Mindful Recovery: A Spiritual Path to Healing from Addiction

This wise book provides practical exercises that will help us to develop conscious awareness and inner understanding, and the ways and means to free us from unsatisfying habits, addictions, and unconscious behavior patterns. I recommend it highly.
--Lama Surya Das, author of the bestselling Awakening the Buddha Within

""Anyone interested in finding a kind, spiritual guide to recovery that focuses on flexibility rather than the 'one true way' will benefit from this enjoyable and helpful book.""
--Maia Szalavitz, coauthor with Joseph Volpicelli, M.D., of Recovery Options: The Complete Guide

In Mindful Recovery, you'll discover a fresh and effective method for healing from addiction that can help you handle important challenges, from managing anxiety and resisting cravings to dealing with emotional and physical imbalance.

Drawing on both ancient spiritual wisdom and the authors' extensive clinical psychological work with their patients over many years, Mindful Recovery shows you how to use the simple Buddhist practice of mindfulness to be aware of-- and enjoy-- life in the present moment without the need to enhance or avoid experience with addictive behaviors. Mindful Recovery guides you step by step through ten powerful ""doorways"" to mindful recovery, giving you specific strategies that can help you cultivate a sense of calm awareness and balance in your life.

Filled with personal stories of recovery, practical exercises, instructions for meditation, and more, Mindful Recovery accompanies you on a journey of exploration and healing that will help you find the strength and the tools to change, leading you to a fresh new experience of everyday living.

"The practice of mindfulness is the Buddha's main ingredient in his recipe for lasting peace, happiness and enlightened living. It is only through experiencing this with ourselves that we can heal what ails us, transform ourselves and our relationships, and find true purpose and fulfillment. This wise book provides practical exercises that will help us to develop conscious awareness and inner understanding, and the ways and means to free us from unsatisfying habits, addictions, and unconscious behavior patterns. I recommend it highly." --Lama Surya Das, author of the bestselling AWAKENING THE BUDDHA WITHIN

"Mindful Recovery combines two hitherto unrelated worlds -- that of modern cognitive therapy and Buddhist reflection. The connection makes incredible sense, since Buddhism is not a religion in the traditional sense so much as it is a method for directing one's thoughts and experiences. By centering oneself in one's here-and-now, lived experience, addicts can avoid the infantilism, the regrets, the efforts to seek unrewarding rewards that are the basis for self-destructive behaviors. By reading about and applying these techniques, individuals can work on the internal urges that accompany their addictive problems." --Stanton Peele, Ph.D., author of THE TRUTH ABOUT ADDICTION AND RECOVERY and THE MEANING OF ADDICTION

"Anyone interested in finding a kind, spiritual guide to recovery that focuses on flexibility rather than the 'one true way' will benefit from this enjoyable and helpful book." --Maia Szalavitz, coauthor with Joseph Volpicelli M.D. of RECOVERY OPTIONS: THE COMPLETE GUIDE