Meditation As Spiritual Therapy

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.