Product Description

“Happy 15th birthday to one of the great classics of mind/body medicine! More than any other, Full Catastrophe Living is the book that enabled Americans to discover the inner life. This book has brought peace of mind to hundreds and thousands of people and healed countless lives. This is your chance to let it heal yours.”
–Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of Kitchen Table Wisdom

It is everywhere around us. Even worse, it gets inside us: sapping our energy, undermining our health, and making us more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and disease. Now, based on Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s renowned mindfulness-based stress reduction program, this groundbreaking book shows you how to use natural, medically proven methods to soothe and heal your body, mind, and spirit. By using the practices described within, you can learn to manage chronic pain resulting from illness and/or stress-related disorders…discover the roles that anger and tension play in heart disease…reduce anxiety and feelings of panic…improve overall quality of life and relationships through mindfulness meditation and mindful yoga. More timely than ever before, Full Catastrophe Living is a book for the young and the old, the well, the ill, and anyone trying to live a healthier and saner life in today’s world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #404 in Books
• Published on: 1990-06-01
• Released on: 1990-05-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Amazon.com
Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, is perhaps the best-known proponent of using meditation to help patients deal with illness. (The somewhat confusing title is from a line in Zorba the Greek in which the title character refers to the ups and downs of family life as "the full catastrophe.") But this book is also a terrific introduction for anyone who has considered meditating but was afraid it would be too difficult or would include religious practices they found foreign. Kabat-Zinn focuses on "mindfulness," a concept that involves living in the moment, paying attention, and simply "being" rather than "doing." While you can practice anything "mindfully," from taking a walk to cleaning your house, Kabat-Zinn presents several meditation techniques that focus the attention most clearly, whether it's on a simple phrase, your breathing, or various parts of your body. The book goes into detail about how hospital patients have either improved their health or simply come to feel better despite their illness by using these techniques, but these meditations can help anyone deal with stress and gain a calmer outlook on life. "When we use the word healing to describe the experiences of people in the stress clinic, what we mean above all is that they are undergoing a profound transformation of view," Kabat-Zinn writes. "Out of this shift in perspective comes an ability to act with greater balance and inner security in the world." --Ben Kallen

From Publishers Weekly
Kabat-Zinn is founder and director of the stress reduction program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and the "full catastrophe" of which he writes is the spectrum of stress in life. His program, in a word, is meditation, rescued from the mire of mysticism that made it trendy in the 1960s. The author focuses on the advantages of employing "practiced mindfulness" to control and calm our responses without blunting our feelings--and a more convincing introduction to the many modes and uses of meditation could hardly be imagined. In personable, enlightening prose, Kabat-Zinn first explains how to develop a meditation schedule, and in later chapters pragmatically applies his plan to the main sources of stress. An impressive middle section clearly marshals scientific and anecdotal evidence relating state of mind to state of health. And while emphasizing meditation's healing potential, Kabat-Zinn makes no sweeping claims, suggesting that the discipline serve not as means but end. Illustrations not seen by PW. BOMC and QPB selection.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
“A practical guide not only to mindfulness meditation and healing, but daily life.”
–Joseph Goldstein, author of One Dharma

“Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn eloquently explains the power of paying attention and increasing awareness. I strongly recommend this book for everyone who wants to begin healing their life.”
–Dean Ornish, M.D., author of Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for the Reversal of Heart Disease

Customer Reviews

Thich Nhat Hanh is infinitely better than Zinn.
Thich Nhat Hanh is infinitely better than Zinn.

Zinn's book is WAY too long at 450 pages, and it is also way too detailed, as one might expect from a graduate of MIT - which is what Zinn is. By contrast, the OTHER authority on Mindfulness (there are only two according to the online encyclopedia - Wikipedia): Thich Nhat Hanh has written a book on Mindfulness entitled: The Miracle of Mindfulness which is only 140 pages long.

After I studied Zinn, Hanh absolutely blew me away with his simplicity, and his clarity, and his positivity. And Hanh quickly left me wondering whether he does in fact speak with the voice of the Buddha. And an example of Thich Nhat Hanh's positive approach to Buddhist Mindfulness meditation is that he emphasizes practice of the "half-smile;" as in: "Breathing in I calm my body. Breathing out I smile." - There is no such happiness orientation in Zinn's writings.

And although Zinn graduated from MIT, which is impressive, - Thich Nhat Hanh, is infinitely more academically impressive. Thich Nhat Hanh studied Comparative Religion at Princeton, and then he taught Buddhist Psychology and Literature at Cornell and Columbia after having taught this at a prestigious private university (which he himself established) in Vietnam. Hahn also wrote over 70 books, approximately 40 of which have been translated into English. Also, Martin Luther King nominated Hahn for the Noble Peace Prize. Also, Hahn established relief agencies for war victims in Vietnam; as well as having established monasteries in Vietnam, in France, and in the United States.

Also, Thich Nhat Hanh has been endorsed by two of the greatest living Buddhist authorities alive today, namely by the Dalai Lama; and by Sogyal Rinpoche - who said of Hanh: "Thich Nhat Hanh writes with the voice of the Buddha." By contrast Zinn has been endorsed by NO living Buddhist authorities other than Thich Nhat Hanh himself - who endorsed only Zinn's most recent book: Wherever You Go, There You are.

Mindfullness
My boss suggested this book. He was correct that it would help me manage a personal crisis.

The Feeling Good Handbook
this is an awesome book to help those with anxiety,depression or someone expeiercing stress related problems . I only wish i had it sooner.