Sharon Salzberg – Metta Hour – Ep. 236 – Sameet Kumar

For episode 236, Sharon is in conversation with Sameet Kumar, Ph.D. Sameet is the clinical psychologist for the Memorial Cancer Institute.

Sameet specializes in working with cancer patients and their caregivers. He is the author of Grieving Mindfully, The Mindful Path Through Worry and Rumination. He is part of a new anthology, coming out in May of 2024 from New Harbinger Publications, How to Grieve What We’ve Lost.

In this episode, Sharon and Sameet discuss:
  • How Sameet came to grief counseling
  • American culture’s denial of the first noble truth
  • The human experience of pain/pleasure
  • Grief is whatever it is to you
  • The non-existent timeline for grief
  • Widening the scope of what losses affect us
  • The tools of ACT, CBT and Mindfulness for grief
  • Sameet’s new anthology book
  • Dampening the grief  stress response 
  • Sameet’s support of COVID front-line workers
  • Working with add-ons 
  • The role of Ram Dass in Sameet’s life

Sameet closes the conversation with a guided meditation on the refuge tree. You can learn more about Sameet’s work right here.

Listen to more from Sharon Salzberg:
Jump into the first episode of the Real Life Series with Jon Kabat-Zinn
Tune into Ep. 1 of the Metta Hour to learn about The Buddha Within
Listen to Joseph Goldstein’s Meditative Story, Hosted By Rohan Gunatillake
Hear from Tara Brach and Sharon Salzberg in Ep. 56 of Metta Hour
Sharon Salzberg