num_pages: 722
description: 2005 15th anniversary edition reprintKabat-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 Kallenreissue 2005
language: English
title: Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness
publisher: Bantam