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Mindfulness—The Way of the Heart

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The Medicalized Body and Anesthetic Culture

Abstract

Anesthetic consciousness is an obstacle to the organismic valuing process by which people orient themselves to intrinsically motivated, felt values, which is the basis for experiential wisdom. As a coping mechanism in response to the human finitude and mortality, it is a self-defeating, maladaptive strategy. In contrast, the cultivation of mindfulness creates present-centered, embodied awareness of felt values, which enhances the organismic valuing process, and becomes a basis for authentic life review by which we can come to terms with death and dying. Through the cultivation of mindfulness as a style of being, the person develops attentive awareness of interoceptive feedback from the body, which cultivates compassionate and empathic engagement with others.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Point Park University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Brent Dean Robbins

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  1. Brent Dean Robbins
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Robbins, B.D. (2018). Mindfulness—The Way of the Heart. In: The Medicalized Body and Anesthetic Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95356-1_15

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