Product Description

A true breakthrough in the area of behavioural medicine and self control If you are looking for the best available book on this topic, this is it! Alan Marlatt, PhD Professor of Psychology, Director of the Addictive Behaviours Research Centre, University of Washington. In the fifteen years since its initial publication, Full Catastrophe Living has sold over 400,000 copies worldwide. It has established itself both as an excellent beginner's guide to meditation and as the bible for a mind/body movement that has transformed Western medicine. This practical, step-by-step meditation guide is based on a revolutionary eight-week programme called mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), which stress-relief and meditation expert Jon Kabat-Zinn created at the world-renowned Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Boston. This fifteenth anniversary edition includes a new introduction along with an expanded bibliography and resources section.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1133 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

About the Author
Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD is founder and director of the famous Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and Associate Professor of Medicine. Jon Kabat-Zinn is the author of Wherever You Go, There You Are (Piatkus, 0 7499 2548 5), previously titled Mindfulness Meditation For Everyday Life (Piatkus, 0 7499 1422 X).

Customer Reviews

Great Book
This is a great resource for people who suffer from any type of chronic (long-term) health problems. It is based on the author's experience with thousands of people who have participated in a course called the Stress Reduction and Relaxation Program at the Univ. of Massachusetts Medical Center. Full Catastrophe Living: How to Cope with Stress, Pain and Illness Using Mindfulness Meditation is intended to be that program rolled up into a book.

The book's tool is mindfulness meditation- a form of meditation originally developed in the Buddhist traditions- defined as a moment-to-moment awareness. Through mindful meditation, one can gain new kinds of control and wisdom in their lives. The book is very "hands on", so don't expect to just read it and be done with it. For example, you'll be doing things such breathing exercises or yoga postures (I can also recommend Exercise Beats Depression as another good resource for those struggling with depression).

Since the mind plays a factor in stress-related disorders, and very undertreated in Western medicine, I feel like this book will fill a much needed niche for many people. With over five-hundred pages, there's plenty of wisdom here to suck up.

The most important book I have ever read!
I read this book eight years ago and I found it to be so valuable that I read it again two years later. To this day, I continue to reference certain chapters from time to time and eight years after first reading it, I continue to practice the techniques I learned from the book.

Grounded in scientific research, Jon Kabat-Zinn explores the connections between mind and body to the point where there is no longer any obvious division between the two. This book offers the reader access to a new way of living that is rooted in mindfulness. The instructions offered are easy to understand. This book is primarily intended for those facing chronic or terminal illness or emotional pain, but it can really benefit a far more general audience - those who want to live their lives more fully.

Easy to access and jargon free guide.
It's a large book but it is free from space-filling patronising stories that seem to be a feature of this kind of book from the States. It is sensible and credible and worth the time to sit down with it and follow the various exercises.