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Overview
Do you want to free yourself from worry and anxiety?
Allen Carr's Easyway method has brilliantly transformed lives all over the world, setting out a wonderful practical pathway to help free millions from a whole variety of addictions.
It strips away the illusions that leave us prey to negative thoughts and behaviours, showing us how to gain clarity and control if we focus on who we truly are rather than being distracted by those things that harm and trouble us. The key to peace of mind lies within.
Mindfulness lies at the heart of Allen Carr's philosophy and this book shares the proven principles of mindfulness with a wider audience in simple accessible terms that apply to real life and provide a tangible, practical outcome: YOUR HAPPINESS.
What people say about Allen Carr's Easyway method:
"The Allen Carr program was nothing short of a miracle."
Anjelica Huston
"It was such a revelation that instantly I was freed from my addiction."
Sir Anthony Hopkins
"His skill is in removing the psychological dependence."
The Sunday Times
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781788287326 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Arcturus Publishing |
| Publication date: | 10/15/2017 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Sales rank: | 532,951 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Allen Carr was born in 1934. The first in his family to enter the 'professions', he received articles from a prestigious firm of City accountants and began a career in a business he soon came to loathe. After filling a series of highly paid positions, punctuated by a two-year stint in the army as part of his country's National Service programme, Allen reached the nadir of his disillusionment with accountancy. Fed up with the old boys' network and complacent attitude, he took a completely different direction, starting a property development business, initially with a friend and later striking out on his own with his wife, Joyce. By this point in his life, Allen was chain-smoking 100 cigarettes a day, despite the fact that his older sister, Marion, and his father had died prematurely of lung cancer. After repeated failed attempts to stop smoking, Allen's conversion into a non-smoker was as dramatic as it was totally unexpected. His discovery of the kernel of what would become the Easyway method brought about another life-changing decision: to dedicate his life to the fight against nicotine addiction. Allen made this decision in July 1983. Since then he has built Easyway into an international brand with clinics in over 20 countries across the world, and developed his method into the most effective stop smoking therapy currently available. In 2006 Allen was diagnosed with lung cancer and passed away that November.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?
IN THIS CHAPTER
The origins of mindfulness • Modern Mindfulness in different forms • Myths and mysticism • The role of meditation • Mindfulness in a nutshell • All the rage • Exercise: mindful berry eating • Mindfulness and Easyway
Imagine you could find a way to reduce the stress in your life, free yourself from anxiety, depression, and regret, and enjoy increased happiness and more peaceful relationships, while remaining calm and in control. Now imagine that, by achieving that happier mental state, you became less susceptible to sickness, injury, tiredness, and pain. If I told you that you have the power to achieve this happy state quickly, easily, and without making any sacrifices, how would you feel?
EXCITED? ELATED? SCEPTICAL?
What if I told you that millions of people have achieved their own state of happiness by following the method I am about to take you through?
If you're sceptical, doesn't it strike you as strange that you should regard happiness as such a difficult thing to achieve? For such a sophisticated creation as humankind, wouldn't you expect happiness to be the default condition? As children, do we spend most of our time feeling unhappy?
Isn't it the case that life is more simple when we're very young, that we tend to live in the moment and leave the worries to our parents? It's only as we grow older and take on responsibilities that we start to feel the stresses of life and spend our nights wracked with anxieties that won't let us sleep. Of course, some youngsters are born into extraordinarily tragic and challenging environments, but it's only with age that these truly take their toll.
As adults, we tell ourselves we shouldn't worry so much, yet we feel helpless to stop. It's all easier said than done. In fact, telling ourselves not to worry often makes us worry more! We are so stuck in our way of thinking and responding to what life throws at us that we simply don't know how to change. We become blinded to the options available to us, especially the option of being happy.
That's right, happiness is an option. It's not a consequence of things that happen in life beyond your control. It's how you respond to the changing circumstances of life that determines whether you can be happy or not. And you can choose how you respond – all you need is a simple set of instructions to enable you to see that you have a choice.
THE ORIGINS OF MINDFULNESS
Mindfulness is a practice by which you enable yourself to see things more clearly, including the options that are available to you – in other words, to see things as they really are. The term has come to represent a meditative practice that dates back 2,500 years to the first days of Buddhism, and beyond that to the earliest yoga teachings thousands of years before.
The word "mindfulness" itself is an English interpretation of the word sati from the Pali language, in which early Buddhist texts were written. Sati is the first of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment in Buddhism.
Whether you consider Buddhism to be a religion, a philosophy, a way of life, or all of the above, it serves the purpose of offering a meaning to life and a template for living in a way that leads to enlightenment.
However, in Buddhism there is no god, and for this reason its teachings have captured the imagination of millions of people who seek a purpose but struggle with the concept of a supreme being. With Buddhism, the emphasis is not on pleasing God or some other deity but on sorting out the workings of your own mind.
Don't panic – I'm not going to suggest that you convert to Buddhism; it's just a way of explaining where the practice of mindfulness comes from and some of the history of the search for contentment. This is as old as mankind. Of course, all creatures – the lion, the tiger, the deer, the elephant, the gorilla – exist in a natural state of contentment without unnecessary stress and anxiety. That is, of course, aside from the thing that keeps them safe, fed, and alive: instinct.
Our modern understanding of mindfulness was pioneered by an American professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, called Jon Kabat-Zinn. He was a scientist who believed that by embracing some of the principles of yoga and Buddhism and combining them with modern science, he could help people who were suffering from illnesses related to stress and anxiety.
In 1979, Kabat-Zinn launched his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program and began to produce remarkable results. Today, the idea that stress, anxiety, pain, and even illness can be alleviated through mental reconditioning is generally accepted, and practices like yoga, tai-chi, hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) are all common disciplines that take account of the power of the mind with regard to the wellbeing of the body.
Mindfulness takes that principle for treating maladies and applies it to everyday life, as a form of prevention as well as cure. The aim is to free yourself from the pointless, counter-productive, un-instinctive anxieties of life and enjoy a more relaxed, positive frame of mind, which in turn leads to better overall health.
MODERN MINDFULNESS IN DIFFERENT FORMS
Yoga and meditation lie at the heart of modern mindfulness, but they are not exclusively connected to Buddhist principles. Not at all. The ideas that the Buddha expounded were a development of something that we all experience from time to time, perhaps without realizing it, or stopping to fully appreciate it.
In the hurly-burly of modern life there are precious few occasions when we stop, do nothing, step away from the anxieties and regrets that race in and out of our minds, and tune in to the present. But those occasions do arise. It's normally in those moments that we come closest to our true "animal selves".
You've no doubt experienced the relaxing benefits of going for a walk. Walking has been shown to be a wonderfully therapeutic exercise. The mind begins to unwind, the thoughts and concerns that normally crowd in there are allowed to pass by, and we start to notice the world around us.
We become more creative as our minds switch from negativity to positivity. And we begin to develop a more realistic perspective. Walking has been shown to be conducive to creativity, problem solving, dialogue, and stress reduction.
Other forms of exercise can have the same liberating effect: swimming, cycling, and running, for example. As you focus on the rhythmic motion of the exercise and regularity of your breathing, the anxieties and regrets leave your mind and you enter a new, happier mental state in which none of those anxieties is a problem. You might think that you're merely being distracted from your worries; in fact, you're removing distractions and thus easing your worries.
As a child, did you ever lie on the grass and gaze up at the sky? How often do you do it now? Taking time to do nothing, to step off the treadmill, and allow your senses to focus on the myriad miracles taking place around you every second is another way to free your mind from stress and begin to see things as they really are. The cause of the stress doesn't necessarily disappear, but we stop ourselves getting hooked into it.
If you're religious, you will be aware of the mindful benefits of prayer. Prayer is a form of meditation. It involves taking time to find somewhere peaceful, close your eyes, focus, and let go. For people who believe in a god, the letting go occurs because of the belief that ultimate control lies beyond them, not with them. If you don't have religious beliefs, you can still experience the same sensation of peaceful letting go when you practise mindfulness.
MYTHS AND MYSTICISM
The point is, you don't have to be a Buddhist monk to practise mindfulness. If it is associated with mysticism and spirituality, that's simply because it is widely practised by people with religious beliefs. But they're not the only ones. Millions of people around the world have embraced mindfulness today in various forms.
For the majority of human history, religion has provided us with the regular opportunity to practise a form of mindfulness, whether in the form of prayer, quiet moments of reflection, or meditation. These days, the majority of people in the West no longer go to church on a regular basis, and so there is no time in our weekly calendar for stopping and letting go. We have become unfamiliar with such things, and so we're suspicious of them. We tend to regard them as hocus- pocus and become resistant to them, determined not to be taken in.
It's important that you don't regard mindfulness in this way. With practice, mindfulness is a tool for achieving a peaceful and ultimately a happy state of mind. For religious people, that means getting closer to God. For non-religious people, it means developing a better understanding of yourself and how everything in your life relates to everything else: a form of mental clarity that is available to all of us.
Doesn't that sound appealing? Remember how this chapter started: "Imagine you could find a way to reduce the stress in your life, free yourself from anxiety, depression, and regret, and enjoy increased happiness and more peaceful relationships, while remaining calm and in control." That is the purpose of mindfulness – it's not a religion, not a cult, not a quack remedy. It's a case of re-establishing the most natural, most instinctive mindset it's possible to have – one that was enjoyed effortlessly by early mankind and is instinctively enjoyed by the animal kingdom with which we share this beautiful planet. Indeed, as you will discover as you read through these pages, it is a return to nature's intended plan for you, a plan that has been lost amid the misinformation and brainwashing of modern life.
THE ROLE OF MEDITATION
Throughout this book, you will come across meditation exercises designed to help you practise mindfulness. Mindfulness does not rely on meditation, but it is a good way to develop your appreciation of the benefits.
With the forms of modern mindfulness mentioned earlier in this chapter, the mental benefits tend to happen as a happy consequence of the activity, rather than being the main focus. When you choose to go for a walk, swim, run, etc., you generally do it for the physical exercise first and foremost and the mental benefits are a bonus. With meditation, it's all about the mental benefit.
Ask most people to sit still, focus on their breathing, and empty their mind of other thoughts and they will struggle to keep it up for more than a few seconds. We are not used to controlling our minds in this way. Our everyday lives are full of distractions and our minds have become conditioned to leap from one thought to another, without ever settling for any decent length of time.
Therefore, we need a method to help us to calm this unnatural mental overstimulation and hyperactivity. Meditation is a method that can be practised anywhere, at any time, and without any need for special equipment, clothing, or gimmicks. Meditation is not praying. There is no god involved, and no cult rituals. It is something anybody can do and the more you practise it, the easier it becomes. You're not so much practising to acquire a new ability as practising to re-acquaint yourself with one that you, and your most distant ancestors on this planet, were born with.
It doesn't take up much of your time either. Just ten minutes a day is enough to make a difference. Just ten minutes in which you step out of the chaos, focus on something real, maybe your breathing, a sound, perhaps a sensation, and rediscover and develop the power of your mind, just as you might develop your muscles in a gym. In fact, it's not so much the power of your mind – it's the power of "now".
MINDFULNESS IN A NUTSHELL
So what exactly is mindfulness? What can you expect to feel when you become mindful? And how will your state of mind make a difference to what is happening to you in the real world?
There are many definitions of mindfulness. Here are a few that you might come across if you look the word up:
Awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.
Bringing one's complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to- moment basis.
The gentle effort to be continuously present with experience.
The practice of maintaining a non-judgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one's thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis.
Indeed, merely trying to understand the meaning of mindfulness from all these definitions can easily add to your stress, rather than dispel it!
Certain words stand out: "gentle", "non-judgmental", "present", "awareness", "on purpose". The significance of these words will become clear to you as you read through the book, but for now a simple definition of mindfulness will suffice.
The definition that I prefer is this:
SEEING THINGS AS THEY REALLY ARE
Perhaps you think that's too simplistic. Unless you're under the influence of mind-bending drugs, don't we all see things as they really are? We like to think we do, don't we? None of us likes to think we've been duped. But the fact is we can dupe ourselves – and frequently do.
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night, fretting about some problem that's going to make your life hell the next day? You toss and turn, wrestling with the problem in a futile attempt to think of a solution. The more you wrestle, the more fretful you become.
You try to force it out of your mind, but it won't leave you alone. Eventually fatigue takes over and you finally fall back to sleep. When you wake up in the morning, the sun is streaming through the curtains and the birds are singing in the trees. You jump out of bed ready to face the world. And that problem that was haunting you in the night? Well, it barely seems like a problem at all.
The problem hasn't changed, you haven't done anything to alter it, yet it's gone from being a hideous demon that keeps you awake at night to being a mere trifle that you brush off in the morning.
At which point would you say you were seeing things as they really are? In the middle of the night when you were powerless to act and all you could do was wrestle with your mind? Or in the morning when you were free to do something about it?
This is one common example of how we fool ourselves into suffering with problems of our own making. Until we face our stresses by seeing things as they really are, we remain victims of our own anxiety. The more anxious we feel, the more stressed and depressed we become, which in turn makes us more anxious and more stressed and depressed. It's a vicious circle that can only be broken by stopping, reversing the process, and seeing things as they really are.
Mindfulness is not just thinking in the right way; it's the ability to be aware of your own thoughts. By observing your own thoughts non-judgmentally, with a feeling of kindness towards yourself, you begin to see them as they really are – mere thoughts. And you begin to see that your thoughts are not the definition of reality.
ALL THE RAGE
Mindfulness is enjoying a boom in popularity right now. It has come a long way from the 1970s, when it was often dismissed as the preserve of hippies, dropouts, and New Age oddballs. Since then it has proven its worth, to the extent that schools, prisons, corporations, and even the military use mindfulness meditation for everything from improving concentration and moderating behaviour to reducing the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Increasingly, mindfulness is being seen as the antidote to a whole host of 21st-century problems: for example, the work-life balance, multi-tasking, peer pressure, cyber bullying, self-image, sleep deprivation, anger, tech addiction, and drug addiction. As we get caught up in the vicious circle of anxiety and stress, the need for a way to cut out the noise and find the mental space to think clearly becomes paramount.
According to numerous research sources, average stress levels are higher today than at any other time in history. We are afflicted by new illnesses and incidences of mental problems are on the rise. At the same time, we have become rightly sceptical about the reliance on pharmaceuticals to treat these conditions. There is a desire to find cures that don't involve drugs, coupled with an aversion to corporate control.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Easy Way to Mindfulness"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Allen Carr's Easyway (International) Limited.
Excerpted by permission of Arcturus Publishing Limited.
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