Living Well with Pain and Illness: The Mindful Way to Free Yourself from Suffering: Using mindfulness to free yourself from suffering

by burch-vidyamala

`This book is to cherish as it truly guides the person to a different journey in living well with pain and illness. It is explicit in the steps to become kindly and empathic using mindfulness despite the turmoil of pain. It is easy to grasp with helpful examples from individuals at key points. This is a must-have resource for those with pain and illness and clinicians to enable mindfulness skills.' Dr Frances Cole, co-author of Overcoming Chronic Pain, A self help guide using Cognitive Behavioural Techniques and General Practitioner and Cognitive Behavioural Therapist, Bradford Teaching Hospitals Pain Rehabilitation Programme..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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Psychology, Buddhism, Philosophy

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 2008

Reviews

[Angela Mcowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a fan of all Vidyamala Burch’s work, and this book didn’t disappoint. I made lots of notes and will return to them as they offer lots of insights and ideas for living with a chronic illness. It seemed perhaps a little repetitive at times, but this is probably only because I’ve read several other mindfulness books.

[Katia M. Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is based primarily on Eastern philosophies and pays close attention to the idea of mindfulness. I read it as part of a pain management course for my rheumatoid arthritis. I've had RA for nearly 13 years and it is starting to take a toll on my joints, reducing my mobility and drastically increasing my levels of pain.

People say arthritis is like having bad toothache all over your body you can do nothing about. I am lucky and have only several really bad joints, so I prefer to think of it as walking on two sprained knees someone has shoved need hot knitting needles through. I needed something to complement my arsenal of drugs that would help me cope when my pain escalated to the point where I couldn't walk at all or just sat crying, afraid to stand up.

This book won't make any pain go away, but it will help you learn methods and coping mechanisms for the tough times. Above all things, it makes you feel as if you are not alone. It is hard to make pain free people understand what chronic pain feels like, so a book written and developed by a sufferer is refreshing. Although I do sometimes wish I could get some flagellate punishment device and strap it to some people and tell them they can never take it off to help them understand.

This book works best with the guided meditations that are available for download from the author's website or on cd. The meditation exercises are written in the book, but I found it easier to listen to these rather than read them when I wanted to meditate.

I've not properly started my pain management course yet, but I have hopes that this book will be of benefit.

[Tilly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didnt love this book. I do mindfulness every day through the headspace app and much prefer how that app explains it to this book. I didn't find much useful sadly.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I am currently completing a mindfulness course, my leader let me borrow this book to focus more on dealing with my pain using mindfulness.

When reading this book, I found it so easy to understand and it built very nicely on what I had learnt in the mindfulness sessions, as well as gave me extra meditations to extend what I learnt to focus more on dealing with my neck pain.

Thanks to the mindfulness course, I have discovered the benefits of meditating and also found 'kindfulness' (or 'Kindly Awareness'), to be absolutely brilliant for me, as it has changed the way I view situations and changed the way I view other people for the better. The book has simply built upon these discoveries and given me further food for thought.

I highly recommend this book even as an insight into what mindfulness is and how it can help you and I also highly recommend mindfulness, as no matter who you are or what your mental state is like, meditation and finding a state of awareness is incredibly cathartic, healing and positive for the mind, body and soul.

[Dakota★Magic in Every Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straight-forward, clear, and easy to understand this is an excellent book for understanding mindfulness and applying it to a life with chronic pain.

[Marga · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a very useful book if you have chronic pain

[Jo Jenner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Am excellent introduction to mindfulness even for those of us not living with pain.
This book is set out in plain English with short chapters that make it easy to read and understand.
There are guides for meditation and links to the Breathworks meditation.
I found myself understanding the ideas as they were explained by a woman living with chronic pain for other sufferers of chronic pain which highlighted my inability to sit still for 30 minutes due to pins and needles as a little unmindful.
Very inspiring

[Ande · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a good book for beginners in the field of mindfulness, thoroughly and simply explained, with a focus on (mainly physical) pain. If you are more familiar with the topic of mindfulness meditation this book can be a tad repetitive and boring at times. But hey, it is good to be reminded of those principles from time to time!

[Lilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tiene algunos ejercicios interesante, pero básicamente el libro trabaja el dolor través de ejercicios de respiración y meditación, aunque son herramientas útiles creo que falto profundizar en otros aspectos del dolor.

[mrs v r draycott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing insight

Thoroughly enjoyed this book, informative, engaging and easy to read. A very human perspective, detailed enough yet accessible to all

[Denise Hlavka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative. Vidyamala is a “rock star” when it comes to adversity.
It’s closer to accepting than fighting pain, but good information nonetheless.

[Trent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nowadays books like this are pretty standard and have become outdated since they don't recognise that neuropathic pain can be cured through pain reprocessing or similar.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not very far into this book, but so far it is pretty helpful in describing the difference between pain/illness and the attitudes or reactions to pain/illness, which exacerbate the suffering. I think it will fit in with other things I have studied.

[Kristie Kirkpatrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has helped me immensely in dealing with chronic pain. It is full of both encouragement/motivation and practical exercises and information. Vidyamala has changed my entire outlook on chronic pain and I will be using the exercises I learned lifelong.

[Jilda Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gave some great pointers on how to try to manage your pain and illness by using meditation and mind control, breathing, etc.

[Kerryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is inspirational and appropriate for clinician and client alike.Read it first as an eBook then just had to have it in hard copy on the shelf for ready reference and use.