Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief

Course objectives:  Explain how mindfulness practice can help with pain management Utilize meditation practices that emphasize focus on the breath and body sensations Describe how to turn toward the experience of pain Summarize Kabat-Zinn's seven principles to his mindfulness approach Identify the differences between thoughts and pain sensations, and between coping strategies that contribute to suffering and those that can alleviate it If you're reading this, chances are that your life, or the life of someone you know, is shaped by pain—and by the physical and emotional suffering that usually accompany it. Mindfulness of breathing—how to “put out the welcome mat” for whatever arises in one's experience What to do about pain—how to work with intense and unwanted sensations Working with thoughts and emotions—how to avoid identifying with your experience of pain and instead see sensations and thoughts as sensations and thoughts Resting in awareness—a three-minute mindful pause to restore balance, resilience, and self-compassion Mindfulness in everyday life—allowing the nitty-gritty of one's daily life to be both the ultimate meditation teacher and the real meditation practice The good news: Jon Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues have helped thousands of people learn to use the power of mindfulness to transform their relationship to pain and suffering, and to discover new degrees of freedom for living with greater ease and quality of life. Now, with Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief, the man who brought mindfulness into mainstream medicine presents these approaches for working gently and effectively with even the most trying of circumstances. Session one gives us an overview of seven fundamental attitudes we can develop and deploy to cultivate mindfulness in relationship to chronic pain and its incessant challenges. On session two, Jon Kabat-Zinn leads us in guided meditations drawn from his pioneering Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) methodology: “Through the systematic cultivation of mindfulness, we can reclaim the entire spectrum of our experience and the joys inherent in living,” explains Jon Kabat-Zinn. Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief offers us a precious and tested vehicle for embracing the “full catastrophe” of the human condition and thriving in the face of it.