Full Catastrophe Living
Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness

I read this book as part of my "get rid of psorisis in 2009" campaign. In my research, I read about a study where patients undergoing UV treatment for psorisis who listened to the body scan meditation associated with this book showed more improvement than patients who didn't. I'm not undergoing UV t......more

October and November were my months of self-help. I don't think I've ever read a self-help book in my life, but within four weeks I had read three. I discovered Jon Kabat-Zinn after receiving dozens of messages of concern about my recent sleeplessness. Various types of meditation and breathing exerc......more

Don’t get me wrong, I love mindfulness, though this specific book about mindfulness felt so long and drawn-out. Jon Kabat-Zinn details some important and helpful information about mindfulness, and he then applies it to many, many areas: mindfulness for doctors and patients, walking meditation, mindf......more

A useful sanitized version of Buddhism. Buddhism isn't mentioned once in the entire book, that I can recall. Instead the focus is about how the practices of meditation and mindfulness can help with stress reduction and pain relief. Just as in The New Earth , which was too optimistic about the evoluti......more

This book was a real mixed bag for me - simultaneously profound, moving and frustrating! I think it is a bit like eating a wholesome meal that is good for your body but not particularly tasty. You eat it, you know it is doing you good, but you secretly think a bit of extra flavour wouldn't go astray......more