Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief: Practices To Reclaim Your Body and Your Life

Kabat-Zinn (preventative and behavioral medicine, Univ. of Massachusetts Medical Sch., and founder of its Stress Reduction Clinic) presents his method of relieving pain through mindfulness-based stress reduction. Designed to help chronic pain sufferers who are not responding to conventional methods, his program seeks to help chronic pain sufferers manage their pain and the effects that their pain has on their mental health. This is not a guide for those who experience chronic pain as much as it is a guide for medical professionals to encourage mindfulness meditation as a solution for their patients. The book includes links to guided meditations and presents a time line of eight weeks or more for setting up a mindfulness routine. The first chapters focus on this doctor’s approach to presenting mindfulness meditation to patients to help them change their outlook on how pain impacts their life. The author then delves into “Seven Principles for Working with Pain,” discusses mindfulness practices and guided meditations, and leads readers through guided meditation workouts.