corporate and government leaders across the globe.

His insights are an intrinsic part of what sets Mindfulness Without the Bells and Beads apart from any other book on the subject. The promise in the title is to reach into business minds and hearts not normally attracted to such a practice. This audience holds the best potential for taking mindful practice to a new level and applying it to business pursuits for maximum impact while preserving its positive impact on personal well-being and interpersonal connection. 

Now these readers have a book that speaks their language…one especially highly recommended for business readers and library collections catering to them.