Book Details

The Anxiety Relief Program

The Anxiety Relief Program is intended for those whose worries and anxieties are getting out of control or have already done so. It is based on the principles of trust, acceptance and, above all "mindfulness", which means moment-to-moment awareness of events in the mind and body while maintaining calmness. This quality is the basis of Buddhist meditation. It has no religious content and is used with great success in well over 300 clinics in the US for treating stress and chronic pain.

The acceptance of anxiety and the enhancement of mindfulness paradoxically reduce its negative effects, enabling coping with situations which create anxiety.

A series of exercises is given, each of which helps to develop mindfulness of the effects and symptoms of a particular anxiety disorder. The reader is helped to select those exercises which will benefit him by answering questionnaires and so can choose his own program for bringing his anxiety under control. The exercises include visualizations which give a training in facing anxiety calmly and "shrinking" it so that it no longer dominates daily life. Considerable stress is laid on the way in which the reader breathes, which has a profound effect on mind and body. For this there is a series of exercises which correct the breathing, reducing both the onset of anxiety and its symptoms. Other exercises combine correct breathing with body movements.

No fixed exercise program is given. but the reader is invited to construct his own on the general principles given and suiting his situation, making changes according to his progress.

Aside from anxiety, the author has treated many patients having conditions of stress, pain and tinnitus. He has led seminars and taught meditation as a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka and to patients in Germany.

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