Can the Shambhala Buddhist Path of the Four Dignities be a tool for recovery? Can the tools and teachings of Shambhala work with the Twelve Step recovery principles to overcome that seeming hopeless state of mind and body'. Understanding our own basic goodness, we can face the world free from addiction without doubt or fear to engage the world helping others break the cocoons of addiction.
This new edition includes a Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn, how to run an Eight Step Recovery meeting, and how to teach a Mindfulness Based Addiction Recovery programme, including teacher's notes and handouts.All of us can struggle with the tendency towards addiction, but for some it can destroy their lives. In our recovery from addiction, the Buddha's teachings offer an understanding of how the mind works, tools for helping a mind vulnerable to addiction and ways to overcome addictive behaviour, cultivating a calm mind without resentments.
Merging Buddhist mindfulness practices with the Twelve Step program, this updated edition of the bestselling recovery guide One Breath at a Time will inspire and enlighten you to live a better, healthier life. Many in recovery turn to the Twelve Steps to overcome their addictions, but struggle with the spiritual program. But what they might not realize is that Buddhist teachings are intrinsically intertwined with the lessons of the Twelve Steps, and offer time-tested methods for addressing the challenges of sobriety. In what is considered the cornerstone of the most significant recovery movement of the 21st century, Kevin Griffin shares his own extraordinary journey to sobriety and how he integrated the Twelve Steps of recovery with Buddhist mindfulness practices. With a new foreword by William Alexander, the author of Ordinary Recovery, One Breath at a Time takes you on a journey through the Steps, examining critical ideas like Powerlessness, Higher Power, and Moral Inventory through the lens of the core concepts of Buddhism—the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, mindfulness, loving-kindness, and more. The result is a book that presents techniques and meditations for finding clarity and awareness in your life, just as it has for thousands of addicts and alcoholics.
Bestselling author and renowned Buddhist teacher Noah Levine adapts the Buddha's Four Noble Truths and Eight Fold Path into a proven and systematic approach to recovery from alcohol and drug addiction—an indispensable alternative to the 12-step program. While many desperately need the help of the 12-step recovery program, the traditional AA model's focus on an external higher power can alienate people who don't connect with its religious tenets. Refuge Recovery is a systematic method based on Buddhist principles, which integrates scientific, non-theistic, and psychological insight. Viewing addiction as cravings in the mind and body, Levine shows how a path of meditative awareness can alleviate those desires and ease suffering. Refuge Recovery includes daily meditation practices, written investigations that explore the causes and conditions of our addictions, and advice and inspiration for finding or creating a community to help you heal and awaken. Practical yet compassionate, Levine's successful Refuge Recovery system is designed for anyone interested in a non-theistic approach to recovery and requires no previous experience or knowledge of Buddhism or meditation.
This book provides a long-needed alternative to the reliance upon a "higher power" that is so much a part of traditional twelve-step addictions recovery programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous. In simple and practical language, Alexander, himself a recovering alcoholic, introduces a new, nonreligious approach to addiction recovery that he calls "Ordinary Recovery", which draws upon the wisdom of mindfulness practice.
A fresh resource to help those in recovery from addiction find their own spiritual path through the Buddhist practice of mindfulness. For those of us in recovery, Mindfulness and the 12 Steps offers a fresh approach to developing our own spiritual path through the Buddhist practice of mindfulness, or bringing one's awareness to focus on the present moment. We can revisit each of the Twelve Steps, exploring the interplay of ideas between mindfulness and Twelve Step traditions--from the idea of living "one day at a time" to the emphasis on prayer and meditation--and learn to incorporate mindfulness into our path toward lifelong sobriety. Through reflections, questions for inquiry, and stories from Buddhist teachers and others who practice mindfulness in recovery, Mindfulness and the 12 Steps will help us awaken new thinking and insights into what it means to live fully--body, mind, and spirit--in the here and now.
All of us are caught up in addictions—big or small. Enough! presents a practical path that releases us from the grip of negative habits and addictions that block a full and meaningful life. We can learn how to undo our habits and addictions, but to do this we have to first find their triggers. With the right techniques, we can disarm them and learn more effective ways for dealing with the pain that so often underlies our problem-causing behaviors. Without the support of effective methods, we are likely to return to our addictions when pain and painful issues arise. Chönyi Taylor helps us break through that cycle, reconnect with ourselves and others, and feel more centered in our spiritual awareness. The meditations in this book are designed to develop familiarity with states of mind that can release us from addictive patterns. Presenting the essence of Buddhism without the jargon and fusing it with Western psychology, Chönyi Taylor engagingly combines practical exercises that were developed through her workshops with meditations and stories and presents invaluable insights about how the mind works. Enough! is intended for anyone who is looking for a powerful and effective way out of addiction, regardless of religious or secular background, and is suitable for self-study or as part of a guided program.
The classic guide to enlightened living that first presented the Buddhist path of the warrior to a Western audience There is a basic human wisdom that can help solve the world’s problems. It doesn’t belong to any one culture or region or religious tradition—though it can be found in many of them throughout history. It’s what Chögyam Trungpa called the sacred path of the warrior. The sacred warrior conquers the world not through violence or aggression, but through gentleness, courage, and self-knowledge. The warrior discovers the basic goodness of human life and radiates that goodness out into the world for the peace and sanity of others. Interpreting the warrior's journey in contemporary terms, Trungpa shows that, in discovering the basic goodness of human life, the warrior learns to radiate that goodness out into the world for the peace and sanity of others. That’s what the Shambhala teachings are all about—and this is the book that has been presenting them to a wide and appreciative audience for more than twenty years.
A trauma-sensitive companion to the Twelve Steps: body-based exercises for deepening your recovery, expanding your spiritual practice, preventing relapse, and understanding the root of your addiction. For readers of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and Trauma and the 12 Steps Considering addiction through a trauma-informed lens, The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps offers an accessible, lyrical, and practical guide to Twelve Step recovery that emphasizes self-compassion, relationship, embodied awareness, and ecological connection. Whether you're suffering from an active addiction, seeking freedom from self-limiting behaviors, or hoping to establish or grow your spiritual practice, this innovative guide offers a holistic roadmap to navigating the journey of recovery. Somatic and spiritual counselor, educator, and writer Nina Pick shows how addiction is rooted in survival strategies that protect us from overwhelmingly painful experiences. Pick draws on attachment theory, polyvagal theory, somatics, mindfulness, trauma therapy, Jewish and integrative spirituality, and her own long-time experience in recovery to expand the Twelve Step practice beyond the conventional cognitive approach into one of “soul recovery”—a profound and sensuously embodied spiritual path. With reflections and practices designed to complement the literature and tools offered by your specific Twelve Step program, The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps shows you how to: Explore powerlessness and unmanageability Integrate dance, vocalization, and other creative arts to enhance your recovery Create transformative ritual and ancestral healing practices Expand your ideas of Higher Power and prayer Forgive yourself and others Cultivate daily practices for reflection and meditation Understand the intersections of addiction, developmental trauma, and intergenerational trauma Drawing on plant medicine, mindfulness, poetry, self-directed touch, ritual, and guided imagery, The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve Steps nurtures a joyful and heart-centered path to recovery and complements the healing work of Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kolk, and Arielle Schwartz.
