Yasmine Liénard is a physician-psychiatrist and a cognitive-behavioural therapist. She leads group cognitive-therapy sessions based on mindfulness therapy techniques. She is the author of Pour une sagesse moderne — les psychothérapies de la 3e génération (2011).
‘Why do we suffer? Why do we get upset?’ When we force ourselves to act a part that doesn’t really correspond to who we are — because we feel we have to or as part of social interplay — we live, or survive, in a manner that jars, that is not in harmony with our deepest selves. And as a result, we create emotional and mental ‘knots’.
We suffer because we’ve failed to fully express who we are, because we’ve been conditioned and burdened by numerous factors: patterns forged in childhood, family background, education, fears shaped by society. These forms of conditioning engender dissatisfaction and even profound psychic suffering.
At a certain point in life, and for an entire population, it becomes indispensable to feel better about ourselves and to shake off our shackles, if we are to recover a sense of coherence with the Self. But how can we do this? That is what the author shows here, arguing that meditation is the way to recover one’s true nature and learn to love it.
• Dealing with and resolving the widespread malaise and mental suffering that characterise the society we live in.
• A psychological approach inspired by Buddhism.
• Meditation is not a goal in itself but a means to reconnect with one’s true Self.