Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) 8-Week Course

Mindfulness: A Medically Sound Practice for Learning, Growing, and Healing

In 1979, Kabat-Zinn founded the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts to bring a form of meditation known as mindfulness into the medical mainstream.   He created the Gold-Standard program called MBSR, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.  So what exactly is mindfulness?  Yes, it’s a type of meditation and it’s not what you think.  It’s not about clearing the mind or being completely still and having no thoughts…..  That’s just silly….and almost impossible…..  We are human…  Of course, we have thoughts and often a “monkey mind” of thoughts.  Learning MBSR will teach you to become aware of right here; right now…..

Mindfulness is paying attention to the moment on purpose, whatever the moment brings….  Even if it’s unpleasant, a way of learning to pay attention to whatever is happening in your life that allows you a greater sense of connection to your life inwardly and outwardly. Mindfulness is also a practice, a systematic method aimed at cultivating clarity, insight, and understanding. In the context of your health, mindfulness is a way for you to experientially learn to take better care of yourself by exploring and understanding the interplay of mind and body and mobilizing your own inner resources for coping, growing, and healing.  Getting to know yourself better and becoming less reactive and more responsive.

More than three decades of scientific research at medical centers all over the world suggests that training in mindfulness and MBSR can positively and often profoundly affect participants’ ability to reduce medical symptoms and psychological distress while learning to live life more fully.