The Tao of Bipolar: Using Meditation and Mindfulness to Find Balance and Peace

If you have bipolar disorder, you struggle with psychological balance, swinging between highly depressed and highly manic states. For you, finding the middle path can be a challenge, which is why the Tao understanding of energy can be so helpful. “Tao,” is a Chinese word meaning “the way” and a metaphysical concept for understanding the universe as a circular flow of energy. The Tao understanding of bipolar disorder is that symptoms are the result of a disrupted or imbalanced energy flow that can be brought back to harmony with dedication and practice.

In The Tao of Bipolar, you will reconnect with your essential, stable, balanced nature, which, according to the Tao, is the inherent state of all matter. In the book, you will learn to manage your energy with meditation and other techniques so that you can always return to their stable center. While you may lose touch with the center during bipolar episodes, this book encourages you to use mindfulness and meditation to consciously shift your energy back to this center before a bipolar episode gets too extreme.

When it comes to bipolar disorder, managing emotions, preventing manic episodes, and dealing effectively with periods of depression is key to your mental health and well-being. This book will give you the tools you need to get your bipolar disorder under control, and get back to living life.

Once you learn to manage your moods, you can function normally and experience far less suffering from the disorder, even when you do have bipolar episodes.

C. Alexander Simpkins, PhD, and Annellen M. Simpkins, PhD, are psychologists specializing in meditation, hypnotherapy, and neuroscience. The Simpkins are authors of twenty-seven books, including a number of titles on Taoism: Simple Taoism, Tao in Ten, and most recently, The Dao of Neuroscience. They also have authored many books on the therapeutic application of meditation, including Zen Meditation in Psychotherapy, Meditation and Yoga in Psychotherapy, and Meditation for Therapists and Their Clients. In addition, they have a newly released book on neuroscience, Neuroscience for Clinicians. Their books have been published in more than twenty foreign editions and have won many awards.

The Simpkins regularly present seminars on meditation, hypnosis, and neuroscience worldwide to professionals and the public, and have performed research on therapeutic effectiveness using unconscious methods. Currently, the Simpkins are engaged in research on the unconscious movement. They practice and teach their own martial art, Tae Chun Do, combining meditation with movement. They reside in San Diego, California.