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Working with Chronic Pain (Mindful Healing) | 
| Publisher: Bob Stahl, Ph.D.
Category: Book
Buy New: $16.94
as of 7/31/2010 03:32 CDT details
New (2) from $16.94
Seller: the_music_store
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 2341320
Media: Audio CD
Running Time: 80 Minutes
ASIN: B000CS9ACE
Publication Date: 1005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
This interactive and educational CD will help you experience more peace and balance and peace as you live with chronic pain. It will also introduce you to mindfulness meditation practices and teach you simple and yet profound tools that have the potential to decrease chronic pain. For more information please visit http://www.mindfulnessprograms.com
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| Customer Reviews:
 Chronic Pain Comments from the Author July 11, 2009
bob stahl (California)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is from the author, Bob Stahl. I want to clarify the last review. In all fairness, I would like to clarify the four points fron the last review that was critcial or my CD.
1) I never said that "this CD uses mindfulness as a way of avoiding painful emotions" or that I hope it goes away. That is hardly the case and is actually the opposite. Mindfulness offers a pathway to working with the uncomfortable emotions that often arise when you have physical pain, such as anger, rage, sadness, confusion, despair, grief, anxiety, and fear. Bringing mindful awareness to emotions allows you to begin to acknowledge them, no matter what they are, validating and acknowledging them without censorship and without resistance. As with physical pain, resistance to sadness, anger, fear, and other difficult emotions often causes more pain, while learning to let be and go with them, rather than fighting them, can often diminish or change the suffering associated with them. Rather than fighting difficult emotions, simply allow and acknowledge whatever you feel, letting the waves of emotion go wherever they need to go.
Acknowledging emotional pain helps create the possibility for deeper understanding, compassion, and peace. As you gain more understanding of your physical pain, your emotional reactions to it, and the differences between them, you'll begin to see that there's a difference between physical pain and suffering. Even in times when you can't change the physical sensations of pain, you can change your emotional responses to them and thereby reduce your suffering. In other words, physical pain is a reality, but suffering is optional. The body does have pain receptors and is designed to feel pain; in fact, in some cases it can help prevent injury. However, your emotional response to pain is in your hands. With time and practice, you can learn to feel the pain and suffer less.
2) As far as the claim that I gave bogus physiology, I have consulted with two Physician friends of mine and they both concur that there is restriction of blood flow due to muscle-skeletal constriction when reacting to pain. Here is what one said:
PAIN IN MUSCLE ORIGINATES FROM TRAUMA, ISCHEMIA, LACK OF MOVEMENT OR EXHAUSTING THE MUSCLES ENERGY SUPPLY CAUSING LACTIC ACID RELEASE. BY ISCHEMIA I MEAN THE BLOOD SUPPLY IS INSUFFICIENT FOR THE MUSCLES OXYGEN NEEDS. THE BLOOD IS NOT CUT OFF BUT OXYGEN DELIVERY IS INADEQUATE FOR WORK LOAD AND LACTIC ACID IS PRODUCED. TENSION OF A MUSCLE GROUP MAY CONTRIBUTE TO PAIN BY ISCHEMIA OR LACK OF RANGE OF MOTION MAY CAUSE MUSCLE PAIN BY RELEASE OF CHEMICAL MEDIATORS TO THE NOCICEPTORS IN SOFT TISSUE. THESE NOCICEPTORS ARE THE PAIN FIBER
RECEPTORS IN MUSCLE AND NERVES. CHRONIC MUSCLE TENSION MAY CHANGE THE MECHANORECEPTOR SENSITIVITY IN MUSCLES. THIS ALSO ADDS TO MUSCLE PAIN. GENETICS AND CHRONICITY ADD TO THE PERCEPTION AND INTENSITY OF MUSCLE PAIN AND THE NERVOUS SYSTEMS SENSITIVITY. THIS TENDS TO MAKE THE PAIN WORSE OVER TIME.
YOUR STATEMENT IS ' RESTRICTS BLOOD FLOW' WHICH FOR MOST IS THE SAME AS ISCHEMIA OR LACK OF ADEQUATE NUTIRENTS. FOR THE PURIST IT WOULD BE THE CONSTANT MUSCLE CONTRACTION DEPLETES NUTRIENTS AND EXHAUSTS THE OXYGEN SUPPLY CAUSING MUSCLE FATIGUE AND PAIN WITH RELEASE OF CHEMICAL MEDIATORS CAUSING PAIN .
3) The entire CD is dedicated to helping one work with physical chronic pain. The notion that there is no material is simply not true.
4) The fourth point mentions some confusion about the "observer" and some comparison of transcendental mediation to mindfulness. I really didn't understand the pint being made here... What I can say is that the cultivation of mindfulness is non-judgmental awareness. That we can begin to observe what is happening within the mind and body rather than getting lost in it.
Ths spirit of the CD is to help one live better with pain by practicing mindfulness meditation to access inner resources inside yourself for healing and peace. Jon Kabat Zinn offers us a wonderful definition of healing" The coming into terns with the way things are". May we all grow in wisdom and compassion.
 A Little Painfull April 25, 2009
Pen Name and That A
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have four gripes with this CD. The first is that the CD uses mindfulness as a way of avoiding painful emotions. The approach was like: "Focus on the pain (now hope it goes away!!)." I would go so far as to say that the core content of what the author said focussed on accepatance and in the introductions and conclusions he was lured into talking about avoidance. It's as if the author learnt good material and put it on his CD and when it came to writing his own introductions and conclusions he unwittingly introduced his own view that mindfulness should be, if you get lucky, about avoidance. On the front of the CD Jon Kabat-Zinn is quoted as saying Bob Stahl is a "masterful" teacher of mindfulness. I bet JKZ didn't hear this CD. At one point, the CD even instructed the listener to "be happy." Yes, that's right, "if... then be happy."
My second gripe is bout the bogus physiology that is mentioned on this CD. For example, he said that if you tighten up around an area, then you decrease blood flow. In fact, acute pain is associated with inflammation and increased blood flow and chronic pain is associated with neither increased nor decreased blood flow. It is as if BS [...] decided that if a fake, inaccurate physiological explanation would make a good metaphore then it could go on the disk.
My third gripe is that there is almost no material on this disk that is specific to chronic pain. About the only point about pain that was made was to separate the pain from the emotional anguish it caused. I realise that mindfulness can help with chronic pain even if the mindfulness is not directed at chronic pain, but this is still a bit of a stretch.
My fourth gripe with this CD is that it mixed up mindfulness with deliberate fusion with a particular sensation, observing what ever sensations were present and with observing observing. This is one of the differences between transendental meditation and mindfulness and a potential source of confusion. I think observing the observer would be a helpful concept with chronic pain and it was not touched upon on this CD.
The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living is not a CD and not specifically about chronic pain, but is a much better, accessable, introduction to mindfulness. I would recommend this book ahead of the CD for someone with chronic pain. I would also recommend a good, general-purpose, mindfulness CD.
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