You Are Not Your Pain: Using Mindfulness to Relieve Pain, Reduce Stress, and Restore Well-Being---An Eight-Week Program

by Vidyamala Burch, Vidyamala Burch (Read by), Danny Penman, Mark Williams (Foreword by), Mark Williams (Read by)

Overview

Pain, suffering, and stress can be intolerable, but it doesn't have to be this way. You Are Not Your Pain reveals a simple set of mindfulness-based practices that you can incorporate into your daily life to relieve chronic pain and the suffering and stress of illness.

Clinical trials show that mindfulness meditation can be as effective as prescription painkillers and can enhance the body's natural healing systems, while also significantly reducing anxiety, depression, irritability, exhaustion, and insomnia—all symptoms that can arise from chronic pain and illness.

Developed by two authors who themselves have struggled with severe pain due to serious injuries, this accessible book reveals the eight-week program that will quickly melt away your suffering and help you cope with your pain. Taking up just 10-20 minutes per day, this is a simple yet effective way to soothe some of the common causes of pain like back problems, arthritis, migraine, and diabetes, but can also be effective for people undergoing chemotherapy, people with heart disease, fibromyalgia, celiac disease, and much more.

Accompanied by a CD with 8 meditations, listeners will be able to identify and focus on secondary suffering which is brought about when the mind becomes fixated on the anxiety of pain, and begins to anticipate it, thereby making suffering worse. Using the meditations and techniques within the book, readers will learn to breathe in to their pain and dissolve suffering by soothing the brain's pain networks and leaving you able to live life fully again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781427258137
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	01/06/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	702,171
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

DANNY PENMAN is an award-winning journalist and author who worked for the BBC, The Independent, and writes for the London Daily Mail. He is coauthor of the bestselling Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan to Finding Peace in a Frantic World.

VIDYAMALA BURCH is founder and codirector of Breathworks, an organization offering mindfulness-based and compassion-based approaches to living well with chronic pain, illness, and stress. She is the author of Living Well with Pain and Illness which is based on her Breathworks program.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Mark Williams
1. Every Moment Is a New Chance
2. What You Resist Persists
3. Introducing the Mindfulness Program
4. Week One: Wild Horses
5. Week Two: You Are Not Your Thoughts
6. Week Three: Learning to Respond, Rather Than React
7. Week Four: Watching Your Suffering and Stress Dissolve
8. Week Five: The Pleasure of Small Things
9. Week Six: "The Tender Gravity of Kindness"
10. Week Seven: You Are Not Alone
11. Week Eight: Life Lives Through You

Editorial Reviews

This book provides and extremely effective and elegant mind-body approach to healing for people dealing with the potentially hugely-eroding effects of chronic pain and illness in their lives.” —Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, author of Full Catastrophe Living and Wherever You Go, There You Are

“Drawing on their own experiences, ancient wisdom, and the latest science, Vidyamala Burch and Dr. Danny Penman have created a program of simple daily practices that anyone struggling with pain and stress can follow. You Are Not Your Pain is a powerful testament to the ways mindfulness and meditation can help us tap into our own resilience, even in the most painful times.” —Arianna Huffington

“You Are Not Your Pain shares essential tools for harnessing the power of our minds and hearts to navigate all kinds of pain. The authors have clearly learned a lot both from their personal experiences and their clinical work. A wonderful support for the many people who face the challenge of pain.” —Sharon Salzberg, cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society and author of Real Happiness

“It's said that pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. This compassionate program shows how to meet pain and reduce suffering, soften around it rather than freeze in fear, drop despair, and reclaim a full, rich life.” —Amy Gross, former editor in chief of O, The Oprah Magazine, now teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

“One of the most important outcomes of mindfulness practice is the reconnecting of body and mind. You Are Not Your Pain brilliantly shows us how to develop that crucial connection and use it to cope with pain and illness. A deeply valuable contribution.” —Chade-Meng Tan, Jolly Good Fellow of Google and bestselling author of Search Inside Yourself

“This book is a true gift to anyone suffering from chronic pain. The authors have distilled mindfulness down to simple, core concepts and practices that are accessible to anyone. The pages are imbued with wisdom and compassion born of personal experience. When pain drives you to distraction, please begin here.” —Christopher Germer, PhD, author of The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion

“Pain is the great equalizer. No matter who you are, rich or poor, woman or man, young or old, pain will be part of your life. However, with the right tools pain does not have to be a source of suffering. You Are Not Your Pain provides a lucid and powerful guide to meeting life's inevitabilities. With this book you will learn to work with pain and use it to catalyze growth and transformation.” —Jeremy Hunter, PhD, Assistant Professor of Practice at The Peter F. Drucker School of Management and creator of The Executive Mind.

From the Publisher