Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

Many of us desire to deepen our connection to the meaningfulness in our everyday lives, our relationships, and to our true selves. MBSR helps us face life’s challenges and offers a way of being fully present while safely opening our hearts to experience the raw tenderness and unfolding moments that make life so precious.

Begin a path of learning, growth and well-being.

Reawaken your full participation in life through a practice that opens your mind and heart to meet each moment in an authentic way. This program gently guides you towards remobilizing your inner strength and knowledge to confront stress, illness, crisis, pain, and the vast demands of life.

This program incorporates practical, scientifically-supported teachings to reduce stress, facilitate relaxation, promote physical health and emotional wellbeing. By relating directly with our bodies, emotions, and thoughts, we’ll discover the power of mindfulness to change our lives. Through the use of formal and informal mindfulness practices, we can live our lives with a greater sense of ease and balance.

What is MIndfulness?

Mindfulness is the practice of being fully aware of our moment-to-moment life experiences whether they are rooted in pleasurable emotions such as happiness and joy, or less pleasurable emotions like sorrow, fear or anger.  Mindfulness is about being present and awake to take part in our daily lives in a more truthful and meaningful, yet non-judgmental way. 

Mindfulness is a state of deep relaxation and awareness that can be achieved through meditation and body awareness practices.  Through practicing these disciplines, we learn to connect in a more meaningful way to our interactions in life, along with a greater capacity for insight and transformation.  Through meditation, we learn that all of our experiences emerge from the same source; ourselves.  The practice of mindfulness can help us to cultivate our own ability to be present in the moment while embracing stillness within ourselves, to approach situations with intention, non-judgment, an open-mind, and an open-heart.

The Benefits of Mindfulness & MBSR

The life circumstances that draw people to mindfulness instruction are diverse and individual.  The common underlying quality among class participants is the recognition that life can be made up of challenging problems, situations and experiences with a simultaneous openness and desire to work with these challenges in a new way that might bring more peace, sense of control, equanimity, and well-being to our lives. 

Stress - common life stressors of work, family, school, finances, illness, grief, anger, uncertainty, worry, aging and feeling disconnected from life.

Emotional and Mental Health - anxiety, depression, panic, ADD/ADHD, discontentment and sleep problems.

Physical Health - chronic pain and illness, life threatening or serious disease, hypertension, cancer, heart disease, asthma, digestive complaints, headaches, and many other conditions.

Prevention and Well-being - focus on preventative healthcare, a greater sense of well-being and learning how to take better care of yourself and maintain more balance in your life.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is about meeting your life in a deep and meaningful way. It is also about taking care of yourself, to be used in addition to the support your traditional medical and psychological treatments provides. This work is highly respected within the medical community and is a powerful element of integrative medicine.

What to Expect

This is an eight week program which meets for two hours each week and for a one-day retreat, or “Day of Mindfulness” on the Saturday between week six and seven.

The materials are presented in a deeply engaging format; learning is experiential and individualized in nature.

1. •Guided instruction in mindful awareness and meditation practices.
   

2. •Beginning level mindful movement & gentle stretching
   

3. •Supportive group dialog and environment
   

4. •Mindful communication in a group setting
   

5. •Practices to bring mindfulness into daily life
   

6. •Individualized instructional support and guidance
   

7. •Daily homework assignments
   

8. •Workbook for structuring home practice
   

9. •4 practice CDs for mindful meditations & body awareness
   

Throughout this 8 week program, you will be asked to commit to 45-60 minutes of daily practice at home. The program cultivates your inherent ability and wisdom to access the compassionate, patient, present, aware, and non-judgmental nature within yourself in relationship to the people, events, and situations in your life. Because of the intensive quality and experiential nature of the classes, we ask for a commitment from you, to the program and to yourself, to attend all classes and follow the weekly homework assignments. 

A Safe, Supportive and Relaxed Class Environment

We understand that each person has different levels of comfort and safety. The structure of this class strongly supports and respects your personal needs and concerns. This class attracts people from all walks of life and who are experiencing a variety of  health conditions and is designed to be welcoming to everyone.

For example, all shared information is completely confidential, and you can choose to share with the class to the extent of which you feel comfortable. We also honor your role as a quiet observer during this process, while you develop a deeper awareness of our shared experiences in this healing space.

Also, even though the mindful movements in some classes are designed to be gentile and simple, they may not be appropriate for some people. In such circumstances, feel free to “opt out”, as there are always other ways to participate.

MBSR History & Popularity

The mindfulness program we are offering here is based on the work of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, Dr. Saki F. Santorelli and their colleagues at the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts (UMASS) Medical School.  For over 30 years, they have pioneered mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and the integration of meditation and mindfulness into mainstream medicine, health care, and society through patient care; research; academic, medical, and professional education; and leadership initiatives in corporations, nonprofit organizations, governmental agencies, and educational institutions.

Since 1979, more than 18,000 people with a range of medical and psychological conditions have completed mindfulness-based stress reduction programs at the Stress Reduction Clinic at UMASS. More than 250 clinics offer programs based on the model of mindfulness-based stress reduction developed at UMASS.

Science & The Investigation of Mindfulness Practices

Since the inception of the Stress Reduction Clinic in 1979, MBSR research at UMASS, the emerging research into mindfulness practices has grown tremendously. There have now been over 1000 published papers in peer reviewed scientific journals demonstrating the benefits mindfulness can have on the mind and body.

Mindfulness is now being studied in major universities, teaching hospitals and scientific institutions worldwide. Scientists and doctors are investigating scientific inquiries into what mindfulness is, how mindfulness can be measured, and the effects mindfulness has on the biology of the brain and body.

Clinical research has been conducted to examine the numerous beneficial effects experienced by practitioners and participants of mindfulness training programs and mindfulness practices.

Science has discovered that mindfulness can change our physical brain and mental functioning.  Gray matter in long-time meditators is significantly greater than that in non-meditators, and patterns in brain activity during meditation shift into those associated with calmer more focused states of attention.  Meditation has demonstrated an ability to affect neuroplasticity, our brain’s ability to form new connections, and the regulation of our gene expression through epigenetic processes in response to environmental changes.

Science has also seen the effects mindfulness can have on our physical bodies in regards to immune function, chronic pain, stress, anxiety, depression, a reduction in serum cholesterol levels and blood pressure.

There is a large body of research into the effects mindfulness practices have in the following areas:

1. •Stress Reduction
   

2. •Reducing chronic physical pain
   

3. •Boosting the immune system
   

4. •Coping with difficult life events such as the death of a loved one or major illness
   

5. •Dealing with negative emotions like anger, fear and greed
   

6. •Increased self-awareness to detect harmful reactive patterns of thought, feeling & action
   

7. •Improving attention or concentration
   

8. •Enhancing positive emotions including happiness and compassion
   

9. •Increasing interpersonal skills and relationships
   

10. •Reducing addictive behaviors (eating disorder, alcoholism, and smoking)
    

11. •Enhancing performance in sports and academics
    

12. •Stimulating and releasing creativity
    

13. •Positive changes in the actual structure of our brains

MBSR Fall 2010