The tibetan art of positive thinking – christopher hansard. This was a random book that just caught my eye as I unexpectedly waited for a train to go to Kiruna from Uppsala in Sweden. Faced with a depressing 15 hours on a train it seemed like a good idea, and it certainly was! I’ve been a big fan of the Barefoot Doctor’s ‘Return of the Urban Warrior’ for a year now, however my main complaints with that were a) it takes a bit of a while to get going, b) it’s bloody huge and a real pain to carry around when you’re backpacking. Hansard’s book, his second in this series, takes a similar path (Tibetan B�n rather than Taoist) but using different meditations and more burning of juniper. Hansard is very prescriptive about quite how often you need to do the meditations to get the desired results (for example 25 plus minutes, twice a day, for 28 days), which suits me better than the more rambling style of Barefoot. The book is well written, practical and with occasional side trips into Hansard’s own training to be a B�n master – plus after a few days of reading it there have been definate improvements in my outlook, noticeable by the quality of the random things that happen through the day and how I react to them. Go get this book now – especially if you’re feeling a bit down in the dumps!!