(The US edition of this book is titled "You Are Not Your Pain")
A practical guide to relieving pain, reducing stress and restoring wellbeing
"The book and the meditations quite literally saved my life. In dark despair and with suicidal impulses after a long period of chronic pain, the meditations helped reduce my panic at the feelings that the pain would last forever. When panic flares now, I put on the CD, and soon feel calmed and hopeful. My pain has reduced, I feel ready to return to many of my previous everyday activities, and much clearer about the future. I know that whatever might come now, I have the ability to cope with it." Caroline, 59, London
Book Description
Winner of the 2014 British Medical Association Popular Medicine Book Awards
Pain, suffering and stress can be intolerable – but it doesn't have to be this way. Mindfulness for Health reveals a series of simple practices that you can incorporate into your daily life to relieve chronic pain and the suffering and stress of illness. Clinical trials show that mindfulness meditation can be as effective as prescription painkillers and also enhances the body's natural healing systems. Mindfulness can also reduce the anxiety, depression, irritability, exhaustion and insomnia that can arise from chronic pain and illness.
Mindfulness for Health is based on a unique meditation programme developed by Vidyamala Burch to help her cope with the severe pain of spinal injury. Taught at Breathworks in the UK – and its affiliates around the world – this programme has helped tens of thousands of people cope with pain, illness and stress.
The eight-week programme at the heart of this book takes just 10-20 minutes per day. You'll be surprised by how quickly your suffering melts away, leaving behind a deep-seated love of life.
Includes free CD of guided meditations/link to MP3 downloads.
Try the full 8-week online Mindfulness for Health course
Praise for Mindfulness for Health
"In a world of much suffering, this book is a gift of wisdom and practical help" - Professor Paul Gilbert, PhD, OBE, author of The Compassionate Mind, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, UK
"A beautiful and compassionate book, Mindfulness for Health will put you back in touch with the extraordinary person you already are" - Professor Mark Williams, University of Oxford
"This book provides an extremely effective and elegant mind-body approach to healing . . . Highly recommended" - Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, author of Full Catastrophe Living and Coming to Our Senses
"If you have chronic pain or another persistent health problem, if you struggle, feel stuck or feel alone, read and follow this book. It will encourage, guide and liberate you" - Lance M. McCracken, PhD, Professor of Behavioural Medicine, King's College London
"An excellent resource for people in the community who live with pain and long-term health conditions, and also for those health-care professionals who support them" - Peter Moore, co-author of The Pain Toolkit
"Through simple exercises, well explained and prepared . . . they guide the reader through the principles and practice of mindfulness applied to pain, and towards self-understanding, gentle control and connectedness?" - Dr Amanda C de C Williams, Reader in Clinical Health Psychology, University College London
"Mindfulness for Health offers those who struggle with the painful loss of health much support to become more alive and compassionate and not trapped by pain and ill health. This truly resourceful book will help people grow their own sense of self ... and lessen their suffering" - Dr Frances Cole, GP, Pain Rehabilitation Specialist and CBT therapist, Leeds Community Trust, Spinal Pain Management Service, UK
"Meeting pain with the "tender gravity of kindness" is courageous and transformative. Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman "walk the talk"; they invite people suffering pain to reclaim their lives through this accessible, personal, wise and eminently commonsensical guide"- Willem Kuyken, Ritblat Professor of Mindfulness and Psychological Science, University of Oxford
"Thoughtful and practical ... This will be an important resource for the mindfulness community" - Dr Elizabeth Foley, Senior MBCT Facilitator & Researcher, Sydney, Australia
"Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman ... show how the benefits of mindfulness can bring a different kind of healing so that the mind-body can be calmed, focused, refreshed and renewed" - Liz Lobb, Professor of Palliative Care, Sydney, Australia
"Mindfulness offers a distinctly compassionate and authentic way to reconcile our experiences of pain ... I would really encourage you to give yourself eight weeks with this book. You will be rewarded with a profound change" - Dr Margaret Macky, FAFOEM, Occupational Medicine Specialist, New Zealand
The Authors
Vidyamala Burch is founder and co-director of Breathworks, an organisation offering mindfulness-based and compassion-based approaches to living well with chronic pain, illness and stress. In 2008 she wrote Living Well with Pain and Illness: using mindfulness to free yourself from suffering (Piatkus) which is based on the Breathworks programme. She has also produced guided meditation CDs and booklets available through Breathworks Shop.
Dr. Danny Penman is an award-winning journalist and author. He has worked for the BBC and The Independent newspaper. He is a feature and comment writer for the Daily Mail. He holds a PhD in biochemistry and a postgraduate diploma in newspaper journalism. He is co-author of the bestselling Mindfulness: a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world (Piatkus).
ISBN: 9780749959241