Product Description

Vidyamala Burch has suffered with chronic pain for over 30 years due to congenital weakness, a car accident and unsuccessful surgery. She is now a wheelchair user. In this positive and reassuring new book, she identifies that it is our resistance to pain which causes it to be so distressing and miserable. We don't want it to be happening to us, and we wish we weren't experiencing it. LIVING WELL WITH PAIN AND ILLNESS is a practical guide to living with and managing chronic pain through the principle of mindfulness. By developing a calm awareness of your body and your pain, you can learn to let go of the frustration and suffering that you associate the pain with, and the pain will reduce.Vidyamala Burch uses easy-to follow breathing techniques and powerful mindfulness meditations which teach you how to live in the present moment. LIVING WELL WITH PAIN AND ILLNESS includes helpful illustrations, offers effective ways of managing chronic pain and is a must-read for all sufferers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61148 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
`The cultivation of mindfulness can make a profound difference in how we relate to pain and whether even chronic pain conditions need to turn into endless suffering and misery. In this book, Vidyamala makes the practice of befriending your experience through mindfulness, however unpleasant or pleasant it may be, both commonsensical and compelling. I admire her tremendously. This is a beautiful and very important book. It could save your life - and give it back to you.' --Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Full Catastrophe Living and Coming to Our Senses

Review
`This is a wonderful work, one of those books where you know within a few pages that it is going to be worth stopping everything else in order to make time to read it. The book is a moving and compelling invitation to bring a radically new way of working with the fact of our pain. It is a book of enormous tenderness and honesty. Here is wise guidance on how we can move beyond our natural resistance to our pain to a willingness to be with it, and how we can live with greater ease by turning towards what we most fear about our pain and suffering.'

Review
`Vidyamala Burch has practised mindfulness for many years, as well as applying the practice to the relief of physical suffering, both her own and that of other people. She has now embodied the fruits of her extensive experience in a very readable and useful book. I hope that Living Well with Pain and Illness will have a wide circulation, in a world where, despite all our progress, there is still so much suffering, some of it unnecessary.'

Customer Reviews

Living Well with Pain and Illness
This is both an inspiring and practical book that will be invaluable to anyone living with chronic pain. The author clearly has experience of this herself but rather than being overcome by her chronic condition has written a compassionate book to help others. Whether you have physical or emotional pain this book can help. It contains case studies, practical advice and thoughtful explanations of different aspects of the pain experience. It's not a heavy book, it's a good read and well researched too, I'm finding it invaluable in helping me live a better and fuller life despite chronic pain.

An invaluable book, easy to understand and with a gentle approach
This is a wonderful introduction to mindfulness meditation for chronic pain sufferers, written by someone with intense long-term pain herself. Discussions about the workings and causes of pain, the difference between primary and secondary suffering, and the process of mindful meditation and how it can help, are followed by three lovely meditations which are also available on CD. Each in its different way helps the sufferer to focus on the here and now and cultivate a more kindly, accepting attitude to their experiences, whether good or bad. It isn't a 'cure' for pain, more a way of managing it through gradually changing one's perception of it and becoming more aware and accepting of the present moment. And there's a reassuring gentleness in Vidyamala's approach; it doesn't matter so much if your mind keeps drifting away and you don't have a 'good' meditation; the process is what matters most, and each time you notice you've been distracted is in fact a moment of awareness. As a pain and anxiety sufferer, I find the book just as helpful for the latter condition; anxiety, after all, is a form of emotional pain. This is a beautiful gift to the millions suffering every day of their lives, born from the author's long process of self-discovery and gradual acquaintance with the beauties of mindfulness. An accompanying CD is soon to be released.

Kindness, inspiration and pragmatism.
This book glows with warmth, inspiration and pragmatism. I have a chronic pain condition and floundered around desperately for several years trying to live the life I wanted, but lacking the skills and support to do so. This book stands out by being both challenging and kind, by speaking directly from considerable experience and by having every part of the programme united by the key skill of mindfulness. When I first encountered the concepts of "primary and secondary suffering" and of "drowning and blocking" described here, it was like a light bulb turning on! Everything I was doing when trying to cope with physical and emotional pain now makes sense, I'm not alone and what's more there are practical things I can do (and gently try not to do) to live a free, rich and meaningful life.