num_pages: 250
description: Darlene Cohen discovered the secret to finding happiness in the midst of debilitating pain. She shares her knowledge in her popular workshops and now in this book. Cohen who has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for eighteen years was hobbling painfully to her local Zen center one day when she made a discovery that changed her if she focused on the foot that was in the air rather than the one that was hitting the pavement her stamina increased enormously. It was the beginning of a completely different approach to the crippling pain that had beset her for so long. As she demonstrates here this approach can be expanded to all types of physical psychological and spiritual. Cohena certified massage and movement therapist and Zen teacherproposes a radically liberating alternative to the usual desperate search for pain paradoxically she says release from suffering lies in paying closer attention to it. When we keep pain at bay we keep pleasure at bay too. The two are interdependent and our ability to experience each is totally dependent on our understanding of the other. Enrich your life exponentially Cohen advises. If your pain is one of the ten things you are aware of then it constitutes a tenth of your total awareness. Expand your awareness to a hundred things however and your pain is only a hundredth of your awareness. With stories strategies exercises and an awareness born of long Zen practice Cohen shows us how to tap into that enrichmentand how we can lead a satisfying and even joyful life in the very midst of pain.
language: English
title: Finding a Joyful Life in the Heart of Pain
publisher: Shambhala