Minding the Body, Mending the Mind (Bantam New Age Books) (Paperback)

by Joan Borysenko (Author) "Several years ago at the Tufts University School of Medicine, I saw an incredible movie demonstrating acupuncture anesthesia..." (more)
Key Phrases: mind traps, anxiety cycle, past conditioning, Body Clinic, Herbert Benson, Inner Self (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Offers a practical approach to relieving stress and anxiety."—Curve

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“An integral holistic workbook for those seeking to lie more sane, healthier, happier lives...Borysenko’s text glows with compassion and clarity.”

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
Based on her ground-breaking work at the Mind/Body Clinic at Harvard Medical School, Borysenko has created the first systematic, medically tested program to unlock the mind's power to manipulate health. Tells how to use the mind's power to dramatically improve physical and emotional health.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (September 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553345567
• ISBN-13: 978-0553345568
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #87,062 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Your thoughts should work with you, not against you!, January 19, 2002

By A Customer

I read this book at a very low point in my life, with depression and a variety of physical symptoms related to anxiety. This practical, straightforward book helped me gain some control of racing, negative thoughts (Borysenko calls this type of thinking "awfulizing"). Borysenko's rationale includes the fact that your body can actually help your mind to calm down. She provides simple, gentle stretching/breathing to help this happen. For me, it was most valuable to realize that even if my thoughts/intellect seemed beyond my control, my physiology is the same as all humans. Therefore, breathing/stretching has to affect my body/mind the same way as it does other humans. I kept the book on hand for bad moments, and I found that using the exercises helped me to bypass the downward spiraling thoughts and begin to get centered. She includes theory, psychology, and spirituality which supports the intellect as well. I still needed help after I found this book, but it absolutely put me on a safer, stronger path. I have loaned this book several times, to others in need. There are so many books out there, it's overwhelming. This one is worth it.

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Practical book . . ., July 11, 1999

By A Customer

As far as self-help books go, this one is practical, informative, and easy to read. Joan Borysenko, I believe, is good at her craft, and gets her ideas across well.

This is a book that is based on the belief that the mind can help heal the body. There's physical exercises and stretches to relieve tenstion and anxiety, there's deep breathing instructions to initiate the relaxation response, meditation to calm the mind and expand the soul, and there's even a psychological evaltional of questions and answers to guide you in your stress, anxiety, and depression levels, which may be contributing to your physical illness.

Joan Borysenko presents her knowledge in a straight-forward, down-to-earth way that makes the reader sit up and listen.

Truly a helpful book to anyone who has a phycial illness, and wants to help the mind heal the body.

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Minding your thoughts can mend your body, August 12, 2006

By	Stacey M Jones (Conway, Ark.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

MINDING THE BODY, MENDING THE MIND by Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., was recommended to me when I was trying to adjust to a new work environment. I found it tremendously informative and helpful in a number of ways.

Borysenko is the cofounder of the Mind/Body Clinic at New England Deaconess Hospital at the Harvard Medical School and has her doctorate in anatomy and cellular biology from Harvard. This book reflects her experience in the relatively new medical field of psychoneuroimmunology, which studies how the mind interacts with the body for illness and for healing.

The book is specifically about meditation and can be used as a how-to for self instruction in the practice. What I liked about it is that it provides a physiological case for the helpfulness of meditation while it teaches the reader how to use what Borysenko has pioneered in medical circles, that meditation and controlled relaxation have a positive impact on general health and, sometimes, on specific illnesses.

Borysenko explains how our bodies become conditioned to stress and respond accordingly with anxiety symptoms and that, through meditation practice, individuals can recondition themselves not to feel the physical manifestations of stress, which are so taxing to general health.

Borysenko's medical credentials are meaningful to me, and her ability to illustrate how the brain and the body are interdependent was helpful to me, as we are taught in our culture to keep the two separate and devalue our ability to impact our health through our mental reactions and proactiveness.

Even if one doesn't use the book to learn to meditate, Borysenko has a great deal to offer in terms of quality of life to her readers. The book really helps the reader to recognize harmful mental patterns and stop them, to exercise cognitive control, so that stress is diffused before the anxiety is felt in the body. She writes about "awfulizing," obsessing over something stressful, second-guessing ourselves, etc., and how to stop it through positive thought that is healing, rather than stress-making. The chapter called "Mind Traps" is especially helpful in this regard, and I find myself using her tips to diffuse tension AND improve the situation.

I strongly recommend this book, even for those who aren't interested in meditation. Borysenko provides evidence on how positive thought processes can be achieved and how they can make a difference. This book is considered a classic in the field, and it deserves the esteem that has made it so.