Outsmart Your Pain: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion to Help You Leave Chronic Pain Behind

by Christiane Wolf, Daniel J. Siegel (Foreword by)

Overview

“Mindfulness and compassion practices should be in everybody’s toolbox for a happier and healthier life. [This] book is essential reading for providers who treat chronic illnesses and for those suffering from them.”—Arianna Huffington

Pain can be a big, unwieldy box that we struggle to carry all day. But what if we could put down this box, unpack it, and tackle the contents one by one? Outsmart Your Pain is Dr. Christiane Wolf’s radically clear, evidence-based guide to relieving chronic pain with mindfulness, complete with twenty easy guided meditations and self-compassion practices, including:

• rewriting the “pain story” you tell yourself
• practicing loving acceptance of your body as it is
• mindfully working through negative emotions
• strengthening your inner and outer support systems.

By separating your pain from the stressful thoughts and troubled feelings that come with it, you can lay down your burden and live with joy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781615197217
Publisher:	The Experiment
Publication date:	05/25/2021
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	486,006
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 5.60(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Christiane Wolf, MD, PhD is a physician turned mindfulness and compassion teacher and a senior teacher at InsightLA (InsightLA.org) in Los Angeles, California. She trains teachers and teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindful Self-Compassion to groups and individuals in the US and across Europe. With her medical background, one of her specialties is working with people who suffer from chronic illness and pain. Dr. Wolf is a lead teacher and program developer for the nationwide mindfulness facilitator training for the US veterans Administration.

Dr. Wolf is also a Buddhist teacher in the vipassana (Insight) meditation tradition and has received teacher transmission from Trudy Goodman and Jack Kornfield. She is the coauthor, with Greg Serpa, of A Clinician’s Guide to Teaching Mindfulness. Dr. Wolf lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their three children.
 

Daniel J. Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. He is the author of many New York Times–bestselling books.

Table of Contents

Foreword Daniel J. Siegel, MD xiii

Introduction: An opportunity to change your brain 1

Part 1 Caring for Yourself

1 You Are Not Your Pain 15

Meditation: You are not your pain 20

2 The Pain Story 25

Practice: Writing reflection on the pain story 29

Meditation: The pain story 31

3 The Box We Call Pain 35

Practice: Working with thoughts, sensations, and emotions 37

Meditation: Opening the box of pain: exploring sensations, thoughts, and emotions 40

4 Self-Compassion for Pain 47

Meditations: Self-compassion for pain 54

Part 2 Making Peace

5 Ending the War with Your Body 61

Meditation: Kindness body scan 66

6 Finding Your Internal Support Group 73

Meditation: Shared humanity: calling up the infernal support group 78

7 Collecting Pearls 83

Practice: Collecting pearls 85

Meditation: Yes, and … 88

Part 3 Handling Big Emotions

8 The Dark Clouds of Depression 95

Meditation: Safe and pain free in the body 99

9 The Fear of Making Grief Real 103

Meditation: Being with grief 107

10 Numbing Out 111

Meditation: Urge surfing 116

11 Anger Is a Mixed Bag 121

Meditation: Safely exploring anger 127

12 Freeing Yourself from the Prison of Resentment 131

Meditation: Forgiveness 136

Part 4 The Pain of Connecting and Disconnecting

13 Dealing with Ignorance 143

Meditation: Dealing with hurtful remarks 149

14 Loving Someone with Chronic Pain 153

Meditation: Equanimity: every person is on their own life's journey 159

15 Finding Your People 165

Meditation: Finding strength and joy in connections with others 169

Part 5 Shifting Perspective

16 The Comparing Mind 175

Meditation: Releasing your comparing mind 178

17 Making Meaning 183

Meditation: Making meaning: silver lining backward and forward 188

18 The Paradox of Doing Nothing 193

Meditation: Doing nothing 197

19 The Big Picture 203

Meditation: The big picture 206

20 Stop Trying to Get Better 211

Meditation: OK as you are 215

Epilogue: Closing Thoughts 218

Resources 220

Acknowledgments 222

About the Author 224

Editorial Reviews

"A Best Mindfulness Book of 2021—Mindful.org

"Mindfulness and compassion practices should be in everybody’s toolbox for a happier and healthier life. But people dealing with chronic health challenges have it especially hard. Dr. Wolf’s accessible, down-to-earth—and beautifully designed—book is essential reading for providers who treat chronic illnesses and for those suffering from them."

Arianna Huffington

"If you are living with any type of pain, be it physical or chronic, stress in the mind or body, Outsmart Your Pain is a wonderful resource. Thoughtfully and compassionately written, this book will support and guide you in understanding your relationship to pain and the healing journey."

Sharon Salzberg

"Brilliant in its simplicity and effectiveness, Dr. Wolf offers us truly healing and revolutionary medicine. Try it!"

Jack Kornfield

"This is a fantastic book, bringing together the kindness and depth of a meditation teacher with the science and tools of an experienced physician. Every page is insightful, helpful, and heartfelt. Highly recommended!"

Rick Hanson

"A brilliant guide for transforming our relationship with pain. Step by step, we learn to meet difficult experience with mindfulness, curiosity and kindness, dissolving the resistance that obscures our full aliveness and radiant spirit."

Tara Brach

A Best Mindfulness Book of 2021 —Mindful.org

“Mindfulness and compassion practices should be in everybody’s toolbox for a happier and healthier life. But people dealing with chronic health challenges have it especially hard. Dr. Wolf’s accessible, down-to-earth—and beautifully designed—book is essential reading for providers who treat chronic illnesses and for those suffering from them.”—Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global

“A brilliant guide for transforming our relationship with pain. Step by step, we learn to meet difficult experience with mindfulness, curiosity and kindness, dissolving the resistance that obscures our full aliveness and radiant spirit.”—Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance and Radical Compassion

“This is a fantastic book, bringing together the kindness and depth of a meditation teacher with the science and tools of an experienced physician. Every page is insightful, helpful, and heartfelt. Highly recommended!”—Rick Hanson, PhD, author of Resilient and Buddha's Brain

“Brilliant in its simplicity and effectiveness, Dr. Wolf offers us truly healing and revolutionary medicine. Try it!”—Jack Kornfield, PhD, author of A Path With Heart

“If you are living with any type of pain, be it physical or chronic, stress in the mind or body, Outsmart Your Pain is a wonderful resource. Thoughtfully and compassionately written, this book will support and guide you in understanding your relationship to pain and the healing journey.”—Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Change

From the Publisher