Download or read book Transcending Hell Manifesting a Zen Spiritual Path in Recovery from Addiction and Alcoholism written by Taiyu John Robertson and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2012-05-06 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long term recovery from alcoholism and addiction isn't easy. While many find initial success in sobriety, securing ongoing happiness, peace of mind, and a meaningful life often seems maddeningly illusive. Transcending Hell offers an approach to sustained recovery that incorporates a Zen sitting practice with more traditional avenues of sobriety.
Download or read book Mindful Recovery written by Thomas Bien and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2007-08-03 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This wise book provides practical exercises that will help us to develop conscious awareness and inner understanding, and the ways and means to free us from unsatisfying habits, addictions, and unconscious behavior patterns. I recommend it highly." --Lama Surya Das, author of the bestselling Awakening the Buddha Within "Anyone interested in finding a kind, spiritual guide to recovery that focuses on flexibility rather than the 'one true way' will benefit from this enjoyable and helpful book." --Maia Szalavitz, coauthor with Joseph Volpicelli, M.D., of Recovery Options: The Complete Guide In Mindful Recovery, you'll discover a fresh and effective method for healing from addiction that can help you handle important challenges, from managing anxiety and resisting cravings to dealing with emotional and physical imbalance. Drawing on both ancient spiritual wisdom and the authors' extensive clinical psychological work with their patients over many years, Mindful Recovery shows you how to use the simple Buddhist practice of mindfulness to be aware of-- and enjoy-- life in the present moment without the need to enhance or avoid experience with addictive behaviors. Mindful Recovery guides you step by step through ten powerful "doorways" to mindful recovery, giving you specific strategies that can help you cultivate a sense of calm awareness and balance in your life. Filled with personal stories of recovery, practical exercises, instructions for meditation, and more, Mindful Recovery accompanies you on a journey of exploration and healing that will help you find the strength and the tools to change, leading you to a fresh new experience of everyday living.
Download or read book The Spiritual Paradox of Addiction written by Ashok Bedi and published by Nicolas-Hays, Inc.. This book was released on 2020-03-15 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addicts and alcoholics are often highly spiritualized individuals who lack the faith apparatus to make a healthy connection with their spiritual drive. As such, they turn to negative behavior patterns to fulfill that hunger: alcohol, drugs, food, sex, gambling, pornography, social media, and dysfunctional relationships. This book offers a series of insights and methods whereby faith may be restored and positively channeled into life-sustaining behaviors. It is addressed to addicts, their families and friends, as well as interested laypeople, government policymakers, and treatment professionals. The authors include instruction in yoga and breathing exercises, meditation, and mindfulness, as well as case studies and medical guidance for detoxification.
Download or read book The Soul of Recovery written by Christopher D. Ringwald and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2002-06-13 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Millions of alcoholics and addicts recover through spirituality. In The Soul of Recovery: Uncovering the Spiritual Dimension in the Treatment of Addictions, author and journalist Christopher D. Ringwald tells how and why they seek and achieve these transformations. Ranging as far back as the Washingtonian Total Abstinence Society in 1840, Ringwald illuminates the use of spirituality within a wide range of treatment options--from the famous Twelve Step-style programs to those tailored to the needs of addicted women, Native Americans, or homeless teens not ready to quit. Focusing on the results rather than the validity of beliefs espoused by these programs, he demonstrates how addicts recover through practices such as self-examination, meditation, prayer and reliance on a self-defined higher power. But the most compelling evidence of spirituality's importance comes from those directly involved in the process. Ringwald traveled across the country to visit dozens of programs and interview hundreds of addicts, alcoholics, counselors, family members, doctors and scientists. Many share moving stories of suffering, survival, and redemption. A homeless man, a surgeon, a college student, a working mother-each describes the descent into addiction and how spirituality offered a practical, personal means to recovery. Ringwald also examines the controversies surrounding faith-based treatment and the recovery movement, from the conflict between science and spirituality, to skepticism about the "new age" brand of spirituality these programs encourage, to constitutional issues over court-mandated participation in allegedly religious treatment programs. Combining in-depth research with powerful personal accounts, this fascinating exploration of spirituality will provide a fuller understanding of the nature of addiction and how people overcome it.
Download or read book The Zen of Recovery written by Mel Ash and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1993-01-06 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this compelling blend of East and West, Mel Ash shows how Zen mind and practice connect to the heart of recovery. Courageously drawing from his own experience as an abused child, alcoholic, Zen student, and dharma teacher, Ash presents a practical synthesis of AA’s Twelve Steps and Zen’s Eightfold Path. You don’t have to be Buddhist to appreciate the healing power of The Zen of Recovery. The book makes Zen available to all seeking to improve the quality of their spiritual and everyday life. It also includes practical instructions on how to meditate and put this book into action. Its message will help readers live more profoundly “one day at a time.”
Download or read book Waking Up Sober in a Convent written by Katharine Marie and published by . This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When I was about five years old I had an experience of God's love. I sat in church on Sunday morning, before the Mass began. The church was silent. I sat quietly and looked around at the stained glass windows and the various statues. Up high on the wall behind the altar was a stained glass window of the Blessed Mother holding the baby Jesus. A warm feeling glowed in my heart. I felt like ET with my heart light all aglow, recognizing the Mother Ship. Fast forward ...now I'm 21 years old....walking through the halls of a Convent I entered eighteen months earlier, only now I'm six months sober, slowly waking up. Then one day it suddenly hits me, "OMG! I'm in a Convent! I'll be taking vows in a few months – I'm going to be a NUN!! This is happening way too fast!! I gotta slow this down. What do I do now???" How did I get here? And where was I going? This is my God story, my personal journey with God - from a call to Religious Life to getting sober to Coming Out and finding my spiritual path. Come along with me and I will share my adventures with you!
Download or read book Recovery written by Russell Brand and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to all kinds of addiction from a star who has struggled with heroin, alcohol, sex, fame, food and eBay, that will help addicts and their loved ones make the first steps into recovery “This manual for self-realization comes not from a mountain but from the mud...My qualification is not that I am better than you but I am worse.” —Russell Brand With a rare mix of honesty, humor, and compassion, comedian and movie star Russell Brand mines his own wild story and shares the advice and wisdom he has gained through his fourteen years of recovery. Brand speaks to those suffering along the full spectrum of addiction—from drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar addictions to addictions to work, stress, bad relationships, digital media, and fame. Brand understands that addiction can take many shapes and sizes and how the process of staying clean, sane, and unhooked is a daily activity. He believes that the question is not “Why are you addicted?” but "What pain is your addiction masking? Why are you running—into the wrong job, the wrong life, the wrong person’s arms?" Russell has been in all the twelve-step fellowships going, he’s started his own men’s group, he’s a therapy regular and a practiced yogi—and while he’s worked on this material as part of his comedy and previous bestsellers, he’s never before shared the tools that really took him out of it, that keep him clean and clear. Here he provides not only a recovery plan, but an attempt to make sense of the ailing world.
Download or read book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind written by Julian Jaynes and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2000-08-15 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry
Download or read book How to Change Your Mind written by Michael Pollan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Pollan keeps you turning the pages . . . cleareyed and assured.” —New York Times A #1 New York Times Bestseller, New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2018, and New York Times Notable Book A brilliant and brave investigation into the medical and scientific revolution taking place around psychedelic drugs--and the spellbinding story of his own life-changing psychedelic experiences When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction and anxiety, he did not intend to write what is undoubtedly his most personal book. But upon discovering how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life, he decided to explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third. Thus began a singular adventure into various altered states of consciousness, along with a dive deep into both the latest brain science and the thriving underground community of psychedelic therapists. Pollan sifts the historical record to separate the truth about these mysterious drugs from the myths that have surrounded them since the 1960s, when a handful of psychedelic evangelists inadvertently catalyzed a powerful backlash against what was then a promising field of research. A unique and elegant blend of science, memoir, travel writing, history, and medicine, How to Change Your Mind is a triumph of participatory journalism. By turns dazzling and edifying, it is the gripping account of a journey to an exciting and unexpected new frontier in our understanding of the mind, the self, and our place in the world. The true subject of Pollan's "mental travelogue" is not just psychedelic drugs but also the eternal puzzle of human consciousness and how, in a world that offers us both suffering and joy, we can do our best to be fully present and find meaning in our lives.
Download or read book The Way of the Alcoholic written by Works Publishing and published by . This book was released on 2017-11 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Way of the Alcoholic is a journey into addiction. But this painful and dispiriting trial can also lead to recovery, awakening a rebirth of the spirit. Alcoholics lose their way so that they might find The Way. The progression is from self-destruction to self-discovery: which is the ultimate creative act. Through expanded consciousness and spiritual transformation The Way leads Home. This little gem, penned anonymously, chronicles the journey that lies at the heart of all spiritual traditions - putting it in the context of addiction as a pathway to awakening and self-discovery. The Way of the Alcoholic explores many spiritual paths - Mysticism, Buddhism, Non-Duality, Taoism, Sufism and more ... finding the most common stumbling block for seekers on The Way is the notion of a separate self-hood: the ego-driven 'I'.Ultimately The Way of the Alcoholic offers hope, arguing that there's a purpose to alcoholism: to provide a path to higher consciousness.
Download or read book Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record written by Thomas Cleary and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2002-12-10 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Blue Cliff Record is a classic text of Zen Buddhism, designed to assist in the activation of dormant human potential. The core of this extraordinary work is a collection of one hundred traditional citations and stories, selected for their ability to bring about insight and enlightenment. These vignettes are known as gongan in Chinese and koan in Japanese. Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record is a fresh translation featuring newly translated commentary from two of the greatest Zen masters of early modern Japan, Hakuin Ekaku (1685–1768) of the Rinzai sect of Zen and Tenkei Denson (1648–1735) of the Soto sect of Zen. This translation and commentary on The Blue Cliff Record sheds new light on the meaning of this central Zen text.
Download or read book The Hunger Fix written by Pamela Peeke and published by Rodale. This book was released on 2013-09-17 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The body’s built-in reward system, driven by the chemical dopamine, tells us to do more of the things that give us pleasure: Creative energy, falling in love, entrepreneurship, and even the continued propagation of the human race are driven by this system. Unfortunately, so is the urge to overeat. In The Hunger Fix, Dr. Pam Peeke uses the latest neuroscience to explain how unhealthy food and behavioral "fixes" have gotten us ensnared in a vicious cycle of overeating and addiction. She even shows that dopamine rushes in the body work exactly the same way with food as with cocaine. Luckily, we are all capable of rewiring, and the very same dopamine-driven system can be used to reward us for healthful, exciting, and fulfilling activities. The Hunger Fix lays out a science-based, three-stage plan to break the addiction to false fixes and replace them with healthier actions. Fitness guides, meal plans, and recipes are constructed to bolster the growth of new neurons and stimulate the body’s reward system. Gradually, healthy fixes like meditating, going for a run, laughing, and learning a new language will replace the junk food, couch time, and other bad habits that leave us unhappy and overweight. Packed with practical tips, useful advice, and plenty of wit, wisdom, and inspiring stories of those who have successfully transformed their bodies, The Hunger Fix is a life-changing program for anyone (of any size) trapped by food obsession and the urge to overeat.
Download or read book Passion of the Western Mind written by Richard Tarnas and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2011-10-19 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[This] magnificent critical survey, with its inherent respect for both the 'Westt's mainstream high culture' and the 'radically changing world' of the 1990s, offers a new breakthrough for lay and scholarly readers alike....Allows readers to grasp the big picture of Western culture for the first time." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Here are the great minds of Western civilization and their pivotal ideas, from Plato to Hegel, from Augustine to Nietzsche, from Copernicus to Freud. Richard Tarnas performs the near-miracle of describing profound philosophical concepts simply but without simplifying them. Ten years in the making and already hailed as a classic, THE PASSION OF THE WESERN MIND is truly a complete liberal education in a single volume.
Download or read book Callings written by Gregg Michael Levoy and published by Harmony. This book was released on 1998-09-08 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do we know if we're following our true callings? How do we sharpen our senses to cut through the distractions of everyday reality and hear the calls that are beckoning us? is the first book to examine the many kinds of calls we receive and the great variety of channels through which they come to us. A calling may be to do something (change careers, go back to school, have a child) or to be something (more creative, less judgmental, more loving). While honoring a calling's essential mystery, this book also guides readers to ask and answer the fundamental questions that arise from any calling: How do we recognize it? How do we distinguish the true call from the siren song? How do we handle our resistance to a call? What happens when we say yes? What happens when we say no? Drawing on the hard-won wisdom and powerful stories of people who have followed their own calls, Gregg Levoy shows us the many ways to translate a calling into action. In a style that is poetic, exuberant, and keenly insightful, he presents an illuminating and ultimately practical inquiry into how we listen and respond to our calls, whether at work or at home, in our relationships or in service. Callings is a compassionate guide to discovering your own callings and negotiating the tight passages to personal power and authenticity.
Download or read book The Eight Gates of Zen written by John Daido Loori and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2002-09-10 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This accessible introduction to the philosophy and practice of Zen Buddhism includes a program of study that encompasses practically every aspect of life. The American Zen teacher John Daido Loori shows us that Zen practice should include not only meditation, the study of Zen literature and liturgy, and moral and ethical action, but should also manifest in work, artistic, and everyday activities. The Eight Gates are: 1. Zazen, a type of meditation described as "sitting Zen" 2. Face-to-face meetings between teacher and student 3. Academic study of the sutras related to Zen training, other schools of Buddhism, Buddhist history, psychology, and philosophy 4. Zen rites and rituals and their meaning 5. The moral and ethical requirements set in the Buddhist Precepts 6. Art practice as an extension of Zen practice 7. Body practice as an extension of Zen practice 8. Work as an active function of zazen Beautifully illustrated with Loori's own photographs, this edition also includes a new introduction and an updated reading list.
Download or read book A Contemporary Approach to Substance Use Disorders and Addiction Counseling written by Ford Brooks and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-01-29 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written as an introduction to the field of addiction counseling, this text covers the fundamental knowledge and skills necessary to counsel people who are struggling with addiction. Drs. Brooks and McHenry provide a straightforward and holistic approach to treatment and recovery, from the major theoretical underpinnings, to assessment and diagnosis, to relapse prevention and spirituality. With a focus on current clinical applications and how-tos, this book is ideal both for master’s-level addictions courses and mental health clinicians. Topics covered are cultural and gender issues, including work with LGBT clients; drug classifications and referral; assessment, diagnosis, and interview techniques; the continuum from nonuse to addiction; work in college/university, school, and community/mental health agency settings; developmental approaches in treatment; the role of the family; grief and loss in addiction; group counseling; relapse and recovery; spirituality and support groups; addictions training, certification, and ethics; and the importance of counselor self-care. Exploration questions and suggested activities are presented in each chapter. *Requests for digital versions from the ACA can be found on wiley.com *To request print copies, please visit the ACA website https://imis.counseling.org/store/ *Reproduction requests for material from books published by ACA should be directed to [email protected]
Download or read book The Disease of Addiction written by Joseph Caravella and published by Disease of Addiction (Book). This book was released on 2019-06-02 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joseph Caravella, MA LADC currently practices as an addiction therapist for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation at their campus in Center City, Minnesota. As an educator he's known for his high energy, breathtaking lectures (on addiction, forgiveness, and love). In "The Disease of Addiction," he masterfully unravels the complexities of the addicted brain, breaks down the fundamental components of addiction in easy-to-understand terms, and paints a detailed clinical picture with color sourced from his own harrowing experiences with addiction, mental illness, and early recovery. Foreword by the author: I've been formally studying addiction since 2011 while also walking my own path in recovery that began in 2008. Even after years of self-study, thousands of twelve-step meetings, graduate school, and professional experience treating the illness, my experience shows that this disease is not the easiest subject to grasp. But knowledge truly is power. And after studying the best textbooks and reports on the neurobiology of addiction, I believe the information in them is sound and of the utmost importance. That said, I also think the packaging and delivery of the material should be more accessible to addicted people, their family and friends, and anyone curious to learn more about the disease. I've been privileged to lecture on the disease of addiction to large treatment populations for years. Inspired by requests for written material beyond my lectures and by my personal mission to improve addiction education, this short book is a meditation on the evolutionary perspective of chemical use, the origins of the Alcoholics Anonymous program, our present understanding of the neurobiology of addiction, and how the twelve-step solution is well supported by scientific evidence. I also describe the correlation between physiological stress response in early recovery and a spirituality-based approach to recovery in a manner that I haven't seen in the literature. In this book, I'm specifically speaking to the person unsure about addiction as a disease but also pained by the consequences of their chemical use. To me, this person is the newcomer to recovery, and they are the most important person about whom I should be concerned when discussing addiction and recovery. Special thanks to my clients, family, teachers, guides, mentors, colleagues, bosses, and especially my wife for making this possible. I was taught that I can only keep what peace and love I have by freely giving it away. In part, this is my love to you.
