FULL CATASTROPHE LIVING: USING THE WISDOM OF YOUR BODY AND MIND TO FACE STRESS, PAIN AND ILLNESS
AUTHOR: JON KABAT-ZINN
NON-FICTION
RATING:
9 out of 10
Extremely helpful book. Not only if you are going through something uniquely stressful but teaches you how to live a better life. Plain and simple. HIGHLY recommend.
THEMES
Mindfulness | Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction | Control | Peace | Stress | Anxiety | Fulfillment | Happiness
KNOWLEDGE FROM THE PAGE
In Jon’s words, “This book is about you and your life. It is about your mind and your body and how you might learn to be in wiser relationship to both”
We all have deep internal resources within ourselves, innate to us as human beings, resources that can be tapped and utilized… brought to the fore… such as lifelong capacities for learning, growing, healing and for transforming ourselves. In order to tap into our “super powers” we must pay attention in a particular way… on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.
Mindfulness is something of a radical act (as Jon puts it). An act of sanity, of self-compassion, and, ultimately of love. It involves a willingness to drop in on yourself, to live more in the present moment, to stop at times and simply ‘be’ rather than getting caught up in endless doing while forgetting who is doing all the doing, and why. It has to do with not mistaking our thoughts for the truth of things, and not being so susceptible to getting caught in emotional ‘storms’, ‘storms’ that so often only compound pain and suffering, not only our own but that of others as well.
These mental spirals are often caused by our “wandering mind”. As an article in Science (one of the most prestigious and high impact scientific journals in the world) writes, “A wandering mind is an unhappy mind”. An excerpt from the article reads, “unlike other animals, human beings spend a lot of time thinking about what is not going on around them, and contemplating events that happened in the past, might happen in the future, or will never happen at all. Although this “stimulus independent thought” is remarkably evolutionary because it allows people to learn, reason and plan; it may also have an emotional cost. Many philosophical traditions teach that happiness is found by living in the moment, and practitioners are trained to resist mind wandering and to “be here now”.”
Happiness comes from staying present but we also have learned that people are happiest when they’re appropriately challenged… when they’re trying to achieve goals that are difficult but not out of reach. Challenge and threat are not the same thing… people blossom when challenged and wither when threatened.
Obviously, happiness is not a simple decision that you make and “poof” all is well. There are no drugs that will make us immune to stress or pain, or that will by themselves magically solve our life’s problems. It will take conscious effort on our part to move in a direction of healing, peace and well-being. This means learning to work with the very stress or pain that causes us to suffer.
We are all the “expert” on our lives, our bodies, and our minds. Part of the adventure is to use ourselves as a lab to find out who we are and what we are capable of. “As the legendary New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra once put it in his unique and charmingly quirky way, “You can observe a lot by just watching.””
Lastly, I want to highlight Jon’s explanation of ‘Catastrophe’ and leave you with one last quote before I set you on your mindfulness journey…
“Catastrophe here does not mean disaster. Rather it means the poignant enormity or our life experience. It includes crisis and disaster, the unthinkable and the unacceptable. But it also includes all the little things that go wrong and that add up. The phrase reminds us that life is always in flux, that everything we think is permanent is actually only temporary and constantly changing. This includes our ideas, our opinions, our relationships, our jobs, our possessions, our creations, our bodies, everything. Learning and practicing the art of embracing the full catastrophe is the key. Rather than destroying us or robbing us of our power and our hope, the storms of life will strengthen us as they teach us about living, growing, and healing in a world of flux, change, and sometimes great pain. We must learn to see ourselves and the world in new ways. Learning to work in new ways with our bodies and our thoughts and feelings, our perceptions, and learning to laugh at things a little more, including ourselves. As we practice finding and maintaining our balance as best we can.”
Take it from Nadine Stair, an 85-year old woman in Louisville, KY…
“Oh, I’ve had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I’d have more of them. In fact, I’d try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day.”
Preach Nadine… Preach.
Namaste.