Jarrah's Reviews > Mr. Spock's Little Book of Mindfulness: How to Survive in an Illogical World

Mr. Spock's Little Book of Mindfulness rubbed me the wrong way. It isn't really about mindfulness, the few life lessons it offers aren't universally applicable, and it doesn't really get at the nuance of Mr. Spock as a character.

Mindfulness is about being intensely present in the moment, aware of bodily sensations and environment, without judgement. There is some similarity with Vulcans' ostensible open-mindedness/respect for diversity, and Dakin does include a chapter on the importance of living in the present moment (as opposed to dwelling on the past or anticipating the future). But the book is mostly surface-level analysis of Vulcan approaches to things like relationships, family and change.

The challenge is that, as the book does note, a lot of those approaches, taken to the extreme, aren't really a good idea for humans. That contradiction forces a bit of contortion in the analysis, as when Dakin cites Spock's observation in "This Side of Paradise" that he's never paid attention to things like the shapes in clouds, as a positive example of Vulcan focus, instead of a somewhat tragic example of denying oneself emotional fulfillment.

In terms of the takeaway lessons, they don't go very deep. There's a fair amount of explaining why non-judgment and accepting reality are important, but not how to do it. In terms of accepting the self, there's analysis of why we need to accept our flaws, but less acknowledgement of the opposite problem: fixating on your potential flaws and personal shame instead of practicing self-compassion. Here again is a place we could learn from Mr. Spock, if the book had tried for a bit more nuance.

The format also made it a bit difficult to pull out the lessons that were there. The quotations in each section were bolded, but the lessons were not and were often in the middle of a paragraph with observations and jokes based on fan references.

I get that ultimately this is a novelty humour book, and I did enjoy the cartoons and some of the rewrites of quotes by famous Earth historical figures as if they were Vulcans. But the book would've been better titled something like The Vulcan Guide to Life's Big Questions or Vulcan Thinking for Beginners. You won't find a chapter on meditation in this book, which is a Vulcan practice and pretty central to mindfulness work. It's like if Star Trek: Body by Starfleet: A Fitness GuideStar Trek: Body by Starfleet: A Fitness Guide hadn't contained any examples of exercises but just talked about all the exercises we could see people doing on the show. It might've been entertaining, but it wouldn't have been very useful.