A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook [Paperback]

Bob Stahl PhD (Author), Elisha Goldstein PhD (Author), Saki Santorelli EdD MA (Afterword), Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD (Foreword)

Book Description

Release date: March 1, 2010

Stress and pain are nearly unavoidable in our daily lives; they are part of the human condition. This stress can often leave us feeling irritable, tense, overwhelmed, and burned-out. The key to maintaining balance is responding to stress not with frustration and self-criticism, but with mindful, nonjudgmental awareness of our bodies and minds. Impossible? Actually, it's easier than it seems.

In just weeks, you can learn mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a clinically proven program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Full Catastrophe Living. MBSR is effective in alleviating stress, anxiety, panic, depression, chronic pain, and a wide range of medical conditions. Taught in classes and clinics worldwide, this powerful approach shows you how to focus on the present moment in order to permanently change the way you handle stress.

As you work through A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook, you'll learn how to replace stress-promoting habits with mindful ones—a skill that will last a lifetime.This groundbreaking, proven-effective program will help you relieve the symptoms of stress and identify its causes so that you can start living a healthier, happier life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This is an excellent, systematic, helpful, and practical workbook. Doing these practices brings many blessings. They will reduce your stress and truly transform your life.”
—Jack Kornfield, Ph.D., author of The Wise Heart, A Path with Heart, and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry

From the Publisher

In A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook, two mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) experts present a step-by-step program for effective stress reduction based on the concepts in Jon Kabat-Zinn's groundbreaking Full Catastrophe Living.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: New Harbinger Publications; Pap/MP3 Wk edition (March 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572247088
• ISBN-13: 978-1572247086
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.6 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Social Work
  • #14 in Books > Self-Help > Stress Management
  • #59 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Alternative Medicine

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

110 of 112 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars practical and accessible help for stress and anxiety March 4, 2010

By Therese Borchard

Format:Paperback

If I had to identify one quality that separates this book from the rest of the mindfulness resources in the self-help aisle, it's that these pages are so practical and can't help but provide the reader with plenty of "Aha!" moments. Reading through the chapters and exercises, I appreciate all the research that Goldstein and Stahl studied, material that illuminates how mindfulness exercises can alter and help shape your brain to be more optimistic and resilient. But what won my trust is that they have both been stress cases themselves at certain points in their lives, and can therefore communicate with empathetic language. They both know, on a very personal level, how stress can disable a person. Much like Kay Redfield Jamison, the famous psychologist who suffers from bipolar disorder, they speak both as expert and patient.

I understand mindfulness as forcing a bit of time and space between a situation and your reaction, or recognizing the snowball of thoughts that's forming in your mind before it becomes too overwhelming to sort through yourself. Goldstein and Stahl quote Vicktor Frankl, psychiatrist and holocaust survivor: "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

Although mindfulness techniques aren't able to rescue me out of an acute, severe depression, if I diligently adhered to all the wisdom contained in Stahl and Goldstein's book, and designated a time of the day to do all the exercises, I could save myself some considerable heartache and headache.

Why?

Their mindfulness exercises allow the reader to take some of the files off of her cluttered and disorganized desk because the files relate to the past or to the future, and the present tense is the only one she should worry about now. According to the authors, mindfulness is about sticking to the here and now and banishing all judgment. It's also about breaking the job, day, or situation down ... into small parts, in order to better manage it.

Goldstein and Stahl's workbook uses a strong motivator for readers to learn the beneficial habit of mindfulness, and that is accountability. When you write things down and record your progress, you become accountable. Maybe that's why my kids hate homework so much, come to think of it. So what they have done for us is set up a system by which we can challenge ourselves to better integrate our body, mind, and soul. Or at least that's the plan.

I recommend this workbook to anyone who is stressed out ... um ... everyone I know.

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Effective Mindfulness Exercises for Health April 3, 2010

By Citizen John TOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I think I first became aware of "mindfulness" from one of the Star Wars movies. But it's played a central role in Buddhist meditation for a long time and is backed up by loads of research. The research per Wikipedia shows that a mere 6 weeks of mindfulness exercises is correlated with physical results such as the body's ability to fight disease.

Mindfulness exercises seem to develop the brain's ability to deal with anxiety and stress. Once I understood this, it was easier for me to devote the time to the exercises in the book. I skipped a lot of days, which isn't good, but I was able to resume without difficulty. That made me appreciate that mindfulness is continuous, something that can potentially be practiced all the time.

The exercises in this workbook put me to observing and recording my thoughts and feelings at critical times. One result of this is that experiences of certain routines changed, I believe. This puts me more in the present, which is not as simple as I had believed. For example, if you think about times of the day when you feel something is wrong and try to observe your thoughts and feelings at that time, recording them, you'll become aware of what really influences your physical response.

I liked the formal practice log and found the informal practice reflection a bit difficult at the present time. Everybody will surely have their own experience. At least I have something to aim for ahead.

Mindfulness teaches that thoughts and emotions float by, and realizing this will help us to not take our own thoughts too seriously. Reduction of physical responses to negative thinking is possible and this is what probably boosts the immune system per the research.

Interestingly, there are yoga stretches and exercises in this curriculum. I started doing them at work although I haven't succeeded yet in establishing a regular routine. This certainly helped me feel better and assisted with the mindfulness exercises.

I highly recommend this book for those that will put at least 25 minutes a day into performing the exercises, even if one takes off many days as I did. I believe I've already had some results and look forward to doing better.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Straightforward Western-Style Approach to Eastern Meditation August 25, 2010

By Karen S. Garvin

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I've done some meditation as part of a yoga class and the instructor used mostly mystical-sounding descriptions of what we were doing. On one hand I wanted to get into it, but the Western logic part of my brain wanted some science and statistics to back it up. It's hard to take some things seriously when there's so much disinformation on the web and elsewhere.

This book takes a fairly neutral approach to mindfulness meditation. It doesn't immediately overwhelm you with happy-sounding terms or promise that it is "the way" to do something. Chapter 1 defines mindfulness and talks about habitual thinking patterns, which can be very destructive time wasters and lead to stress. The first formal practice involves eating a raisin mindfully, and there's a 3-minute check-in to help you get a better idea of how the practice works.

There are two types of meditation: insight and concentration. This workbook focuses on mindfulness, which is a type of insight meditation. Basically, you focus on your body and feelings and observe what's going on at the moment without judgment, whereas concentration meditation involves mantras and imagery. I think insight meditation is a bit more approachable for most Westerners simply because there's no outward appearance of religion or doctrine associated with it. Essentially, it seems more mechanical and thus, scientific.

The meditations are approachable and for most of them you don't need to do anything special. A short meditation can be done at your desk or simply seated on the sofa (with the TV off, of course!). Later chapters do get into meditation postures, including sitting poses and lying poses. Chapter 6 on "Deepening Your Practice" includes yoga-based stretches that will help relax your muscles. To keep the text approachable to its Western audience, the authors use common English names for the poses and don't even include the Sanskrit asana names.

The accompanying CD to this workbook is for mp3 CD players only. I rated the workbook/audio only 4 stars for that reason. The recorded meditations vary in length; some are only 5 minutes while others are 45 minutes. You can do the meditations with or without the audio. I would recommend reading the entire chapter first, then reading a meditation before going on to listen to the audio version. I find that I do a little better when I have an idea of what is coming and how long the meditation will take.

This is not a book to read once and put on the shelf, as the exercises are meant to be something that you adapt to your daily life. For most of us, time commitments mean we can't sit and meditate for hours at a time, so the book's short meditations are welcome breaks in an otherwise hectic lifestyle. I recommend this as a good starting point for daily practice, and as you become more comfortable with the idea of meditating you may want to investigate concentration meditation, too.