An introduction to the practice of meditation as a way of achieving mindfulness. Through a series of short essays on different aspects of meditation, which he defines as “development through mental training,” Kabat-Zinn approaches the meaning of becoming aware from many different angles. Straightforward and sober, good book to dip into when you need realignment.
There is no successful escaping from yourself in the long run, only transformation. It doesn't matter whether you are using drugs or meditation, alcohol or Club Med, divorce or quitting your job. There can be no resolution leading to growth until the present situation has been faced completely and you have opened to it with mindfulness, allowing the roughness of the situation itself to sand down your own rough edges. In other words, you must be willing to let life itself become your teacher.
This is the path of working where you find yourself, with what is found here and now. This, then, really is it... this place, this relationship, this dilemma, this job. The challenge of mindfulness is to work with the very circumstances that you find yourself in - no matter how unpleasant, how discouraging, how limited, how unending and stuck they may appear to be - and to make sure that you've done everything in your power to use their energies to transform yourself before you decide to cut your losses and move on. It is right here that the real work needs to happen.
So, if you think your meditation practice is dull or no good, or that the conditions aren’t right where you find yourself, and you think that if only you were in a cave in the Himalayas, or at an Asian monastery, or on a beach in the tropics, or at a retreat in some natural setting, things would be better, your meditation stronger... think again. When you got to that cave or your beach or your retreat, there you would be, with the same mind, the same body, the very same breath that you already have here.
After 15 minutes or so in the cave, you might get lonely, or want more light, or the roof might drip water on you. If you are on the beach, it might be raining or cold. If you are on retreat, you might not like the teachers, or the food, or your room. There is always something to dislike. So why not let go and admit that you might as well be at home wherever you are? Right in that moment, you touch the core of your being and invite mindfulness to enter and heal. If you understand this, then and only then will the cave, the monastery, the beach, the retreat center, offer up their true richness to you. But so will all other moments and places. p. 99.
Meaning & Purpose 
Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life