A life-affirming course in conscious living

Created by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979. MBSR s an empirically-supported 8-week  group training program.  

The course combines formal mindfulness practices such as meditation, breathing exercises, and yoga with informal mindfulness practices like mindful eating and walking. Participants will learn how to cultivate a non-judgmental awareness of the present moment and develop a deeper understanding of their thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. The course will also explore how to integrate mindfulness into daily life and how to apply it to manage stress and improve overall health and happiness. By the end of the course, participants will have a toolkit of mindfulness practices they can use to manage stress and improve their well-being.

The course schedule consists of eight weekly classes and one daylong class on a weekend. This highly participatory, practical course includes:

• Guided instruction in mindfulness meditation practices
• Gentle stretching and mindful yoga
• Inquiry exercises to enhance awareness in everyday life
• Individually tailored instruction
• Group dialogue
• Daily home assignments
• Guided audio files for home practice and a workbook

The course is challenging and life-affirming. The instructors are accomplished and skilled at creating a safe, supportive, and deeply engaging learning environment that allows participants to seek, explore, and inquire.

In this program, you will learn:

• Identify the key aspects of mindfulness as it relates to stress reduction, coping with pain and illness and enhancing well-being
• Articulate the difference between MBSR from relaxation and other distraction techniques that may seem similar but are fundamentally and theoretically quite different in contending with difficulty and enhancing quality of life
• Apply and apply mindfulness techniques in both personal and professional settings as a means of contending more effectively with the demands of both settings
• Apply mindfulness into social interaction with patients, colleagues, supervisors, family and friends to facilitate more effective and mindful communication
• Describe the potential benefits of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (and mindfulness in general) to educate patients and their families about the benefits of such programs in their own lives
• Utilize brief mindfulness practices with patients and family members as a means of contending with acute pain, anxiety and distress