Triratna Ordained Buddhist brings mindful pain management book to America
‘I admire Vidyamala tremendously - her approach could save your life and give it back to you. Nobody else need travel the long, lonely path of pain.’ Prof Jon Kabat-Zinn
15.05.15 Triratna Buddhist Order Member, world pain expert and internationally recognized mindfulness leader, Vidyamala Burch, 55, founder and director of Breathworks, is bringing her new blueprint for pain management to America in May and June this year. She will launch of award-winning ‘YOU ARE NOT YOUR PAIN, Using Mindfulness to Relieve Pain, Reduce Stress, and Restore Well-Being - An Eight-Week Program’ as well as hold some events in New York state.
YOU ARE NOT YOUR PAIN, already published in the UK as MINDFULNESS FOR HEALTH, won the prestigious British Medical Association prize for Popular Medicine in 2014, and incorporates Breathworks’ Mindfulness Based Pain Management (MBPM), which is taught around the world and has helped tens of thousands of people live with pain, stress and illness.
Breathworks MBPM has been created by Vidyamala’s own experience of living with chronic pain for over thirty years. Vidyamala, says: “When I was a young woman and in intensive care for spinal injuries I was given the news that there was nothing more that could be done for me medically and that I would just have to learn to live with my pain, I was in absolute despair. Yet, at that terrible time, I was also so fortunate to have an awakening; my own mind, through meditation, could be the healer that I needed.
My interest was piqued. I went onto attend a Buddhist weekend retreat, where I became certain that this was the route I wanted to travel down and I quickly became committed to the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) now called the Triratna Buddhist Community. I went on to travel from New Zealand to the UK to live for five years at the Taraloka Buddhist Centre for women, where I was ordained and received the name Vidyamala.”
In the late 90s, with the secular mindfulness movement in its infancy, Vidyamala discovered the work of Prof. Jon Kabat-Zinn, who wrote about turning towards difficulty, rather than trying to escape it, Vidyamala continues: “This was something I had never done through all my meditation experience.
“I began using meditation to turn towards my experience in its fullness and to bring compassion and kindness to the pain I was experiencing, which has become the focus for all my work with mindfulness for health.”
In 2001, Vidyamala started running mindfulness-based courses, which formed the basis for MBPM programmes, as now offered by Breathworks, a social enterprise founded by Vidyamala in 2003, based out of the Manchester Buddhist Centre.
“The motivation behind all my work is remembering myself as that young woman, in the hospital bed, with my life and body in crisis, not knowing where to turn. I had to figure it all out by myself. Now, I feel very privileged to be in America and to be able to hold my hand out to anyone who finds themselves in a similar situations of pain, illness or stress, so they don’t have to travel alone down the same path of suffering as I did.” Vidyamala said.
· Vidyamala will be launching YOU ARE NOT YOUR PAIN at The New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care Thursday 28th May and holding a Half Day Practice Workshop on Saturday May 30th at The New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.
· Vidyamala will be holding a 3-day residential event at the Garrison Institute May 22-25
· Breathworks will also be holding a 4 day introductory retreat in Santa Cruz, California from 19th – 23rd June for anyone interested in learning mindfulness.
For more information on all the events and to buy You Are Not Your Pain, please visit http://www.breathworks-mindfulness.org.uk/training-usa-2015.
For more information contact: , (0)161 834 1110
ENDS.
Notes to editors:
- AVAILABLE FORMATS AND BOOK DETAILS: Trade Paperback Trade Paperback ISBN: 9781250052674 ISBN10: 125005267X 6.15 x 9.21 inches, 256 pages Audio Run Time: 0:0:0 Includes a CD of meditations and 25 blackand-white illustrations $ 19.99 Retailers: IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, BooksAMillion, Powells, Walmart, Overstock
- Unabridged Digital Audio ISBN: 9781427258144 ISBN10: 1427258147 Audio Run Time: 7:0:0 $ 17.99 Retailers: Audible, Apple iTunes Buy It Now: http://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250053817 http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Your-Pain-Well-Being-An/dp/125005267X Contact: Marlena Bitner - +1 646-307-5078 or
- Macmillan Audio Unabridged Compact Disc ISBN: 9781427258137 ISBN10: 1427258139 Audio Run Time: 7:0:0 6 CDs, 7 hours $ 29.99 Retailers: IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, BooksAMillion, Powells, Walmart, Overstock
- e-Book ISBN: 9781250053817 ISBN10: 1250053811 256 pages Audio Run Time: 0:0:0 $ 9.99 Retailers: Kindle, B+N Nook, iBooks,ebooks.com, Google Play, Kobo
- Breathworks' mission is to help people living with pain, stress and illness to lead happier, healthier lives. We are internationally recognised leaders in Mindfulness Based Pain Management (MBPM), providing *Mindfulness for Health* and *Mindfulness for Stress *programmes. Breathworks is a 'not for profit' social enterprise, registered in England and Wales with Companies House and the Community Interest Company Regulator. Vidyamala set up the Breathworks Centre in Manchester to teach the programme to others. There are now Breathworks trainers in 15 countries and the organisation has helped tens of thousands of people find relief from chronic pain, illness and stress.
- Vidyamala also wrote LIVING WELL WITH PAIN AND ILLNESS and co-wrote YOU ARE NOT YOUR PAIN with best selling mindfulness author Dr Danny Penman.
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