Download or read book Meditation as Spiritual Therapy written by Matthew McWhorter and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christian persons today might seek spiritual development and ponder the benefit of mindfulness exercises but also maintain concerns if they perceive such exercises to originate from other religious traditions. Such persons may not be aware of a long tradition of meditation practice in Christianity that promotes personal growth. This spiritual tradition receives a careful formulation by Christian monastic authors in the twelfth century. One such teaching on meditation is found in the treatise De consideratione written by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) to Pope Eugene III (d. 1153). In textual passages where St. Bernard exhibits a clear concern for the mental health of the Pope (due to numerous ongoing ecclesial, political, and military problems), St. Bernard reminds Eugene III of his original monastic vocation and the meditation exercises associated with that vocation. The advice that St. Bernard gives to Eugene III can be received today in a way that provides a structure for Christian meditation practice which is relevant for personal development, spiritual direction, and civil psychotherapy that integrates a client's spirituality into the course of treatment. St. Bernard thus might be interpreted as a teacher of a kind of Christian mindfulness that can benefit both a person's mental health as well as a person's relationship with God. Meditation as Spiritual Therapy examines the historical context of Bernard's work, his purpose for writing it, as well as the numerous Christian sources he drew upon to formulate his teaching. Bernard's teaching on the course of meditation itself is explored in depth and in dialogue with his other treatises, letters, and sermons. Lastly, a contemporary summary of Bernard's teaching is provided with reflections concerning the relationship of this teaching to contemporary spiritual direction and spiritually integrated civil psychotherapy.
Download or read book Meditation and Spiritual Life written by Swami Yatiswarananda and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 750 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Meditation As Medicine written by Guru Dharma Singh Khalsa and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-02-22 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa “shows us how the tremendous power of medical meditation can heal not only the body but also the mind and soul” (Deepak Chopra) in this practical and engaging guide to natural healing. Proven effective by scientific research and presented here by Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa and Cameron Stauth, the practice of Medical Meditation revolutionizes the healing process. By balancing and regenerating the body's ethereal and physical energies through simple meditations, Medical Meditation unites the mind, body, and spirit into a powerful triad. Each Medical Meditation here has a specific physiological effect, targeting afflictions from arthritis to ulcers to cancer. Dr. Khalsa details the five unique attributes that endow this type of meditation with far more power than standard meditation. The combination of special postures and movements; exact positioning of the hands and fingers; particular mantras; specific breathing patterns; and a unique focus of concentration can change your entire biochemical profile, easing you into a calm, healing state. Practiced in conjunction with conventional or alternative medical treatments, cutting-edge Medical Meditation activates the healing force within you.
Download or read book Who Am I Without You written by Christina G. Hibbert and published by New Harbinger Publications. This book was released on 2015-03-01 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If a breakup or divorce has drained your confidence and shattered your self-esteem, this book is for you. Written by a clinical psychologist and expert in women’s health, Who Am I Without You? will help you work through your heartache, rediscover your self-worth, and learn to live and love again. Breakups can send you into a tailspin, causing an identity crisis and loss of self-worth. So how do you get back to the person you once were? Who Am I Without You? will teach you powerful skills based in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), positive psychology, and mindfulness that will help you tackle the difficult emotions that can surface after a breakup, such as grief, loss, anger, fear, worry, and low self-esteem. Comprised of fifty-two small chapters, the tools and exercises in this book are easy to apply, and will help you pick up the pieces of your broken identity, put them back together, shine yourself up, and get back out into the world—whole again and better than ever. Anyone who’s been through a breakup or divorce knows just how painful it can be. And nowhere does a breakup or divorce hit harder than our identity and sense of self-worth. If you're ready to move past the pain of the end of your relationship and reclaim your confidence, this book will show you how.
Download or read book Directing Our Inner Light written by Brian L. Weiss, M.D. and published by Hay House, Inc. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brian L. Weiss, M.D., psychiatrist and New York Times best-selling author, offers soothing sanity in turbulent times. This short course in meditation gives readers the tools they need for physical, emotional, and spiritual healing, and includes an audio download of a guided meditation. This book was previously published by Hay House as Meditation: Achieving Inner Peace and Tranquility in Your Life. In Directing Our Inner Light, Brian L. Weiss, M.D., offers an audio download of a guided meditation and explains the techniques he has used to help thousands of patients around the world harness the healing powers of meditation. You'll learn how relaxation, visualization, and regression can be used to release fears in a holistic way, strengthen the immune system, and alleviate chronic pain and illness, among other benefits. The practice of meditation also helps rid the mind of stress, intrusive thoughts, and the pressures of the world, opening you up to what's truly important. The more you meditate, the further you move away from the level of everyday consciousness (encompassing frustration, anxiety, and worry), and the closer you draw to the higher perspective of enlightenment. As you progress along this path, it becomes easier to achieve increasingly higher levels of spirituality.
Download or read book A Still Forest Pool written by Achaan Chah and published by Quest Books. This book was released on 2013-10-23 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Achaan Chah spent many years walking and meditating in the forest monastery of Wat Ba Pong, engaging in the uncomplicated and disciplined Buddhist practice called dhudanga. A Still Forest Pool reflects the quiet, intensive, and joyous practice of the forest monks of Thailand. Achaan Chah’s humble words, compiled by two Westerners who are former ordained monks, awaken the spirit of inquiry, wonderment, understanding, and deep inner peace. Attachment, according to Achaan Chah, causes all suffering. Understanding the impermanent, insecure, and selfless nature of life is the message he offers for human happiness and realization. To vividly grasp the meaning of attachment leads us to a new place of practice – the path of balance, the Middle Path.
Download or read book Contemplative Practices in Action written by Thomas G. Plante Ph.D. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-07-15 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking primer illuminates contemplative methods that can improve mental and physical health. Contemplative practices, from meditation to Zen, are growing in popularity as methods to inspire physical and mental health. Contemplative Practices in Action: Spirituality, Meditation, and Health offers readers an introduction to these practices and the ways they can be used in the service of well being, wisdom, healing, and stress reduction. Bringing together various traditions from the East and West, this thought-provoking work summarizes the history of each practice, highlights classic and emerging research proving its power, and details how each practice is performed. Expert authors offer step-by-step approaches to practice methods including the 8-Point Program of Passage Meditation, Centering Prayer, mindful stress management, mantram meditation, energizing meditation, yoga, and Zen. Beneficial practices from Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, and Islamic religions are also featured. Vignettes illustrate each of the practices, while the contributors explain how and why they are effective in facing challenges as varied as the loss of a partner or child, job loss, chronic pain or disease, or psychological disorders.
Download or read book The Buddha Pill written by Miguel Farias and published by Watkins Media Limited. This book was released on 2019-02-19 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Millions of people meditate daily but can meditative practices really make us ‘better’ people? In The Buddha Pill, pioneering psychologists Dr Miguel Farias and Catherine Wikholm put meditation and mindfulness under the microscope. Separating fact from fiction, they reveal what scientific research – including their groundbreaking study on yoga and meditation with prisoners – tells us about the benefits and limitations of these techniques for improving our lives. As well as illuminating the potential, the authors argue that these practices may have unexpected consequences, and that peace and happiness may not always be the end result. Offering a compelling examination of research on transcendental meditation to recent brain-imaging studies on the effects of mindfulness and yoga, and with fascinating contributions from spiritual teachers and therapists, Farias and Wikholm weave together a unique story about the science and the delusions of personal change.
Download or read book Tools for Spiritual Healing A Non Denominational Tutorial Style Book for Beginners written by Anne Magdalene and published by Rowe Publishing. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As your soul awakens, and remembers its' purpose, you will begin to heal all that ails you. Spiritual healing is the gateway to healing your mind, body, and spirit. Tools for Spiritual Healing is a non-denominational, tutorial-style book for beginners offering guidance, and insight into the root causes of all illness, be it mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual, and a variety of self-help tools for the reader to use to reach optimal levels of spiritual healing. Tools for Spiritual Healing offers case examples for the reader to use as a guide to understanding the process of identifying areas in need of healing, and the tools for reaching optimal spiritual wellness, through meditation, visualization, Emotional Freedom Technique, prayer/intention, and energy work, to name a few. "This is a divinely inspired gift of a book for those who are ready to tap into the true essence of their spirituality and learn important techniques for living a fully healed, happy and soul-guided life." -Dianne Bischoff James, author of The Real Brass Ring Anne Magdalene is a licensed Social Worker, and psychic-medium who has successfully woven both disciplines into one, working with people from all over the world to begin their journey to spiritual wellness. Anne Magdalene has personally used the techniques described in Tools for Spiritual Healing and offers first-hand knowledge and insight into the effectiveness of these tools.
Download or read book The Zen of Therapy written by Mark Epstein, M.D. and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-01-11 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A warm, profound and cleareyed memoir. . . this wise and sympathetic book’s lingering effect is as a reminder that a deeper and more companionable way of life lurks behind our self-serious stories."—Oliver Burkeman, New York Times Book Review A remarkable exploration of the therapeutic relationship, Dr. Mark Epstein reflects on one year’s worth of therapy sessions with his patients to observe how his training in Western psychotherapy and his equally long investigation into Buddhism, in tandem, led to greater awareness—for his patients, and for himself For years, Dr. Mark Epstein kept his beliefs as a Buddhist separate from his work as a psychiatrist. Content to use his training in mindfulness as a private resource, he trusted that the Buddhist influence could, and should, remain invisible. But as he became more forthcoming with his patients about his personal spiritual leanings, he was surprised to learn how many were eager to learn more. The divisions between the psychological, emotional, and the spiritual, he soon realized, were not as distinct as one might think. In The Zen of Therapy, Dr. Epstein reflects on a year’s worth of selected sessions with his patients and observes how, in the incidental details of a given hour, his Buddhist background influences the way he works. Meditation and psychotherapy each encourage a willingness to face life's difficulties with courage that can be hard to otherwise muster, and in this cross-section of life in his office, he emphasizes how therapy, an element of Western medicine, can in fact be considered a two-person meditation. Mindfulness, too, much like a good therapist, can “hold” our awareness for us—and allow us to come to our senses and find inner peace. Throughout this deeply personal inquiry, one which weaves together the wisdom of two worlds, Dr. Epstein illuminates the therapy relationship as spiritual friendship, and reveals how a therapist can help patients cultivate the sense that there is something magical, something wonderful, and something to trust running through our lives, no matter how fraught they have been or might become. For when we realize how readily we have misinterpreted our selves, when we stop clinging to our falsely conceived constructs, when we touch the ground of being, we come home.
Download or read book Spirituality and the Healthy Mind written by Marc Galanter M.D. and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-07-07 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spirituality has emerged as a prominent theme in contemporary culture. It is seen in issues as diverse as Eastern philosophies and religious awakenings; its psychological impact is apparent in alternative medicine, Alcoholics Anonymous, and meditation. In their own ways, each of these has helped people get relief from the problems psychiatrists often treat. But the mental health profession has generally ignored these isues, focusing on specific target symptoms, from anxiety to heavy drinking. Their efforts rely increasingy on medications and brief therapies as they succumb to the chilling influence of managed care. This raises an important question: Can the spiritual and professional, two perspectives that seem different, be reconciled? This book is designed to provide an answer to this question. It draws on recent findings in psychology, neuroscience, and innovative therapies to understand how people in America and worldwide express their spiritual needs. It then shows how the mentally ill, substance abusers, and people troubled by a sense that something is missing in their lives can be helped by developing a sense of personal meaning, while still benefitting from contemporary therapy and medications. Finally, it examines shortcomings in both the biomedical and spiritually-oriented approaches. The book draws on clinical experience and recent research studies, including the author's work over thirty years. This is enhanced by case studies drawn from patients, mental health professionals, the lay public, and even cult members. All this is brought together to create a vivid understanding of how mental health treatment can be made more effective by giving meaning to people's lives.
Download or read book 8 Keys to Recovery from an Eating Disorder Workbook 8 Keys to Mental Health written by Carolyn Costin and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Readers are walked through strategies by a therapist and her former patient. 8 Keys to Recovery from an Eating Disorder was lauded as a "brave and hopeful book" as well as "remarkably readable." Now, the authors have returned with a companion workbook—offering all new assignments, strategies, and personal reflections to help those who suffer from an eating disorder heal their relationship to food and their bodies. Clients of Costin and Grabb consistently tell them that knowing they are both recovered is one of the most helpful aspects of their treatment. With this experience as a foundation, the authors bring together years of clinical expertise and invaluable personal testimony, from themselves and others, to the strategies in this book. Readers will get a glimpse of what it's like to be in therapy with either Carolyn or Gwen. Filled with tried and true practical exercises, goal sheets, food journal forms, clinical anecdotes and stories, readers are guided in exploring their thoughts, feelings, and coping strategies while being encouraged to choose how they want to approach the material. This book is an important resource to anyone living with destructive or self-defeating eating behaviors.
Download or read book Introducing Spirituality Into Counseling and Therapy written by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and published by Omega Publications. This book was released on 1982 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spiritual dimensions of emotion, improving self-image, working with energy. Detailed instructions for meditation practices used to bring fresh insight into everyday problems.
Download or read book Christian Meditation in Clinical Practice written by Joshua J. Knabb and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What would it look like to turn to the Christian faith to cultivate meditation practices? Presenting Christian meditation as an alternative to Buddhist-informed mindfulness, this workbook from Dr. Joshua Knabb offers a Christian-sensitive approach to meditation in clinical practice, focusing on both building theory and providing replicable practices for Christian clients and their therapists.
Download or read book Enlightenment Is Your Nature written by Osho and published by Watkins Media Limited. This book was released on 2017-09-19 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores and explains the fundamental difference between psychology, therapy and meditation. "Enlightenment” in Western cultures has long been associated with the 18th century movement that brought about a new “age of reason.” As Zen, Buddhism, and other eastern wisdom traditions have captured the imagination of the West, “enlightenment” has come to be known as a specific state of consciousness attained by an individual on a spiritual or meditative path. However, the Judeo-Christian context, with its belief in a divine power “out there” and separate from the individual, hinders most Westerners’ ability to comprehend “enlightenment” in the Eastern sense. Our theistic conditioning leads to such common misunderstandings as perceiving enlightenment as the attainment of supernatural powers, or as something achievable only by those who are somehow “special.” In this work, Osho deconstructs these misunderstandings and offers a radically different view of enlightenment, freed from all spiritual and religious beliefs – including the distortions of asceticism and renunciation that have arisen in Eastern and Western cultures both. Taking the reader step by step through the history of how both East and West have approached the mysteries of the human mind and spirituality, Osho offers a simple science of consciousness that he calls “the psychology of the buddhas.” It is a science that in very clear terms shows how one can, through awareness and taking full responsibility for one’s life, go beyond all limited belief systems, habits, and superstitions of the mind. That process, he says, brings us back to our nature – and that is enlightenment.
Download or read book The Healing Power of Meditation written by Andy Fraser and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2013-07-09 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regular meditation practice has a powerful impact on the mind and body, rewiring the brain and bringing us all kinds of benefits: contentment and well-being, resilience and focus, better mental and physical health, and greater empathy and compassion. This wide-ranging anthology brings together pioneering Tibetan Buddhist teachers, scientific researchers, and health professionals to offer fascinating perspectives on the mind and emotions, new studies, and firsthand accounts of how meditation is being applied to great effect in health and social care today. • Sogyal Rinpoche and Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche on how meditation unlocks the mind’s healing power • Jon Kabat-Zinn on the benefits of mindfulness in mainstream health care • Clifford Saron on the Shamatha Project, the most comprehensive study of the effects of meditation ever conducted • Sara Lazar on what happens to our brain when we meditate • Erika Rosenberg on how meditation helps us relate better to our emotions • Dr. Lucio Bizzini, MD, on how Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy is used to treat depression • Ursula Bates on how mindfulness supports terminally ill patients as they approach the end of their lives Plus chapters from other innovators who apply meditation in health care and social work: Dr. Edel Maex, MD; Dr. Cathy Blanc, MD; Rosamund Oliver; and Dr. Frédéric Rosenfeld, MD.
Download or read book Broken Open written by Elizabeth Lesser and published by Villard. This book was released on 2008-10-30 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This inspiring guide to healing and growth illuminates the richness and potential of every life, even in the face of loss and adversity—now updated with additional toolbox materials and a new preface by the author In the more than twenty-five years since she co-founded Omega Institute—now the world’s largest center for spiritual retreat and personal growth—Elizabeth Lesser has been an intimate witness to the ways in which people weather change and transition. In a beautifully crafted blend of moving stories, humorous insights, practical guidance, and personal memoir, she offers tools to help us make the choice we all face in times of challenge: Will we be broken down and defeated, or broken open and transformed? Lesser shares tales of ordinary people who have risen from the ashes of illness, divorce, loss of a job or a loved one—stronger, wiser, and more in touch with their purpose and passion. And she draws on the world’s great spiritual and psychological traditions to support us as we too learn to break open and blossom into who we were meant to be.
