Full Catastrophe Living (Revised Edition): Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness

An excellent guidebook for facing the worst things in life. The best book I know of for those facing overwhelming problems & disasters & catastrophes -- which is almost everyone, sooner or later. Especially if you're facing serious physical problems & illnesses, but also for anyone in an equally terrible states for any reason. Condensed wisdom on how to live, and live a basically good and meaningful life, in the midst of the worst things happening to you. This is one of those extremely rare books that I think everyone would benefit from reading, and enormously so. Wish I had read it every year since I could start reading. The only real issue I have with it is that he doesn't condense the distilled wisdom as much as he could. I will try summing up the main things here, though this list of actions to take is oversimplified & biased towards my own experiences: 1) Find the best doctors and therapists in your area, including a Stress Reduction Clinic, or something like it. If they aren't working out, find ones that will. Probably will be lifechanging. 2) Visit a professional Pain Management clinic. Crucially important. 3) Learn to meditate, and do it daily. It's simple, easy, and surprisingly effective. The better you get at it, the more routine it is, and the more you can DETATCH from pain and suffering. Absolutely essential. (If you can't do it alone, get help & training. Also: you might learn it best through Yoga or Tai Chi -- all of which go hand-in-hand). 4) Be with others who are going through catastrophes. Especially catastrophes similar to your own, if possible. Alone, you'll probably feel overwhelmed and hopeless; with others, you probably won't. Helps massively. 5) Do Dry Sauna OR some form of intense cardiovascular exercise every day (treadmill, elliptical exerciser, bicycling, aerobics, sports, martial arts training -- SOMETHING), if at all possible. Might be hard at first, but you'll get addicted to it sooner or later, and then it will be effortless. Will help you intensely, and in multiple ways, by a) releasing tons of painkillers into your system b) dramatically improving your emotional state c) killing stress d) helping you detatch from both physical pain & emotional suffering e) radically improving your immune system f) flushing toxins from your tissues, which are constantly adding to the pain & stress. 6) Do Yoga, Tai Chi, or something similar every day. Deeply relaxing, pain-detatching, and helps your ability to meditate dramatically. 7) Find the best-tasting foods that are super healthy & nutritious & preservative-free & pesticide-free, and focus on eating them all the time, so you can avoid the terribly toxic foods that are multiplying your stress/pain/suffering drastically. 8) Listen to audio tapes on meditation, stress, tai chi, health, and all the other things listed above & related to them, while doing these activities. This will a) reinforce everything you're learning b) keep you maximally informed on all these things c) distract you & detatch you from pain/suffering/problems d) keep you INSPIRED and MOTIVATED to do them & keep doing them. 9) Get as deeply into spirituality as you can (or a profound form of existentialism if you're non-spiritual). Helps profoundly, and may be the most important thing of all. 10) Understand that EVERYONE goes through catastrophes, sooner or later, in one form or another. This is the way life is. Learning to accept this will help enormously. I could go on, but those are the most crucial things. Good luck.

To the days of my life before I found this book, or as I sometimes like to look at it, before this book found me. I was a high strung mess of anxiety, even afraid to go to work and face the "challenges" of a day of social interaction and internal struggle and emotions. I wasn't completely sure what I was, but I was pretty sure I was suffering from what doctors would call social or maybe generalized anxiety. And with that came depression and sometimes hopelessness of ever changing and moving on. This went on for years--for as far back as I can remember--and it only seemed like it was getting worse, and I was never able to accept myself, I thought myself a failure of some sort. What had I or my parents done wrong in raising me? Why me? When I found this book, I had been through several programs for anxiety that I had found and downloaded online--none of them helping much--and when I read the introduction, something about it clicked with me. It somehow subconsciously made sense and I knew that I had found something that might actually change the way I WAS, and unknowingly but much more importantly, change the way I viewed myself. Over the next 8 months, I almost religiously followed the exercises in the book. I learned more about myself and the world around me in those eight months than I have in the past ten years, at least it feels that way. To cut a long story short, I still have anxiety, but on a scale of 1-10 it is now a 2 where it was an 7 or an 8 before. Simply put, practicing mindfulness pulls the rug from under anything that bothers you in any way. It teaches you that it's ok to feel any emotion and think any thought because that is what is already here. It teaches you to accept those things, and in the process of doing that, those horrible horrible things lose their power over you, and you can begin to heal. To anyone suffering from emotional pain of any sort, please let me be an example to you that you don't have to be controlled by these terrible feelings. Learn to accept them as they are, and they will go away by themselves. This book is a great way to start. Please consider

This is an excellent book about meditation, stress reduction, health and healing, and the mind/body relationship as it applies to disease. Kabat-Zinn clearly explains not only how to meditate, but why. He discusses a wide variety of related issues, such as stress, emotions, and attitude, using examples from medical studies to illustrate much of the book. However, this book is 15 years old. In the introduction, Kabat-Zinn explains that that text has not been changed; this is unfortunate. So much research has been done since this book was written that Kabat-Zinn could have many more precise examples as illustration. There has been a great deal of research on meditation and healing, the mind/body connection, stress reduction, and all the issues he raises. (Such, for example, as we now know that stress is _not_ the cause of ulcers - he mentions the supposed link between stress and ulcers once or twice in the book.) I admire Kabat-Zinn and find this book to be very useful, as are his other books and relaxation tapes and CDs. I would very much like to see an updated version of this book, however, which would look more closely at the large amount of research that has been done since it was written. Yes, it would be a big job to update it, but, in a way, the author owes it to his readers.

I teach mindfulness and I started with one of Kabat-Zinn's easier books: "Mindfulness for Beginners". It wasn't until I starting working on my dissertation that I got this book a year or two later. This book is the complete course in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). There are other books that are a spin-off or they use Kabat-Zinn's teachings, however, this book gives you everything including a complete program. The only issue that I had was that I had to buy the CD's separately. This is a heavy course and while some of the information in the book is from the 80's and 90's, there are updates to this book that make it relevant even for those of you who are looking for things that are current. It took me quite a while to read this book, it is not easy. I mean it is written with simple language but it is extremely deep and at over 600 pages, it took me some time as I flipped back and forth between the charts and took time to compare it with my own teaching of mindfulness. You can read this book over and over and over again and every time you go back, you will find something new and you will learn something different. This is a book that will remain on my shelf for the remained of my life and it is a resource that I turn to when I need something that is mindfulness related. If you are a teacher in a school district that infuses mindfulness for your children as part of a mental health initiative, this book may be a little too much. I would not start with this. I would start with Chambers & Hassed (2015): "Mindful Learning" or begin with one of Kabat-Zinn's other shorter books such as: "Wherever you go, There you are."

This was a life-changing book for me in the 1990s and picked it up again as my old copy has finally worn out. The MBSR program is still going strong and can help practically anyone to feel better and even change the course of pain and diseases. Yes, there are some things that are dated and repetitive, but 98% of the book is still wonderful material and relevant-and is a great reference guide to have in your practice.. You can get many other Mindfulness books by the author, but this is sort of the Bible they all grew out of. I always liked this book because Kabat-Zinn has a writing style that is empathetic and supportive-but also gives you all the details you may want. It also has chapters on specific issues you may face like pain, anxiety, eating, sleeping and work stress. It is a life makeover that works!

Suffering from ever increasing depression, anxiety and some pretty severe "road rage" due to my Parkinson's Disease with Mild Cognitive Impairment diagnosis almost four years ago, I finally sought help from a Psychiatrists and (almost) the first words to come out of his mouth (after giving a background of my situation) were "You will need to look into "Mindfulness" and "you will need to attend the 6 week MBSR training offered through (my healthcare provider)". MBSR or Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, which began over 20 years ago at U. Mass, is what this book is all about and it is required reading as part of the course. The classes were great for asking questions, getting clarifications when needed and to practice the meditations, but honestly, what I learned by reading the book was the primary catalyst that drove me to meditate and has allowed me to achieve a calm and peace of mind that I previously had believed was going to be impossible to attain. Mindfulness is an ongoing practice, you must commit to it and use it daily but the changes it has brought about in my peace of mind, calmness, equanimity, and sense of well being is quite honestly...priceless! Not cured mind you; I will always be a work in progress, especially as my disease progresses, but where I am at today...is an infinitely better place than before I read this book. With all the stories that are shared this book reads more like a novel and not at all like a textbook! My wife is reading it now and will begin classes shortly and she is using the techniques I shared with her to cope with a stressful work environment. Must read for those coping with health issues.

Some things were a hit or miss as I was reading this anecdote. I agreed with some things like breathing techniques, concepts of creating different awarnesses of the self and the enviornment. I didn't totally agree with having a sense of higher awareness and some other concepts that were mentioned in the book, because sometimes the purpose of meditating can be to just learn to be in a state of doing nothing and just being content with doing nothing. I wish there was incorporations of ACT therapy in the book when Dr. K-Z glossed over explaining why we should meditate, because we realistically want to meditate or do something in relation to meditating for different reasons, that are supposed to be meaningful to us. I recall one part where he was explaining how to acknowledge eating a raisin, how to pay attention to the color, texture, sweetness, how it feels chewing it, etc. Maybe in the future for other books try to expand on the idea of how we have to acknowledge on other things in this manner because the state of stress comes from particular things in everyday life to begin with. How can one be in a cool-headed or conscious-cleared state while their at school, work, exercising, etc.? There's real issues one searches to meditate for other than the simplicity of eating a raisin.

I recommend this book anyone seeking peace within, no matter who you are or what you’re doing. It’s a book you will want to pass on to someone else when done.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, the creator of "MBSR" (mindfulness based stress reduction") explains how and why it works. He takes you through a literal MBSR class so through reading this book you can ALMOST have your own, individual MBSR 8-weeks class. The book is full of stories from the stress reduction clinic and how people found relief and healing. At the same time, it is an honest record of the limits of MBSR. Jon quotes lots of evidence from research. This book helped me tremendously to understand the why and how of mindful meditation practice. Ans I love Jon's compassionate and calm way of dealing with pain. Like he says (quoting Alexis Sorbas) in life, we always deal with the "full catastrophe" of it - and it is still possible to laugh and to be centered.

I adore audio books. OK its athe abridged version but all of the main points are there and you can rewind. Mindfulless is a fantastic way to veiw and live life and this book along with the 8 week audio programme i also brought gives you a great grounding in what Mindfulness is about without being prescriptive as to what you should get out of it. I listen to this anytime during the day but find when I get into bed is the best time for me . Its surpising how much you do remember and I think it helps me to undertsand because I can hear the words. I do hope Amazon provide a wider range of audio books, as for me it makes reading so much more enjoyable.

Great experience for a woke up.

I first bought Full Catastrophe Living many years ago during an extremely stressful period in my life while living in Japan. The book came to me at exactly the right time. Some time later, I passed my copy on to a close friend. He read it once, then—years afterward—returned to it again when he was facing a terminal illness. I can only hope the book offered him some comfort, clarity, or acceptance during that incredibly difficult time.

Jon Kabat Zinn offers practical advice, hope, insight and practice to those human travelers suffering pain, depression and worse. This is my third copy, since each is ultimately given away to some friend in need. I cannot recommend this book more highly because it puts you in charge of the investment in your wellness. No magic potions, no pills - just learning to focus, to pay attention. "He had also learned that the sick and unfortunate are far more receptive to traditional magic spells and exorcisms than to sensible advice; that people more readily accept affliction and outward penances than the task of changing themselves, or even examining themselves; that they believe more easily in magic than reason, in formulas than experience. These are matters which in several thousand years since this era have probably not changed as much as many history books claim. But he had also learned that a seeking, thoughtful man dare not forfeit love; that he must meet the wishes and follies of men halfway, not showing arrogance but also not truckling to them; that it is always only a single step from sage to charlatan, from priest to mountebank, from helpful brother to parasitic drone, and that people would far prefer to pay a swindler and be exploited by a quack than accept help given freely and unselfishly. They would rather pay in money and goods than in trust and love. They cheat one another and expect to be cheated themselves..." Herman Hesse - Magister Ludi