I came to the conclusion then that “continual mindfulness” … must mean, not a sergeant-major-like drilling of thoughts, but a continual readiness to look and readiness to accept whatever came.—Marion Milner, A Life of One’s Own

It seems like in the last five years or so, happiness has emerged as a major “new” category in publishing. When you search for “happiness” in “books” at Amazon, you get more than 37,000 hits, with The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and The Myths of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky near the top of the list. One of my favorite books on the subject is A Life of One’s Own by Marion Milner, originally published in 1934 (under the pseudonym Joanna Field) and still in print today.

In 1926, when Milner was 26 years old, two years out of college with a degree in psychology, she started keeping a journal to find out what it takes to be happy. She observed her emotional responses to events, paid attention to the movement of her mind, practiced meditative techniques, and recorded her discoveries. She published her journal as A Life of One’s Own to critical acclaim, including reviews by W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender. She went on to become a distinguished psychoanalyst and educator.

I first read the book when I was in college and reread it at least twice after that and must have lent it to someone, because it’s no longer on my bookshelf. (Note to self: Buy a new copy.) So when I picked this quote to start this week’s posts and did a little research on Milner, I was surprised to discover that she incorporated doodles in her psychoanalytic work and in her study of creativity. I was surprised because doodles are the focus of my next two posts. Just a little synchronicity at work. Nice.

• Read a short bio of Marion Milner’s life and work at Wikipedia.
• Here’s an abstract of “Marion Milner, mysticism and psychoanalysis,” International Journal of Psychoanalysis, that briefly describes her work.
• Check out her biography, Marion Milner: The Life, by Emma Letley (Routledge, July 2013).
• Get details on all of Milner’s books at Routledge.

See more quotes about writing here.