Customer Reviews

8 Minute Meditation: Quiet Your Mind. Change Your Life.

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent book for beginners and skeptics (and I was both). It makes meditation easy. Really! It's also very well-written, reader-friendly, easy to read, and witty.

The book plugs a companion CD, available only at the author's website for $17. I bought the CD, have used it, and would like to review it here, so that those of you who buy the book can better decide whether you should spring for the CD.

The CD contains 16 tracks.

The first eight tracks are very short (e.g. 2-minutes), and summarize some of the content from the book. These short tracks are useful reminders of some of the key points in the book, but as the CD tells you, it is not intended to substitute for the book.

The rest of the CD consists of 8 "guided meditations," one for each week of the book's 8-week program. In each of these tracks, the author spends a few seconds telling you what activity you're supposed to do, then he tells you to start, then 8 minutes later a gong sounds, signaling you to stop. About every two minutes during the meditation, the author interrupts you to say things like "Has your attention drifted? That's okay, just return your focus to your breath." This type of reminder might be useful, especially at first, but after a while, I found it intrusive. Also, the sound of his voice is not especially soothing or gentle. For me, it's better to just do as the book says - use a common kitchen timer set to 8 minutes.

Aside from the occasional interruptions, there is complete silence during the 8 minute meditations. I prefer the silence to the soft new-age music or nature sounds on some other meditation CDs.

In my opinion, the CD is not a good value: the total amount of content on the CD is about 20 minutes, maybe less. This is due to the fact that the CD has a lot of silent parts during the guided meditations; this silence is appropriate, but it reduces the amount of time available for spoken content. And, more importantly, all of the spoken content on the CD--and much more--is already in the book.

On the plus side, the service was excellent - the CD arrived two days after I ordered it.

In summary, I recommend the book highly if you're a beginner. But my opinion is that you skip the CD and save your money.

This book is an 8 week program on meditation for beginners where each week the book teaches you a different meditation technique. The program has you meditate for just 8 minutes a day every, which taught me to concentrate on my meditation more while building a habit of meditating every day. Although I have tried some Zen meditation in the past, the techniques I learned in this book gave me better tools to meditate. After completing the book I have been able to keep up with my meditation practice. If you would like to build a lasting meditation practice in your life, I highly recommend it.

Time Magazine calls 8 Minute Meditation "The most American form of meditation yet"--and now I know why.
I've always wanted to meditate, but thought it too confusing and difficult. Besides, who has the time? But 8 Minute Meditation changed all that for me.
Davich has totally stripped the mumbo-jumbo and complexity out of meditation. He has chosen 8 minutes a day as the optimal time for us folks to use for meditation. Why? Because it's the time between 2 TV commercials! He says that if you can watch 8 Minutes of CSI, the Simpsons, or American Idol, you can learn to meditate--for real.
The book offers more than just a fun and informative read: It's a complete meditation program that starts you meditating as soon as you pick it up. All you have to do is meditate for 8 minutes a day! After one week, you move onto a new meditation technique. After I did this for just 8 weeks, I found myself for the first time in my life, a real mediation habit.
Part 3 of 8Minute Meditation is called The Upgrade. And in it Davich shows you how to take your 8 minute a day practice and expand and deepen it. It also shows you how to bring your meditation into yout daily life. Like the meditation technique Davich calls Just One Dish. So you can even be practicing meditation while you are doing household chores or at the supermarket. (Be careful though in your car!).
After the 2nd week, I ordered the 8 Minute Guided Meditation CD from his website 8minutes.org. I found it extremely helpful alongside what was happening in the book. All I had to do was sit down, find the meditation technique of the week, push the play button. I heard a sonorous gong, and then Davich lead me through my 8 minute meditation for the day. He doesn't talk alot, but when he says something it's perfectly timed to bring me back to the meditation. It worked so well for me. Let me actually sink into what I was doing.
Using the CD and use the book together was for me really powerful. It gave me a meditation practice. Finally. And easily.

Of all of the reviews that I have written on this site, this one probably is the most difficult to write. Davich does a very good job of describing the basics of meditation. But how does one generalize about meditation?

For someone who wants to get started with meditation with minimal fuss, 8 Minute Meditation is the book to use. I think that 8 Minute Meditation is fairly typical of what the publishers are focusing on these days: it is short, to the point, and it uses an easy-to-read style that helps a lot. Shorter, easy books seem to the new norm in publishing.

Davich does a good job of anticipating questions that the reader will have & he provides sensible answers. Most of his advice - in the questions and throughout the book - focuses on the practical (and not the mystical) aspects of meditation.

One thing that does keep me from giving 8 Minute Meditation a higher rating is that I think that meditation is a difficult subject to generalize about. Each person's inner world differs & each person's reaction to meditation will likewise differ. Sometimes the "one-size-fits-all" advice Davich provides struck me as lacking in depth. I've noticed that a few other reviewers found the same thing; so, 8 Minute Meditation's greatest strength and weakness is its brevity.

Having said that, 8 Minute Meditation is the best introductory meditation guide that I have seen. It will get you started on your meditation right away.

I had unsucessfully tried meditation in the past. My instructer started with 20 minutes which I found too long to do daily with no promise of results.
When I heard about this book, I thought that I could commit myself to 8 minutes a day. I read the introduction, made the pledge to try it for at least the 8 weeks and got started. Surprise - the 8 minutes flew by and, best of all, I was getting better at meditating every week and actually saw my stress level decreasing. I felt more relaxed overall. On occasions when I was starting to feel stress getting the better of me, I went to a quiet spot and meditated and found that my emotional balance was restored. I finished the 8 weeks and went on to the "upgrade". I intend to continue meditating daily.
The instructions are super clear, the question/answer sections are extremely helpful and the book is entertaining reading, too.
If you ever thought about trying meditation, and even if you never gave it a thought but are just curious, give this book a try. You have nothing to lose but 8 minutes and you stand to gain a benefit that you can take advantage of for the rest of your life. We do so much for other people; this is 8 minutes where we do something for ourselves.

In light of the research on heart disease and depression showing the benefits of meditation I thought I could try this. Meditation was a very abstract concept to me. I thought it was something that certain religions did. I didn't realize it was a non denominational way of totally tuning out and tuning in. It opens your mind, hightens your senses and affects you in ways that sneak up on you. Your mood, focus, stress level, and senses change. You learn to see things differently and feel solid. Thanks Mr. Davich.

I wanted a change yet did not want to have to "pay any price" to get it. I am far to busy to slow down to change. The title caught my eye and I have started meditating. The 8 min that I invest each mornig have created hours of productivity in my life. This stuff works and Victor makes it very simple to understand and easy to do. Read this book and follow this program...you will be very glad that you did.

The 8-MINUTE MEDITATION...book by Victor Davich is a wonderful beginner's guide to meditating. Without going into the philosophical or religious aspects of meditation, Davich presents just the basics in simple to understand and humorous writing.

The book is broken into three parts:
Part One - explains the what, why, and how to use the 8-MINUTE MEDITATION...book giving the reader a basic understanding of what they'll be doing and what to expect

Part Two - this is the actual meditation program. It's broken down into 8 weeks and 8 chapters, with each chapter/week focusing on different forms of meditation that you'll be doing. The chapters are short and all begin with what you'll be doing, and followed by a Q&A that should answer any concerns or questions that come up that week. Very helpful. I read one chapter a week so as to not anticipate the next week's meditation technique.

Part Three - this is at the end of the 8-weeks and if you decide to extend the 8-minute meditation to a longer duration, Davich provides the info here.

I really enjoyed the book! Having never meditated before, I now meditate 8-minutes everyday and it has become part of my daily routine. Although I've completed the 8-weeks, I haven't extended the duration of my sessions because I feel that 8-minutes works for me right now. Maybe in the future I'll extend the time.

The first time I meditated, following the book, I busted out laughing! In the beginning section, Davich explains how simple it is to start meditating by just focusing on your breath. In fact that's the first week meditation. Anyway, he explains that even though it sounds simple it takes some effort to remain focused on your breath. He recounts that this was what he did the first time he meditated and thought it would be easy. He writes that within 20 seconds he started planning meals and shopping lists etc., and couldn't believe how many thoughts were popping up in his head.

Well, I thought it would be simple too. But like Davich, after about 10-seconds all kinds of thoughts started firing off in my head...and they came fast and furious, and that's why I had to laugh!

As far as improving my state of mind, I have to admit that I don't obsess about things as much as I used to. Not to say that I don't get irritated or frustrated or anxious, but now I realize what's going on and I'm able to let it go.

So if you're curious about meditating, the 8-MINUTE MEDITATION...book is a great place to start.

I received Victor's book and CD as a gift and after finishing the 8 weeks I can truly say it has changed my life. Within the first few weeks my family noticed a difference, especially my kids. I'm much more calm, focused and believe it or not eating better. The book is set up like "plug and play". You really are meditating within minutes of starting the book and with step-by-step guidance in a voice more like a close friend than a teacher he stays with you the entire eight weeks.
Another thing that impressed me is that he seems to know exactly when certain questions will arise and has the answers waiting. It was like having him there with me especially with the CD. Though the book stands on it's own I found the CD guide very helpful in keeping me focused and tracking the time.
I would highly recommend this book and CD as a gift to yourself or others.

Have you always wanted to try meditation but you thought it may be too hard for you, you didn't have the time or it was just surrounded by mystique for you? Or maybe you want to try meditation but there's too many books out there and that confuses you more? Well, if that or any other is the case , I suggest you try meditation beginning with this marvellous book.
Mr Davich has made a simple and easy to follow program for all and gets to the point from the very beginning, meditation is for all. With just 8 minutes of meditation every day you'll get to experience a more quiet and relaxed state of mind but at the same time also alert. It may seem too easy to be true, but I can assure you that indeed it is. The only thing one has to do is to follow the simple instructions given by mr Davich and you'll be meditating before you even know it. I could write for hours about all the benefits of meditation, but the point is to experience it for yourself. I truly suggest this book to everyone interested in meditation. I'd also like to thank mr Victor Davich for making such a simple yet effective meditation program. Just try it, you'll be amazed.