Full Catastrophe Living - Hardcover

Kabat-Zinn, Jon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385298978 ISBN 13: 9780385298971

Publisher: Delacorte Press, 1990

An expert in the field of stress reduction introduces a practical program of mindfulness meditation techniques, explaining how a moment-to-moment awareness can help one cope with both chronic illness and day-to-day tension and stress

Review:

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 the Publisher:

Featured on Bill Moyer's PBS special Healing And The Mind, this practical guide to mindfulness, meditation and healing from the author of the bestselling Wherever You Go, There You Are is a classic in the field of alternative medicine.

• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0385298978
• ISBN 13: 9780385298971
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 453