By Kate Picker TIME, Monday, Feb. 03, 2014 The raisins sitting in my sweaty palm are getting stickier by the minute. They don’t look particularly appealing, but when instructed by my teacher, I take one in my fingers and examine it. I notice that the raisin’s skin glistens. Looking closer, I see a small indentation…
by George DuWors,MSW, LICSW, BCD At least three books (Alexander, 1997) (Ash, 1993) (Griffin, 2004) document the integration of Buddhism and 12-step recovery. Another (Fields, 2008) refers to the compatibility of mindfulness and 12-step recovery. The AA Big Book (Anonymous, 2008) and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (Anonymous, 1981), on the other hand, urge…
BY ANDREW M. SEAMANNEW YORK Thu Mar 20, 2014 6:03pm EDT (Reuters Health) – A treatment program incorporating mindfulness meditation is better over the long term than traditional approaches at preventing relapses of drug and alcohol abuse, according to a new study. One year after treatment for substance abuse, far fewer participants who got relapse-prevention…
By Maya Shlanger, Psy.D. Often, the moments that you overcome adversity are the moments when you appreciate the gift that life offers us the most. When you are facing those less-than-enjoyable moments and dealing with great challenges, you may wonder: How hard will this hit me? How soon will I recover? And most important, how…
Opioid painkillers are a double-edged sword. On one hand, they reduce chronic pain, which plagues around 100 million Americans. Yet they can also lead to abuse of painkillers, which all too often develops into a heroin addiction. Researchers from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center conducted a study that assessed the effectiveness of meditation as a…
by Jigme Lingpa, translated by Cortland Dahl The mind-training practices contained in the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism have never before been presented in the English language. The main text translated here, The Steps to Liberation, will be of great interest to Western practitioners, since its instructions are pithy and direct, and experiential rather than…
When we’re on autopilot, we’re not thinking about what we’re doing or why we’re doing it. We’re not paying attention. Research shows that when it comes to drug and alcohol addiction, living in autopilot mode can be a recipe for disaster. If you’re not tuned into why you’re doing what you’re doing, how can you…