Full Catastrophe Living Pt. 3 (Conclusion)

[Guest guest]

"This book is designed to give the reader full access to the training programour patients undergo in the stress clinic. Above all, it is a manual for helpingyou to develop your own personal meditation practice and for learning how to usemindfulness to promote improved health and healing in your own life. The sectionentitled "The Practice of Mindfulness" (Part I) describes what takes place inthe stress reduction program and the experiences of people who have taken it. Itwill guide you through the major techniques we use in the clinic and givesexplicit and easily followed directions for how to practice them and how tointegrate mindfulness into daily-life activities. It also provides a detailedeight-week practice schedule so that, if you choose, you can follow the exactprogram our patients undergo while you are reading other sections of the book.This is the way we recommend you proceed.The section entitled "The Paradigm"

(Part II) provides a simple but revealinglook at some of the latest research findings in behavioral medicine asbackground for understanding how the practice of mindfulness is related tophysical and mental health. This section develops and overall "philosophy ofhealth" based on the notions of "wholeness" and "connectedness" and on whatscience and medicine are learning about the relationship of the mind to healthand the process of healing.The section called simple "Stress" (Part III) discusses what stress is and howour awareness and understanding of it can help us to handle it moreappropriately. It includes a model for understanding the value of bringingmoment-to-moment awareness to stressful situations in order to cope moreeffectively with them.Part IV "The Applications," provides detailed information and guidance forutilizing mindfulness in a wide range of specific areas that cause peoplesignificant stress,

including medical symptoms, physical and emotional pain,anxiety and panic, time pressures, relationships, work, food, and events in theoutside world.The last section, "The Way of Awareness, " (Part V) will give you practicalsuggestions for maintaining momentum in the meditation practice once youunderstand the basics and have begun practicing, as well as for usingmindfulness effectively in all aspects of your life. It also containsinformation about how to find groups of people to practice with, hospitals andcommunity-based institutions that have programs nurturing meditative awareness,and a reading list to support continued practice and growth.The serious reader who wishes to put mindfulness to work to change his or herlife may wish to order the mindfulness practice tapes that our patients use whenpracticing the formal meditation techniques described in the book. Some peoplefind it easier, when embarking for the

first time on a daily meditationpractice, just to plug in a tape and let it guide them rather than followinstructions from a book, however clear and detailed they may be. If you feelthis way, the tapes may help you to get launched in this process moreeffectively. They can increase your chances of giving the formal meditationtechniques a fair try. Then, once you understand what is involved, you canpractice on your own without the tapes, as many of our patients do.However, whether you use the tapes or not, anybody who is interested inachieving the kind of results seen in the stress clinic, should understand thatour patients make a strong commitment to practice the formal techniques asdescribed in this book on a daily basis for a period of at least eight weeks.They are required to practice with the tapes for forty-five minutes per day, sixdays per week, over the eight weeks. From follow-up studies we know that

mostcontinue to practice on their own long after the eight weeks are over. For many,mindfulness rapidly becomes a way of being.As you embark on your own journey of self-development and discovery of yourinner resources for healing and for working with the full catastrophe, all youneed to remember is to suspend judgment for the time being and to commityourself to practicing the techniques described in this book in a disciplinedway, observing for yourself what is happening as you go along. What you will belearning will be coming primarily from inside you, from your own experience asyour life unfolds from moment to moment rather than from some external authorityor teacher or belief system. Our philosophy is that you are the world expert onyour life, your body, and your mind, or at least you are in the best position tobecome that expert if you observe carefully. Part of the adventure of meditationis to use yourself as a

laboratory to find out who you are and what you arecapable of doing. As Yogi Berra once said, "You can observe a lot by justwatching."Excerpted from the book "Full Catastrophe Living" written by Jon Kabat-Zinn,Ph.D., copyright 1990, 1991, published by Dell Publishing (A delta Paperback).

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AffirmationstoDe-Stress

A positive thinking, positive affirmations support group, that discusses ways to cope with the stresses of daily life. Come aboard! PJ and Gang