I have recently discovered Mindfulness Meditation For Pain Relief and I so wish I had discovered it sooner! I
have been struggling with a chronic neuralgia for about 20 years now and had pretty much given up on it ever
receding. But since starting to work with the audio and reading the book that goes with it "Full Catastrophe
Living" I am starting to see some improvement.
The pain relief course is 8 weeks long and you are asked to practice for 45 minutes a day, just as they do in the
clinic at the Massachusetts Hospital Pain Clinic. This is quite a commitment and hard to do on your own without the
support of face to face meetings, but it is certainly worthwhile for you if you are in pain. I have only been using
the program for one week but can already tell that it is helping.
What is Mindfulness Meditation for Pain?
Mindfulness can transform pain. Over the past
three decades, Jon Kabat-Zinn has clinically proven it. Now, with Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief, the man
who brought mindfulness into mainstream medicine presents for the first time on audio his original
practices for using conscious awareness to free us from physical and emotional suffering.
This long-awaited two-CD program begins with an overview of how mindfulness changes the way our bodies process
pain and stress. You will learn tips and techniques for working with the mind and embracing whatever arises in
your life, however challenging.
Then Jon Kabat-Zinn leads you in guided meditations drawn from his pioneering Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction (MBSR) program to help you work with and find relief from chronic pain, everyday stress, and
emotional challenges, as well as to read and act appropriately in the face of acute pain.
"Mindfulness can reveal what is deepest and best in ourselves and bring it to life in very practical and
imaginative ways--just when we need it the most," Jon Kabat-Zinn
Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief gives us a ready tool for overcoming even the most extraordinary
difficulties.
About Jon Kabat-Zinn
Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and
Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care,and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and
professor of medicine emeritus.
His clinic was featured in 1993 in the public television series Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers. He is the
author of Letting Everything Become Your Teacher (Delta, 2009), Arriving at Your Own Door (Hyperion, 2007), The
Mindful Way Through Depression (with Mark Williams, John Teasdale, and Zindel Segal; Guilford, 2007), Coming to Our
Senses (Hyperion, 2005), and more. His works have been translated into more than 30 languages.
Here is a sample of the user feedback on the Amazon site:
"Manna From Heaven for Those in Pain" February 18, 2010
I am not an accomplished meditator or a person who enjoys sitting still. However, this two CD set was manna
from heaven for me. I suffer with chronic pain of various types and often resort to painkillers and NSAIDS.
Much of the time I also am tense and worried because of the pain and from trying to deal with life while in
pain. I have other Jon Kabat-Zinn meditation CDs, and they are fine, but this one was exactly what I needed. It
is for people who are in pain, including intense pain, and who are open to dealing with this pain via a daily
practice of meditating by listening to one of the short meditation exercises on these CDs.
The exercises are of varying lengths, and most are found on the second CD. They range from about 4 minutes to
up to 18 minutes. You can listen to one or more at any time. In addition, the first CD is one the author
suggests you listen to repeatedly, as it describes an approach to mindfulness, to awareness, to a gentler way
of dealing with pain than stringent resistance and fear (my usual approach). He addresses all kinds of problems
a listener might have. For example, you might be in so much pain that you cannot even focus on your breath at
all; he has a way of dealing with this. In addition, he provides alternatives to basic normal meditation
practice, so say, if you're interrupted by unbearable pain in one area of your body, you can breathe into it,
you can focus on the pain and then move back to your breath, etc. This felt like a meditation tape made
especially for me.
His voice is so calm and soothing that even just listening to it calmed me down. Often my pain levels make me
feel agitated and I hyperfocus on such thoughts as "I can't stand this!" or "My life is terrible because of
this!" or "When will I be able to just do what I want to do". He addresses these defeating thoughts too, in a
calm and accepting way.
If you do not struggle with chronic pain, get another of Jon Kabat-Zinn's CDs. They are all good. But if you
are ill, if you are in pain, and even if you struggle with emotional pain and anxiety, I would so highly
recommend this CD set. I will listen to this one over and over again and am quite excited about it too. I wish
I could give it 6 stars. Highly recommended
Video on Mindfulness Meditation with Jon Kabat-Zinn
Be sure to purchase the book 'Full Catastrophe
Living' at the same time as I have found that the CDs were not sufficient on their own. You need the
book to clarify and help you to practice the program.
Mindfulness can transform pain. Over the past
three decades, Jon Kabat-Zinn has clinically proven it. Now, with Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief, the man
who brought mindfulness into mainstream medicine presents for the first time on audio his original
practices for using conscious awareness to free us from physical and emotional suffering.
"Manna From Heaven for Those in Pain" February 18, 2010