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 Full Catastrophe Living Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness , by: Jon Kabat-Zinn
Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, is perhaps the most well-known supporter of the use of meditation to help patients deal with illness. (The title is somewhat confusing from a line in Zorba the Greek in which the title character refers to the ups and downs of the family as "the full catastrophe.") But this book is also a great introduction for anyone who has taken note of meditating, but was afraid that it is too difficult or would include religious practices they found strange. Kabat-Zinn focuses on "mindfulness", a concept that goes live in the moment, with attention, and simply "be" instead of "doing." While you practice something "mindfully," from taking a walk to cleaning your house, Kabat-Zinn presents various meditation techniques that focus the attention most clearly, whether in a simple formula, your breathing, or different parts of your body. The book goes into detail about how the hospital patients have improved their health or simply to feel better, despite their illness through the use of these techniques, but these meditations can help someone cope with stress and get a calmer outlook on life . "When we use the word cure for describing the experiences of people in the stress clinic, what we mean is that it is undergoing a profound transformation of view," Kabat-Zinn writes. "Out of this shift comes an opportunity to act with greater balance and inner security in the world." -- Ben Kallen Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness
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