Canmore author Dr. Lisa Belanger has just released her new book A Cup of Mindfulness: For the Busy and Restless.  I spoke with her about the subject of mindfulness and the virtual book launch and wine tasting event this Wednesday at 5 PM.

 

Rob: What can you tell us about A Cup of Mindfulness?

Lisa: A Cup of Mindfulness was written really for that career-loving parent, busy professional, or people feeling overwhelmed. With the benefits of mindfulness we know these are the people that actually be helped the most, but of course adding something to their to-do list is usually setting people up to fail. So this is about incorporating short, mindful practices in what you’re doing during the day anyway – over a cup of coffee, in the shower, while you’re driving – and just to give a little bit of dose of sanity, especially right now with people having to work more, work differently, a lot of different learning, fear, uncertainty. It’s just a little bit of that nice sanity through your day.

Rob: How would you define mindfulness?

Lisa: Mindfulness is the practice of being able to focus or concentrate on either the present or on one thing. Noticing when your thoughts drift off and bringing it back to whatever you were focusing on. It has so many benefits for performance of productivity, but also for health and mental wellbeing.

Rob: I think health and mental wellbeing are critically important right now. I mean, our entire routines have been disrupted in this pandemic.  I’m assuming you didn’t intend to launch a book during a pandemic?

Lisa: I certainly did not! It has definitely been an adventure having things done virtually now and really focusing on the online stuff. But it was written in a time where this was important. And to your point, it’s even more so now. The other thing is, it’s something that we can use, to our benefit or competitive advantage, if you will, being able to separate work and home when there’s no physical separation. Or to be able to have the patience with the people around us when we’re going through all of this together. There are so many extended benefits in this time.

Rob:  Launching a book during a pandemic also provides some unique challenges in and of itself. Your book launch event is going online and you’re doing something kind of unique here on Wednesday, May 13th. What’s going on?

Lisa: I’m pairing up with a sommelier from Niagara College and we’re doing a virtual wine tasting. So we’re going to do a little introduction to the science of mindfulness, some practices,and then we’re going to experience mindfulness through wine tasting.  We have set up wines that you can get anywhere across Canada and across the world, and she will go through the tasting wheel and what to do when you’re consciously consuming such a delicious beverage. So we’re having a little bit of fun with it, and with that also comes a signed copy of the book delivered to your doorstep.

Rob: Where can people sign up for this event?

Lisa: On Eventbrite and Consciousworks.co.

Rob: And, where can people pick up the book if they just want to purchase it outright?

Lisa: It’s available on Amazon, and we’re looking for local distribution soon.

Filed under: book, Canmore