Full Catastrophe Living, By Jon Kabat- Zin - Book Report/Review Example

As a function of understanding the fact that there are various approaches and most of them require a series of highly negative tradeoffs, one can begin to fully appreciate the unique approach that Kabat-Zin gives to the reader. Kabat-Zin’s approach centers upon the use of mindfulness meditation as a strategy to balance the mind and create a stress-free healthful environment which the body and mind can come to realize that the stressing factors are in fact of far lesser importance and determinacy than the brain ultimately latches on to.

Moreover, as a means of presenting meditation to the casual reader, the author presents a highly formulaic approach that helps to demystify much of the process that has otherwise been misunderstood as somehow unattainable to the average individual. As a function of presenting the information in such a way, the author is able to provide a step by step initiation into the practice of active meditation and the means whereby such a skill, once learned, can help to not only reduce stress within the individual’s life but also provide a level of healthful benefit.

Rather than having any of the negative side effects that some of the pharmacological means which have previously been discussed could portend for the potential user, this meditational approach has zero side effects and has been statistically and scientifically proven to beneficial to the user. As a function of increasing the overall ethos of the work, the author also engages in a very methodical discussion of the means whereby scientific discussions and analysis has proven that stress is intimately and directly tied to illness.

By presenting this information to the reader, interspersed with the discussion of the ways in which meditation can be implemented within an otherwise active lifestyle, the author creates the foundational and data specific rationale for utilizing meditation as a means to combat and/or reduce stress. As a function of presenting the attestable power that meditation can have with respect to an increase in overall health and outlook, the author goes on to tangentially discuss a few other means by which mindfulness is linked to healing (Zinn 1991).

As a function of how this is useful for stress management, the reader can instantly note that the level to which alternative means, proven by science, which reflect little if any side effects , are of vital importance to seeking to better the health of a large number of people who suffer from stress related issues and their precursors. Similarly, the book itself had a profound effect on this author as it was evidence of an otherwise simple technique which displayed no negative side effects and a litany of positive effects on the patient as well as his/her overall health.

With regards to what such a book has helped this author to learn, it can be definitively said that the approach and data that has been analyzed has proven to this author that although our understanding of medical science and the relationship between stress, the mind, and the overall health of the body is partially understood, the fact remains that a great deal of linkages between the metaphysical representations of medicine and its affects upon the patient remain yet unknown and unstudied.