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Teach Us to Sit Still

A Sceptic's Search for Health and Healing

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Teach Us to Sit Still

By: Tim Parks
Narrated by: Tim Parks
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About this listen

Just when the medical profession had given up on me and I on it, just when I seemed to be walled up in a life sentence of chronic pain, someone proposed a bizarre way out: sit still, they said, and breathe...

TEACH US TO SIT STILL is the visceral, thought-provoking and improbably entertaining story of Tim Parks' quest to overcome ill health. Bedevilled by a crippling condition which nobody could explain or relieve, he confronts hard truths about the relationship between the mind and the body, the hectic modern world and his life as a writer. Following a fruitless journey through the conventional medical system he finds solace in an improbable prescription of breathing exercises that eventually leads him to take up meditation. This was the very last place Parks expected or wanted to find answers; anything New Age simply wasn't his scene.

Meantime, he is drawn to consider the effects of illness on the work of other writers, the role of religions in shaping our sense of self, and the influence of sport and art in our attitudes to health and well-being. Most of us will fall ill at some point; few will describe that journey with the same verve, insight and radiant intelligence as Tim Parks. Captivating and inspiring, TEACH US TO SIT STILL is an intensely personal - and brutally honest - story for our times. SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME TRUST BOOK PRIZE FOR MEDICINE IN LITERATURE.

©2010 Tim Parks (P)2012 Random House AudioGo Health Meditation Medicine

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All stars
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Great book to hear and get lost in. Would recommend that you give it pacience.

Well written and interesting..

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Very interesting and easy to listen. It is interesting to learn how a meditation retreat looks like. Excellent.

Interesting

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The beginning of this non-fiction account of Tim Parks’s health problems is at times excruciating: describing prostate, bladder and gut illnesses that defy the medical establishment’s attempts to diagnose and treat them. But I’m glad I stuck with it. Parks is remarkably candid. It’s part personal medical case history, part autobiography, part literary criticism (examining other writers who write about and in ill health). The audiobook is narrated by Tim Parks and it’s interesting finally to hear his voice after reading so many of his books. By no means his best work, but a stimulating connector between his other books.

Excruciating but stick with it

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Interesting enough that I have listened to it twice. Very well written and engaging, idiosyncratic. sophisticated and interesting. The account of his ailment could have done with an edit - you need to get almost halfway through the book before the really interesting stuff about meditation, suffering, words and the self get going.

Idiosyncratic, sophisticated and interesting

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Tim Parks, was so open about his beliefs and experiences. The fact that he could look past his self taught skepticisms and the beauty he allowed into his life, when questioning his reality, he undergoes a new perspective on his life and even his lifestyle choice. He wasn't afraid to talk about his prostate problems and does go into some amount of detail to the fact. I could however look past that, as in the later chapters it gets less medical reference and more, Tim Parks.

It was interesting to hear a skeptics criticisms and lack of belief in many alternative practices. I loved the transformation he underwent as he delved into his body and learned how to love himself, and not in that wavy new age style but essentially grounded.

It helped me see the beauty in everyone and how the childhood holds so much angst and emotional weight to us. It also helped me to be even more open to the notion that pain is not my own and that it is an experience that we can learn so much from.

Tim Parks - Skeptic extraordinaire!

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Fascinating..... and beautifully read. A revelation and a delight. All men should read this!! A real eye opener about how suppressed/repressed stress, anxiety and pain can remanifest as illness - and how it’s possible to work through. Beautifully, unflinchingly and wittily written - unusual, honest and thought provoking. Loved it.

Fabulous narration and wonderful/unusual memoir

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I kept listening to this book expecting some wisdom or revelation. It didn't happen. I've only kept listening because I was driving but no way would I recommend this book to anyone.

Naval gazing rubbish

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The first half is slow, but useful and interesting. He is effectively cured at this stage, with a single throwaway line. It really can’t have been that bad then!

Second half is a complete waste of time: boring, longwinded, egotistical, self righteous and pointless nonsense. The only thing to take away from it is, listen to how great and well read I am. Infuriating.

First half interesting. Second half appalling

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first half of the book very good story about his illness and hospital visits etc however still goes off at trangents, confusing the listener, second half even worse, this book could have had great potential to enlighten the listener, sadly it does not, lots of waffle .... i became bored yet carried on listening waiting for nugets of inspiration which were not there. the story narrated very well.

has potention but lost its way

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