Asthma Free in 21 Days [Paperback]

Kathryn, Ph.D. Shafer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2012

Is it really possible to reverse thepainful, debilitating symptoms ofasthma and to reduce your dependenceon doctors and medication--in Just 21 days?

Conventional medicine offers no real solution to the seventeen million Americans suffering from this disease. But in this remarkable book, Kathryn Shafer, Ph.D., and Fran Greenfield, M.A., share their natural alternative, the FUN program (Focus, Undo, Now Act!), that can help you break the bonds of asthma forever in only minutes a day!

Kathryn Shafer's triumph over life-long asthmais a testament to the power of mindbody healing. This approachallowed her to successfully run the entirety of the NewYork City Marathon without medication. Her astoundingvictory became the seed for the FUN program. Together,Fran Greenfield and Kathryn Shafer reveal the intimaterelationship between asthma and personal freedom in thisSelf-guided, breakthrough method, which many of theirclients have used with miraculous results.

This "masterful, innovative, and successful program for the treatment of asthma" (from the foreword by Gerald Epstein, M.D.) introduces:

Over forty exercises, including visualizations, for immediate symptom relief

A blueprint that redefines your relationship with asthma

Three twenty-one-day healing plans that can be tailored to your own needs

A unique mindbody perspective on exercise-induced asthma, nutrition, and environment

A FUN guide developed especially for kids!

Along with a wealth of real-life success stories, these strategies can prevent panic, clarify the meaning of symptoms, increase energy levels, and achieve a deeper healing than you ever thought possible. Whether used as a complement to conventional medicine or as a medication reducing alternative, this program empowers people of all ages to live more active, fulfilling lives.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Asthma Free in 21 Days looks at asthma from a holistic perspective, focusing on the mind-body connection which is present in so many ailments. Anyone suffering from this common respiratory condition should read this book! -- Margaret C. Donnelley, President Emeritus, Mental Health Association of Palm Beach County

A brilliant approach to the use of the mind in the healing of medical illness. The book presents a pragmatic and accessible plan with a fresh and liberating perspective that is inspiring to the practicing clinician. -- Sharon J. Parish, MD, Director of Psychosocial Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center

Asthma sufferers have been waiting for this information for a long time. Filled with abundant tools, Asthma Free enables people to go beyond mere curing to total healing. A must read for anyone dealing with asthma. -- Louise L. Hay, author of You Can Heal Your Life and Empowering Women

If you are one of the millions who suffer from asthma, you need this book! It's the best thing I've ever read on the subject. The program presented here can free you to live your life more fully and could even save your life. -- Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom

The medical world is beginning to accept and understand the power of the mind body interaction. For asthma patients this book can be a guide to using the mind's healing powers. -- Bernie Siegel, MD, author of Love, Medicine and Miracles

This is a wonderful, inspiring, thoughtful book that offers immediate, solid substance and direction to people with asthma. In clear, empathic, delightfully engaging language, Shafer and Greenfield map out their liberating journey to a life of drawing full, deep, liberated, wide-open breaths. Anyone with asthma should read this book. -- Belleruth Naparstek, author of Health Journeys for People with Asthma and Staying Well with Guided Imagery --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Kathryn Shafer, Ph.D., L.C.S.W., maintains private practices in West Palm Beach, Florida, and New York City, teaches courses in social work, and consults for hospitals, substance-abuse programs, and mental-health centers. A graduate of the American Institute for Mental Imagery, she lectures and conducts workshops throughout the United States and abroad.

Fran Greenfield, M.A., is a mindbody therapist with private practices in New York City and on Long Island. Creator of the renowned "Imagine Being Well" program, she conducts trainings and workshops for healthcare professionals and the public throughout the United States. She also writes for publications including the New York Times. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Harpercollins (January 30, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062517198
• ISBN-13: 978-0062517197
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,974,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Become All You Can Be Through The Power Of Your Mind, July 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Asthma Free in 21 Days: The Breakthrough Mind-Body Healing Program (Hardcover)

My teenaged daughter has asthma and carries her inhaler wherever she goes. I see the limitations that this illness places on her. I do not ascribe to the medical view that illness has only a physical origin. I consider that the body cannot be separated from the internal workings of a person, i.e. thoughts, emotions, beliefs and outlook. I purchased this book based on the author of the forward, Dr. Gerald Epstein, whose books, Healing Visualizations and Healing Into Immortality, I regard as essential tools for daily life. I read Asthma Free in one sitting. I found it to be fascinating, informative, original and in some ways, redemptive. The inherent message is that all of us have the power to choose the course of our lives, including the physical ills that cause us to suffer. The authors compile scientific research with original interpretation and creative exercises. In fact, the name and meaning of the program - the F.U.N. Program - actually presents a method to conquer any difficulty found in life. The three steps - to focus, to undo and to act - form the three essential movements of all mindbody healing work. First, one must recognize the issue. To do this requires a moment of stepping away from the emotional story or the physical symptom. You cannot see the painting if you stand pressed against it. Second, you need to reverse the situation to experience how it would be for you would live life without turmoil; even if you only imagine for a instant, this allows you to glimpse life in an entirely new way. Third, you must act. You must bring this new perspective into your everyday life and not confine it to intellectual awareness. These three directions, learned in principle during the authors' study with Dr. Epstein, offer a way to freedom from asthma. I feel quite fortunate to discover an organized system for health based on the perspective that I have always held. Now, I just have to convince my daughter that she can heal herself from asthma. Teenagers are not known for their ready acceptance of parental suggestions. But, I know that soon she too will tire of this illness and will then be prepared to accept responsibility to heal herself. I will then give her this invaluable book.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Asthmatic relief through behavior modification, April 19, 2000

By 

joseph m (los angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Asthma Free in 21 Days: The Breakthrough Mind-Body Healing Program (Hardcover)

The healing technique used in this book is largely based on behavioral modification. For that reason, it has been misunderstood as a non-medical, non-scientific treatment. To the degree that asthma is related to behavior--any kind of behavior, including fear response, eating, and environment--this book can help an asthma sufferer.

Asthmatic "behavior" in this book is modified mostly through imaging--replacing the thoughts and feelings that accompany the onset of asthma with thoughts and feelings that are contrary to the typical experience. It is a powerful tool, and to the degree that someone's asthma is amplified or even catalyzed by behaviors, this book can be helpful to someone to that degree.

This book is NOT a new age book, nor is it any kind of introduction to new age spirituality. Scientific method is abundant throughout it; nonetheless the book remains fun.

Finally, I found any "new-age" label the book receives to be completely ironic. that the book begins with a question posed by a doctor to one of the co-authors that is identical to the question another famous healer, Jesus, posed a man who had been ill for 38 years: "Do you WANT to get better?" This simple question is the best possible point of origin for the curing of an asthmatic.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well Worth Reading -- And Trying, May 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Asthma Free in 21 Days: The Breakthrough Mind-Body Healing Program (Hardcover)

The first time I ever heard the word "psychosomatic" was in a high school English class. We had been assigned our first research papers, ever. And one of the Class Brains was reading his, on the subject of "The Psychosomatic Origins of Asthma". An asthmatic himself, he had seen four specialists and studied all the available literature on the disease. Back then, in the late 1950s, holistic treatment wasn't even a blip on the medical radar screen. Some twenty years later, when I had the good fortune to meet a Harvard-trained MD who subscribed to the notion that most disease had at least part of its origin in how we perceived ourselves and our world, I had the first-hand opportunity to put that belief to the test. Joining with this doctor, and several other medical and mental health professionals (of which I hasten to add, I am neither) in what he called "a healing group" we worked with seriously ill people to help them overcome their diseases through meditation and visualization. The success rate, while well below 100% was dramatic, and the impact it continues to have on my life, twenty years after moving across the country, has been similarly impressive. Obviously, I believe strongly in the mind-body connection, so this book caught my eye. Having recently lost a sister who simply would not consider anything other than classic, HMO-approved medical treatment for her catastrophic asthma-related illness, I suppose I reached for "Asthma-Free..." more out of a sense of frustration than to put it to any specific use. Nonetheless, I found it to be a valuable introduction into the science -- and I do think it IS a science -- of healing through visualization. The endorsement of classically trained physicians was certainly impressive. But even more impressive was the common-sense of it all...and the results that Ms. Shafer cited in her own case. I can't say whether every asthma patient has the belief system or the commitment to put this regimen to a full, fair test, but I do believe this eminently accessible and well-thought-out book offers some new techniques -- and new hope -- for those willing to give it a try.