Mindful Compassion

(Paperback)

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Are you ready to transform your mind and emotions To cultivate compassion, stability, self-confidence, and well-being If so, get ready to change the way you experience your life with this highly-anticipated approach using mindfulness and compassion. Therapists have long been aware of mindfulness as a powerful attention skill that can help us live with greater clarity and awareness - but mindfulness alone is not enough to completely change the way a brain works. In order to fully thrive, we require motivation. Compassion, like anger or aggression, is an extremely powerful motivational force that can bring about real, lasting change. Written by the founder of compassion-focused therapy (CFT), Paul Gilbert and former Buddhist monk, Choden, Mindful Compassion is a unique blending of evolutionary and Buddhist psychology. In this breakthrough book, you'll learn how traditional mindfulness and compassion can work in harmony to offer a new, effective, and practical approach to overcoming everyday emotional and psychological problems. If you are ready to end toxic self-criticism, heal trauma and shame, feel worthy and loveable, and be kinder to yourself and others, this book can show you the way.

Reviews

"Mindful Compassion is a perfect mix of heart and smart. Gilbert and Choden blend sensibilities from evolutionary science with practices derived from ancient spiritual traditions. Their book offers an alternative to the driven, competitive, and often destructive forces that shape the modern world. Mindful Compassion is soul-soothing science."
--Kelly G. Wilson, PhD, associate professor of psychology at the University of Mississippi and coauthor of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
"Altruistic love should ideally be a permanent state of mind, an unconditional wish that all beings may find happiness and the causes of happiness. It embraces all beings without exception. When altruistic love encounters suffering, it becomes compassion, which springs from the same benevolence, but more specifically wishes that beings may be free from suffering and from the many possible causes of suffering. Paul Gilbert and Choden's Mindful Compassion is a precious and most welcome contribution toward bringing about a more compassionate society."
--Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist monk and author of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill

"An inspiring book that will be deeply appreciated by many therapists, teachers, and those who come to them for help with their suffering. Gilbert is internationally recognized for his contribution to the understanding and treatment of emotional disorders. His genius is being able to bring compelling theory together with practical application. Choden is widely known as a wonderful teacher, deeply based on his own long practice of mindfulness. In this book they come together to offer us keys that can both unlock our understanding and motivate our practice--showing how mindfulness and compassion realize their deepest potential when cultivated together. A book full of wisdom that will be a wonderful resource for a whole generation."
--Mark Williams, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Oxford and author of The Mindful Way through Depression and Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World

"Packed full of useful resources for therapists and coaches, this book is for anyone interested in the links between evolutionary science, compassion, and mindfulness. It is especially of interest to those who wish to know more about Buddhist perspectives on mindfulness."
--Russ Harris, author of The Happiness Trap
"The growing interaction between Western psychology and Buddhism has great significance to our contemporary understanding of what leads us to suffer in our lives and what can lead to happiness. In this book, Paul Gilbert and Choden create a rich blend of Buddhist and Western thinking around the importance of compassion at the heart of our lives and our emotional health. They offer invaluable insights into the way our minds creates our reality and how we can wake up to what leads to suffering and what can bring us happiness and peace of mind. Mindful Compassion is an illuminating, readable, and necessary background of Western and Buddhist understanding that will support and deepen the current application of mindfulness. It can also be a valuable resource for anyone wishing to deepen their own personal journey of awakening."
--Rob Preece, author of The Wisdom of Imperfection and The Courage to Feel
"The wise and powerful lessons contained in this book hold many keys to our liberation from suffering. Reading the kind words of these authors, it feels as though the reader is receiving a direct, personal transmission from learned experts. Grounded in the state of the art of our science and steeped in the wisdom of Buddhist psychology, Mindful Compassion is often the first book I will recommend to people who seek to deepen their personal practice."
--Dennis Tirch, PhD, adjunct assistant clinical professor at Weill Cornell Medical College and author of The Compassionate-Mind Guide to Overcoming Anxiety
"This book is a brilliant synthesis of two grand psychological traditions--mindfulness and compassion. In clear, compelling prose, Gilbert and Choden illustrate how the human brain gets us into trouble time and time again. Then, they explain why we need both compassion and mindfulness to liberate ourselves from unnecessary suffering, and they offer elegant exercises to train the mind in those vital human capacities. Wise and hopeful, this landmark contribution to mindfulness literature is a modern reevaluation of human nature and the path to emotional freedom and cultural sanity."
--Christopher Germer, PhD, clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School, author of The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion, and coeditor of Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy

Author Bio

Paul Gilbert, PhD, is currently a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Derby in the United Kingdom, director of the Mental Health Research Unit at Derbyshire Mental Health Trust, and author of The Compassionate Mind. He is world renowned for his work on compassion and developed the techniques of compassion focused therapy. Choden has been a practicing Buddhist since 1985. He is an honorary fellow of the University of Aberdeen and teaches their postgraduate study program in Mindfulness. He lives on the Isle of Arran.