Mindfulness for Health

Pain, suffering and stress can be intolerable – but it doesn’t have to be this way.

MINDFULNESS FOR HEALTH reveals a series of simple practices that you can incorporate into your daily life to relieve chronic pain and the suffering and stress of illness. Clinical trials show that mindfulness is at least as effective as the most commonly prescribed painkillers such as Tramadol and codeine. A recent study published in the Journal of Neuroscience demonstrated that it is more effective than morphine. Mindfulness can also significantly reduce the anxiety, depression, irritability, exhaustion and insomnia that can arise from chronic pain and illness.

This new book shares the secrets of the Mindfulness-based approaches to pain and illness therapy, developed by Vidyamala Burch at the Breathworks centre in Manchester and which has its roots in the groundbreaking work of pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn from the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre in the US. The Breathworks Centre and its affiliates around the world have helped thousands of people cope with pain, illness and stress. Its pioneering approach is praised by Professor Mark Williams of Oxford University, Jon Kabat-Zinn and Professor Lance McCracken of King’s College London.

The eight-week programme at the heart of this book takes just 10-20 minutes per day. It is particularly effective for the biggest causes of pain – back problems, arthritis, migraine and diabetes but works equally well for cancer (and its associated chemotherapy), heart disease, fibromyalgia, celiac disease, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, IBS, labour pain and even tinnitus. You will be surprised by how quickly your suffering melts away, leaving you able to live life to the full again.

Author Biography

Dr Danny Penman is an award-winning journalist and author. He has worked for the BBC and The Independent newspaper. He is a feature and comment writer for the London Daily Mail. He holds a PhD in biochemistry and a postgraduate diploma in newspaper journalism. He is co-author of the bestselling Mindfulness: a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world (Piatkus).

Vidyamala Burch is founder and co-Director of Breathworks, an organisation offering mindfulness-based and compassion-based approaches to living well with chronic pain, illness and stress. In 2008 she published Living Well with Pain and Illness: the mindful way to ease your suffering (Piatkus) which is based on the Breathworks programme. She has also produced led meditation CDs and booklets available through Breathworks.