This book, by Jon Kabat-Zinn, is a course used in the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre for stress management and reduction. The people using it, whose case histories are included in the text, are not ‘burnt-out yuppies’ but people with very pressing physical or emotional problems, including chronic pain and frightening illnesses. It involves using a secular form of meditation, relaxation and yoga for an 8-week period, during which no goals are set, in order to release people from striving to achieve a result, just as they might do in their everyday lives. I liked this attitude – an achievement orientation can be a curse for those who like me were recovering from ME, though motivation is important.
I used this course and book in my own way – following the relaxation and meditation practises but not the yoga or ‘walking’ meditation. I found that it was very helpful in reorienting myself to ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’, creating a feeling of more space in my life to appreciate things. The relaxation exercise was helpful in increasing my sleep at night and properly relaxing during the day, which felt healing. The 8 weeks was just a start for me – this is a life’s work!
In addition to the course exercises there is a lot of useful material here on all kinds of stress – ‘people stress, ‘time and time stress’, ‘working with physical pain’, ‘working with panic, fear and anxiety’. These provide useful fuel for your mind at bad moments, and the case histories mentioned are very encouraging. I’d recommend this book for anyone who wants to improve the quality of their life, including their health.
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