Turning Suffering Inside Out: A Zen Approach to Living with Physical and Emotional Pain

by Darlene Cohen and Athena Dixon

Darlene Cohen discovered the secret to finding happiness in the midst of debilitating pain. She shares her knowledge in her popular workshops and now in this book. Cohen, who has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for eighteen years, was hobbling painfully to her local Zen center one day, when she made a discovery that changed her life: if she focused on the foot that was in the air rather than the one that was hitting the pavement, her stamina increased enormously. It was the beginning of a completely different approach to the crippling pain that had beset her for so long. As she demonstrates here, this approach can be expanded to all types of pain: physical, psychological, and spiritual.

Cohen--a certified massage and movement therapist and Zen teacher--proposes a radically liberating alternative to the usual desperate search for pain relief: paradoxically, she says, release from suffering lies in paying closer attention to it. When we keep pain at bay, we keep pleasure at bay, too. The two are interdependent, and our ability to experience each is totally dependent on our understanding of the other.

Enrich your life exponentially, Cohen advises. If your pain is one of the ten things you are aware of, then it constitutes a tenth of your total awareness. Expand your awareness to a hundred things, however, and your pain is only a hundredth of your awareness. With stories, strategies, exercises, and an awareness born of long Zen practice, Cohen shows us how to tap into that enrichment--and how we can lead a satisfying and even joyful life in the very midst of pain.

This book was published in hardcover under the title Finding a Joyful Life in the Heart of Pain.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570628173
• ISBN13: 9781570628177
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Shambhala
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

If You Are Suffering Chronic Pain - this is your book

I read this book several years ago when I sustained a permanent injury to my SI joint. I also have nerve damage there, and in my foot. Some days it really sucks. This book is an excellent approach to managing pain and health issues that seem unmanagable - that feel like they have stolen your life and taken all joy from you. The author's approach is very practical and doable... learn to focus on what is right in your life... on moments. Life is not made up of big events. Life is made of the tiny joys in every day. But when you are buried in pain, you have to train yourself to find them. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. You owe it to yourself, and to your loved ones, to read it. It's very hard to suffer... it's also hard to watch someone suffer. Take a positive step in the middle of what seems impossible and read this book. Really.

Not only for those in pain

A helpful, encouraging blueprint for enriching any life -from those tetter on physical or psychological problems, to those with "mundane" stresses and worries. Not a how-to-book; although there are specific tips and techniques for dealing with physical and/or emotional problems. Not a woe-is-me-book, although Cohen's odessey of illness, growth, nurturing a new perspective and way of being is inspirational and makes the reader feel better about peoplekind. Not a dry medical book, but a warm, human, witty personal book. Almost anyone with a functioning mind, open to new thoughts and feelings, will benefit from this.

For more than just physical pain

Even if you do not have chronic physical pain, this book is a true gift from a wise and experienced teacher. The compassionate observations and suggestions serve as guidelines for any kind of pain -- mental, emotional or spiritual. Thank you, Ms. Cohen,for sharing the fruits of your life and suffering with us.