Customer Reviews

Calming Your Anxious Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Anxiety, Fear, and Panic

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book to help me deal with Social Anxiety Disorder, PTSD, and depression.

This book could serve as a nice introduction to mindfulness meditation. The first few chapters detail some of the research that has come out concerning the impact of mindfulness on anxiety and anxiety disorders.

It was rather skimpy on some details; specifically, how one can tie all of this mindfulness into reducing or dealing with anxiety. The author takes up an entire one chapter - one - in dealing with this specifically.

Much of the book's content can be found in Jon Kabat-Zinn's wonderful book, "Full Catastrophe Living", which is also much more detailed. I recommend that the customer look into that book first, and then supplement his reading with this one second.

This book is wonderful. I am only half way through, but it already deserves five stars. It is a great book if you take your time and do the work and pratice the "mindfulness". It can and will change your life. I have noticed during a very unexpected stressful day recently, that several times the word mindfulness popped into my head and I just centered myself in the moment instead of thinking of how behind I was and how mucy more I had to do that day. And at that point, I hadn't even really learned what mindfulness meant. Give this book a try. I don't think you'll be sorry.

Along with Jon Kabat-Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living, this is an indispensable book for anyone who suffers from GAD, SAD, or panic disorder. This is compassionate, pragmatic, deep therapy that has great power on its own and can be a great supplement to working with a therapist. There's strong current science behind it, and 2500 years of Buddhist practice. Very simply, if you learn to focus in the present you won't worry so much about the future, or beat yourself up about the past.

Jeffrey seems earnest in his desire to help others which makes for an inviting read. His book touches a bit on some modern trends in psychology then ties those learnings to the Buddhist concept of mindfulness gained through meditation. If you want to get the benefits of mindfulness without having to learn or agree with some of the other principles of Buddhism this is a fine book. Unlike Eckhart Tolle, who has recently put out a best seller covering much of the same ground, Jeffrey's book is for people that want less wo wo and more substance in addition to instruction on how to get on the right path. I believe the best book I have read on this subject is still, "Mindfulness in Plain English" by Gunaratana. If you could only buy and read one I suggest Gunaratana. If you have time to read both then read both. In fact read many, along with your practice of course.

This is the Second Edition of this book; one I've been waiting for for a while. I saw the first edition of this book when it was loaned to me by a staffer at a "facility" I found myself in a while back and to say it helped me save my life would be a severe understatement. The simple concept of Mindfulness struck me like a ton of bricks. This is not a book to borrow from your friendly local library, this is a book to get and hold. A book to change your life. Very readable, almost a fun read, were it not doing so much change to my anxious mind in the process. Buy this book, read it, live it and get rid of that pesky anxious mind you've been living with all these stress laden years. It really does help make life fun again!

This book is well written for self-help purpose, and it includes a clear, systematic discussion on various attitudes and essential exercises in mindfulness training. It serves a good introductory work for mindfulness-based intervention.

Mindfulness is happiness. If you are not appreciating the present moment, you are not fully alive. This great book helped me understand what it really means to be mindful. It shows us how to be more mindful in our everyday lives by approaching life in a totally new way. I highly recommend this excellent book! If you like these positive life-changing books, you might also like "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato. This is another fantastic book that has changed my life! It looks at things from more of a relationship perspective but it is completely outstanding! This very special book puts your life into perspective and I guarantee that it will also improve all of your relationships dramatically! Have fun!

This book was quite helpful in grasping the usefulness of meditation. I have tried relaxation techniques before, but this book revealed how useful it really is. I originally read the book because the author was being interviewed by The Graedons on THE PEOPLES PHARMACY radio show. I got a copy from the library and liked it so much I actually purchased my own copy from Amazon.

Initially the book seemed repetitive and I almost quit reading it, but I persevered and found it to be quite helpful. I find it most useful when I awaken in the middle of the night and my mind "turns on" and will not turn off. Using what I learned in this book, I can turn off my mind and get back to sleep 9 times out of 10.

A therapist had suggested I buy this book. I can honestly say that this the number one best book I have ever bought for self-help purposes. The techniques and practices taught in this book can be very powerful when used properly as described in the book.

Basically the author teaches us how to be mindful without judgment of what we feel as anxiety or panic. Instead of fighting away feelings of fear, the author tells us to invite and welcome these emotions, and watch them without any judgment. He describes how we should observe with keen detail the inner behavior of our body as though we are a detached part of ourselves. Imagine stepping outside of yourself and looking at what is going on inside you while you feel fear. You notice your heart rate increasing heavily, your breathing becomes shallow, etc. A normal person would try and fight off such feelings which makes him/her feel even worse. But instead you should simply allow it to occur and understand fully what's going on without judgment or any wish that the fear will disappear. If done properly, it's amazing but suddenly the entire fear process loses it's meaning and disappears. It's hard to describe, but somehow your body learns that it's causing these reactions like racing heart for no real rational reason...and it learns to stop behaving this way. Of course you can not have this as a goal when practicing mindfulness; the whole point is to observe with no goal or intention in mind.

I also bought another book along with this one, "Full Catastrophe Living", and that presents similar concepts as is in this book. Nevertheless I would still recommend to read this book (Calming Your Anxious Mind) before any other books.

If you're looking for further reading, I'd suggest these other books also:

-The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle
-From Here to Here: Turning Toward Enlightenment by Gary Crowley

My doctor recommended this book to me to help me cope from stress produced from massive workloads at the job. It has been quite helpful. It also was great to gain a better understanding of what/how anxiety is created. That makes it easier to understand why the recommendations of the book work.