Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
"Everyone of us is called upon, probably many times, to start a new life. A frightening diagnosis, a marriage, a move, loss of a job or a limb or a loved one, a graduation, bringing a new baby home:
it's impossible to think at first how this all will be possible. Eventually, what moves it all forward is the subterranean ebb and flow of being alive among the living.
In my own worst seasons I've come back from the colorless world of despair by forcing myself to look hard, for a long time, at a single glorious thing: a flame of red geranium outside my bedroom window. And then another: my daughter in a yellow dress. And another: the perfect outline of a full, dark sphere behind the crescent moon, until I learned to be in love with my life again. Like a stroke victim retraining new parts of the brain to grasp lost skills, I have taught myself joy, over and over again."
— Barbara Kingsolver
Welcome to the world of Mindful Living. This program is modeled after the nationally acclaimed Stress Reduction Clinic at the U of Mass Medical Center, the oldest hospital-based program in the country. Developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, the course has served thousands since its inception in 1978.
In this course participants are guided to work with their stress, pain and illness through the practice of mindfulness. This is a moment-to-moment awareness invoked by tuning in to your breath and ultimately all aspects of life. As described in the opening quote, participants come to explore mindfulness as a life force.
The course is a behavioral medicine program that is eight weeks long and can be taken as a complement to whatever medical treatments you may be receiving. It is a way of caring for yourself that only you can. The training helps people to get the most out of living by learning how to participate in life more directly.
To benefit from the training requires some work on your part. It takes commitment to work with yourself in a gentle, daily discipline of meditation and relaxation with guided CDs at home for eight weeks. Ironically, it can be stressful to take this stress reduction program. It can also be empowering to get in touch with your many inner resources and cultivate waking up into your own life that is unfolding before you.
“Meditation is to be aware of what is going on . . . in our bodies, feelings, minds and in the world. Don’t think you have to be solemn to meditate. To meditate well, you have to smile a lot!” Thich Nhat Hanh