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Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a way of learning to relate directly to whatever is happening in your life, a way of taking charge of your life, mobilizing your inner resources and consciously and systemically working on your own stress and the challenges and demands of every day life. It is the practice of paying attention to our experiences as they unfold and connects the mind and the body. Mindfulness techniques teach us how to observe our thoughts, emotions and physical sensations without judgment. It is this nonjudgmental approach that allows us to cultivate attitudes of openness and receptivity with an overall approach to gentleness and nurturing towards ourselves and others. Mindfulness can open the door to insight. Fortunately, Mindfulness is not something that you have to “get” or acquire. It is already within you- a deep internal resource available and patiently waiting to be recognized and used in the service of learning, growing, and healing.

An invitation to move toward greater balance, control, and participation in your life

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979 at the Stress Reduction Clinic, University of Massachusetts Medical Centre. There are now over 250 MSBR programs world wide including in some of the worlds leading medical centers. Klinic in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association offers an eight week MBSR course to assist people manage stress, improve self care and promote good mental health. People who have attended MBSR programs/courses report that it has helped them to recognize and mobilize their inner psychological resources , manage stress, either at home, at work or in relationships, recover from the effects of traumatic experiences and take better care of the self.

What is Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction?

The MBSR course consists of eight weekly sessions and a one day-long silent retreat on a Saturday. It is designed to introduce Mindfulness practice as a way of reducing stress and developing greater balance, and a fuller participation in your life. In the course you will practice skills to improve your ability to let go of the past, worry less about the future and live more fully in the present. The course includes guided mindfulness meditations, mindful stretching movement and yoga and group dialogue and discussions aimed at enhancing awareness in every day life. All instruction is modified for each individual’s needs. You are provided with daily assignments contained in two-guided meditation CDs and weekly handouts.

Why do people participate in MBSR?

The reasons that people participate in MBSR are diverse as…

What are the benefits?

The potential benefits can include but are not limited to…

For more info on MBSR groups go to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), Winnipeg Division

Main MBSR mindfulness practices

Breathing

Most of us take our breath for granted. We never seem to notice it until something interferes with its life giving flow. Becoming aware of the breath is the beginning of mindfulness.

Find a quiet place to sit for a few minutes. Sit comfortably with your feet on the floor and your hands resting on your legs or in your lap. Your eyes can be open or closed. If you keep them open, just relax your gaze. Sit so your back is straight but not stiff with your head balanced on your neck and shoulders.

It is best to develop a daily routine of checking in with yourself by focusing on the breath. Notice the flow of air as it enters your nostrils and expands your abdomen. Perhaps you can feel subtle changes in temperature as the air enters your body and as it leaves on the out breath. Staying with these sensations as they cycle through the in breath and the out breath may be hard at first. Thoughts, worries, and outside distractions can pull our awareness away. This is normal. It’s not about trying to turn our thoughts off or shut out the world. When you have found that your attention has wandered, just gently bring it back to the breath. This is not a problem. Thinking is what minds do. Just keep bringing your attention back to the present moment. Setting aside ten minutes a day to check in with yourself, using your breath as an anchor, can help your mind and body settle.

Walking

Like the previous exercise, this mindful awareness practice helps to bring us to the present moment. Most of us walk every day, sometimes in a hurry to get to where we are going. Our minds can be so busy we have trouble remembering how we got to our destination. But we can take an everyday opportunity like walking to come back to ourselves by noticing the sensations of walking when we walk.

Focus your attention on how it feels to make contact with the ground, shift your weight, find your balance, and step again, really experiencing your feet and legs in motion. If your worries intrude and you find yourself distracted, gently bring your awareness back to the present experience of walking. Allow your mind to rest in the motion. Notice each little aspect; the sensations as the heel, sole and toes make contact with the ground and push off as the other foot takes up the task of carrying you along. You may choose to walk more slowly but it is possible to walk at a normal pace and still be aware of what you are doing. Practicing mindful walking even a few minutes during your regular day wherever you are, inside, outside, town or country will help you to settle into the present moment.

Body Scan

In this exercise we start by sitting comfortably in a chair or lying on the floor at a time when we are likely to have ten or fifteen minutes to ourselves.

Begin by taking a couple of minutes to become aware of the breath, and feel the sensation of your body making contact with the chair or the floor. Then bring your awareness to your left foot, noticing any sensations that may be there, changes in temperature, tingling, anything or nothing as all. Just noticing without any need to change anything. After a moment or two move your awareness to your leg with the same intention to be aware, then your hip area, and then your right foot, leg and hip. As you move up your lower body you might find places where tension is present. Just breathe into that area and, on an out breath, release your attention. Focus now on your lower back, abdomen and torso giving these areas of your body the same attention you afforded the lower part. If you find any tension in your lower back, were many of us experience tightness, allow the breath to go there without the need to judge or change your experience. From the torso move your awareness to your shoulders, neck and head. Now take in the sensations of your body as a whole allowing your breath to flow from your head to your toes and back again. Resting briefly in the awareness of your body in this moment.

Practicing the body scan may help you become more in tune with how you are feeling. It is one more way to live in the present.

Further...

A wealth of mindfulness resources continue to emerge, some of them as workshops, books and websites. Even television programs are finding the topic fascinating. If you come across a good web site, book or workshop, share it with others.

de-stress.ca, a project sponsored by the Government of Manitoba, Department of Healthy Living and managed by Klinic Community Health Centre Klinic Community Health Centre, Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada

Sponsored by the Government of Manitoba, Department of Healthy Living.
© 2009 Klinic Community Health Centre • Winnipeg Manitoba Canada