What is the place of discontent and unhappiness in human experience and how best can we be with it? There is something about everything that makes it not quite satisfactory. Even things we really love are spoilt by not being quite enough or by going on too long. People entering psychotherapy want to feel better -- more authoritative, less anxious or depressed, more whole -- and although it can help, an enormous amount of difficult and painful emotions continue to arise. Even after years and years of therapy many of us feel that there is no 'happy ever after'. Present with Suffering shows that by becoming present, accepting and kind, we may enfold what hurts us in a more spacious and meaningful way. Chapters consider the discomfort associated with loss, bereavement, emptiness and impermanence.
Present with Suffering: Being with the Things That Hurt, Nigel Wellings and Elizabeth Wilde McCormick, Confer Books, Paperback, 176 pages, $16.95
Nigel Wellings is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, teacher and author who works within a broadly contemplative perspective. He has been engaged with the relationship between psychotherapy and Buddhism for the last forty years. His previous books include Nothing To Lose: Psychotherapy, Buddhism and Living Life (with Elizabeth Wilde McCormick), Why Can't I Meditate? How To Get Your Mindfulness Practice On Track, and Dzogchen, Who's Who & What's What in the Great Perfection.
Elizabeth Wilde McCormick has worked as a psychotherapist for over forty years in both private and national health settings. She was, with Nigel Wellings, a director of training at The Centre for Transpersonal Psychology and she is a founder member and currently a trustee of the Association for Cognitive Analytic Therapy. Liz is also a teacher, trainer and writer with a longstanding interest in the interface between psychotherapy and mindfulness.
Impermanence and attachment
CONTENTS: Present with Suffering
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LIST OF MEDITATIONS
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vii
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FOREWORD
by Henry Schukman
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ix
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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xiii
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INTRODUCTION
by Nigel Wellings
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xvii
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PRESENT WITH SUFFERING IN LOSS AND BEREAVEMENT by Elizabeth Wilde McCormick
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1
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Impermanence and attachment
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3
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The human body in loss and bereavement
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21
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Heart
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39
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Mind the gap
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61
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EMPTINESS by Nigel Wellings
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77
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A meditation on the pain of emptiness
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81
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A meditation on the delight of emptiness
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95
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Being present with emptiness
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117
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GLOSSARY
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173
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ENDNOTES
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183
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INDEX
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187
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