“mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way ...€¦ · stairs, to run for the bus,...

IntroductionMBSR Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Eight Week Course

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a

particular way: on purpose, in the present

moment, and non-judgmentally.”

Jon Kabat Zinn

The MBSR Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Eight Week Course enables you to build increased resilience to the demands of everyday life improving physical and psychological health, happiness and wellbeing.

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” [1]

Mindfulness is a way of training the mind.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a way of training the mind to pay attention to each moment in time, in a non-judgmental way. When you bring your attention to your body, to your breath, your thoughts, your feelings and the world around you in the present moment, you will find that your relationship to your experience of life changes fundamentally.

2Copyright © 2014 Huw Griffiths. All rights reserved.

Course Introduction

Mindfulness is secular and of deeply practical benefit to everyone.

Mindfulness is rooted in ancient contemplative traditions and has since been adapted for non religious and therapeutic purposes. The entry of mindfulness into the mainstream is largely attributed to the work of John Kabat Zinn who launched the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979.[2]

The combined insights gained from meditation practices together with current scientific breakthroughs in understanding into how the brain works show how we can use our mind as a powerful and effective force to bring positive change and promote increased wellbeing and happiness for ourselves and others.

The benefits of mindfulness.

Mindfulness can be practiced by anyone to help improve build resilience to the demands of everyday life and improve physical and emotional wellbeing.

There is a growing body of evidence which shows that mindfulness practice can support the immune system[3] and effectively address the impact of stress,[4] anxiety, depression and chronic pain.[5] It has been shown to improve emotional intelligence, working memory and attention span.[6]

The ability to manage stress is critical to our physical health and mental wellbeing. Many chronic diseases have been strongly linked with stress, anxiety and depression. [7]

Mindfulness supports body and mind to return to a more relaxed state of balance and increased well being. This can help to deal with many symptoms associated with a wide variety of conditions including: Chronic pain, Low back pain, Fibromyalgia, Rheumatoid arthritis, Cardiovascular disease, Diabetes, IBS. [8]

Copyright © 2014 Huw Griffiths. All rights reserved.3

Mindfulness helps to relieve stress.

Mindfulness encourages us to be present in the moment with full awareness of whatever it is we are doing. Paying attention in this way we do not fall into unconscious stress reactivity and as a result we experience less stress.

Often we react to challenging experiences in life with anxiety and subtle degrees of stress reaction, without being aware of it. When registering any form of threat our body / mind develops a state of high arousal. Our heart rate goes up and our body functions change as we prepare to fight off the danger or run away. This is called the “Fight and Flight” response.The part of the brain which controls these reactions is the Limbic centre of the mid brain area.[9]

The Limbic centre is linked with emotional memory and is also responsible for creating and stimulating the autonomic nervous system. This Fight and Flight centre of our brain accounts for the production of a variety of neuro- chemicals. As we stimulate the limbic centre in response to perceived threat with emotionally charged thoughts, it responds automatically, firing off increased levels of hormones including Oxytocin and Adrenaline.

Mindfulness practice weakens this link between the reaction of the Limbic system and the initial perceived threat. We can more easily focus our conscious attention and separate our thoughts from the automatically generated emotions they may have created. This diminishes our instinctive, habitual, emotional Fight and Flight responses and enables us to approach and respond to situations calmly and with more consideration.

By learning to pay attention to this very moment now, and to listen to your feelings and sensations as they happen to you, mindfulness gives you the possibility to respond to situations rather than to just reacting without awareness.


Forming new habits.

Whatever you are in your world you have practised it - good, bad, liked, disliked – nothing in the world comes without practising. If you have fear, you have practised it; If you have anger you have practised it; If you have potatoes you have planted potatoes; if you have flowers you have planted flowers; - you won’t get flowers by continuing to plant potatoes – it’s as simple as that. John Garrie Roshi [10]

It is never too late to change our relationship to life. We can continue throughout our lives to learn and to respond to life events in new ways. Ways that support our health and encourage greater happiness and wellbeing.

Our experiences in life, feelings, sensations and thoughts affect changes in the brain and influence how we see and live our life. Up until the 1970s the view was that when we reached adulthood the brain and its functioning was fully formed and remained static.

More recent developments in neuroscience reveal profound insights into how our brains work and how neurological functions can shape our experience of life. The adult brain has the ability, called neural plasticity, to form new neural pathways, remaining open to change and therefore adaptable throughout life. [11]

The more that we practice something, even spending as little as 30 minutes a day, training our mind to do something different can influence the plasticity of our brains that results in measurable change.


The Eight Week Course

The MBSR Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course is a practical, step by step guide designed to assist you on the path of your journey of mindfulness discovery and experience.

The course is delivered over eight weekly sessions and introduces the key ideas and practices of mindfulness. The core mindfulness techniques used are drawn from The MBSR Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program as developed by John Kabat Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre in America. This has been shown in many clinical trials to be an effective way to help relieve stress, anxiety and depression as well as bringing many benefits to overall quality of life.

The course has been adapted by Huw Griffiths Lic Ac who draws on over 23 years of experience working in the field of mind body medicine treating stress and stress related illness. Huw is an experienced mindfulness teacher and delivers mindfulness meditation and (MBSR) mindfulness based stress reduction to individuals, groups, schools and organizations in the UK. A long term meditator with over 30 years of experience, his personal engagement with meditation and mindfulness practice provides a basis for much of his work and teaching.

Each weekly session offers simple practical guidelines and gentle easy to follow exercises. These are designed to empower you to ‘be in the present moment’ and to experience what it is to be mindful. All the exercises are supported by a series of audio and video files to assist your practice.

As you follow the curriculum, and practice for 20- 40 minutes each day, you will progressively build and develop your mindfulness skills. Then naturally you will begin to integrate what you have learned into your everyday life.

The first three weekly course sessions will introduce the main mindfulness methods. These will enable you to begin to experience, ‘being mindful’ in the present moment. 1. Automatic Pilot. The Body Scan. 2. Calming the Mind. Mindfulness Sitting Meditation 3. Mindfulness in Movement These three disciplines will become the main stay of your daily practice. It is helpful to alternate between them and it is strongly encouraged that you spend between 20 and 40 minutes a day practicing them. A strong commitment to regular practice will support and deepen your mindfulness and help it to flourish and grow.


The following weekly course sessions 4, 5, 6, 7,8 are designed to help you establish the basis of mindfulness within your daily life.’

4. Coping With Stress 5. Mindful Acceptance 6. Mindfulness in Communication 7. Mindful Lifestyle Choices 8. Your Journey. Maintaining your Mindfulness Skills

Developing your mindfulness skills.

Mindfulness is cultivated through the practice of mindfulness meditation and exercises.

A regular daily practice is the most effective way to progress on your mindfulness journey. The more you practice, the more you will develop awareness and the power of your focus and concentration. This does not mean that you have to sit in meditation posture all day. As you develop awareness of what it is to ‘be in the present moment’ naturally you will begin to extend and integrate what you have felt and learned through your mindful experience, into your everyday life.

Being mindful is not a way of opting out of reality. It is an intelligent and balanced approach to the way in which we use our minds in response to the relentless pressures of 21st century living.Learning mindfulness is not always easy. We have a lifetime of unconscious habits that will seek to take us away from being mindful. A strong intention to practice is needed to carry you through the difficult times.

Learning mindfulness is similar to wanting to run a marathon. Before your set off on the marathon you first have to get fit. You go to the gym everyday and you set yourself out a training regime. After a few weeks you begin to notice that you are getting fitter and stronger. After a few months you know that you can run longer and easier. As you train you do not only feel fit whilst you are in the gym but you begin to take your fitness out of the gym and into the ‘real’ world. It is easier to walk up


stairs, to run for the bus, to walk in the woods at the weekend. You transition your fitness from the gym, away from the rowing machines and the treadmills and into your life!

In a similar way, if every day for 20 to 40 minutes you practice the mindfulness exercises, so the benefit begins to increase and permeate all aspects of your life. As you consistently practice mindfulness, you begin to feel the benefits. The way that your conscious mind perceives the world around you becomes more relaxed and attuned to all that is going on both internally and externally.

There are suggested home practices included in the session materials. These can be used to deepen your understanding and to accelerate your mindfulness transformation. As your mindfulness training begins to consistently become more a part of your everyday life, so its power can be of practical use by undertaking simple everyday tasks in a mindful way. By brushing your teeth mindfully, by drinking a cup of tea mindfully, by getting dressed mindfully. In this way, you will begin to slow down and integrate mindfulness into your life in a meaningful way.

Bringing mindfulness into your daily life.

Progressively as your mindfulness practice develops you will gain increased awareness, familiarity and confidence with what it is to ‘be mindful’, which will naturally spill over into your everyday life.

The practice of mindfulness creates the ability to have a clear overview, non – judgmentally of yourself and your experience at any one time. This lays the seeds for developing increased emotional intelligence, the ability to see more clearly your habitual tendencies, thought patterns and consequent emotions. This overview gives you the choice to respond to situations in your daily life rather than to react in an automatic or inappropriate way.

The principles of mindfulness.

A. Non-judging. Allowing the mind to observe all that is happening at the present mo ment within you and around you without being drawn into evaluations and judgements.B. Patience. Having the understanding that some things take time to develop. Some things can be changed and altered with conscious and physical intervention whilst others are better left as they are. The importance is to know the difference between these two situations. Developing patience allows us to be able to discern between the two.C. Beginners mind. Stripping away the layers of judgement that we have built throughout our life to see things anew. As we begin to judge less and become more


attuned with the moment, now, so we begin to appreciate what is already in our life. We experience with greater clarity what is already there. This is the beginners mind.D. Trust. Building trust in yourself, in your intuition and your own authority. Listening to the inner clear voice rather than always looking outside of your self for guidance.E. Non-striving. Learning to undertake and do things not for an end purpose but for the joy and experience of just doing them. Aspiration is a positive intuitive notion of what we what to do, but the attachment to expectation and ideas of a fixed outcome limit our experience of the journey and ultimately cause suffering. F. Acceptance. Really seeing things as they are in the present moment. Resisting the impulse to embellish the moment with emotions of fear, anxiety, worry and stress. Being kind to yourself in this very moment for this is truly who you are, accepting things as they are now for that is the truth of the situation. Acceptance doesn’t mean that you cannot, or will not change the circumstances you find yourself in. G. Letting go. When evaluation and judgement are the cornerstones of your reality you will tend to hold on to and defend a position of being right. It is a justification of how you perceive, expectand project things to be. Mindfulness meditation brings the realisation that are no rights and wrongs, should or musts, that there are no absolutes in the present moment. With this understanding you can let go of your aversions and your grasping mind and the expectation of fulfilled projections. You can instead begin to appreciate each moment for what it is. [12]

Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is developed through realising the principles of mindfulness in practice. As you practice mindfulness, so your emotional intelligence increases.[13]

Awareness of yourself and others.

1. Self acceptance of who you are. 2. Increased self regulation.3. Increased empathy and compassion for your self and others.4. Improved social skills.5. Increased ability to focus.6. You will be able to truly relax. 7. Have more energy and better health.


Emotional awareness is an important part of being healthy and happy and plays a key role in both social and work based success.

Journaling and keeping track of your mindfulness progress.

When you first begin the eight week course, it is useful to keep a journal. This journal is for you and you alone. It will become a place to share your feelings, ideas, and responses. Spend a few minutes after practicing each day simply jotting down what’s in your mind this will not only provide a record but also a space for you to reflect as you increasingly develop and progress on your path to becoming mindful.

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination” Albert Einstein


Session 1. Automatic pilot & body scan

Day One - Body Scan Exercise and Automatic Pilot. Training the mind to focus and be aware of the moment Day Two - The Science of Automatic Pilot. The way the brain works Day Three - Mindfulness in Practice. The wandering mind Day Four - The Raisin Meditation. Focusing on the simple things in life Day Five - The Body Scan Review. Listening to the feelings and sensations of the body Day Six - Practice is Essential. Acquiring a new skill needs practice

Session 2. Calming the mind

Day One - Looking Back. Awareness in the present moment Day One - Introduction to Mindfulness Sitting Meditation. Calming the busy mind Day Two - Six - Mindfulness Sitting Meditation Exercise. Daily practice of mindfulness meditation Day Seven - Mindfulness breathing. Using awareness of the breath as an anchor

Session 3. Mindfulness in movement

Day One - Mindfulness in Movement. Awareness of of body and mind together Day One - Waking Up the Body and Mind Exercise. Releasing stress and tension


Course Session Summary

Day Two - Opening and Stretching Exercise. Letting go Day Three - Do-in Tapping Exercise. Encouraging flow Day Four - Tai Chi Exercise. Calm and stillness Day Five - Qi gong Exercise. Strengthening body and mind `Day Six - Walking Meditation Exercise. The present moment is the destination Day Seven - Mindful Awareness. Arriving in the moment Day Seven - Coming to Your Senses. The little things in life

Session 4. Coping with stress

Understanding Stress. Stress reaction cycle Symptoms of Stress. Stuck on hyperarousal Changing the way you respond to stress. Building Resiliance Three step breathing: Exercise. Expanding awareness of breathing

Session 5. When life is difficult

When Life is Difficult. Difficulties will always arise Mindful Acceptance. The moment will change Stress in Everyday Life. More options Acceptance is Not Resignation. Choosing a better outcome


Session 6. Mindfulness in communication

Emotional Intelligence. Awareness of yourself and others Staying Present in the Moment. Stepping back Effective Communication. Empathy and understanding Being Mindful and Assertive. No blame Exercise: Be Like a Mountain. Inner strength and stability

Session 7. Mindful lifestyle choices

Awareness and Wellbeing. Choosing positive actions Nourishing Yourself. Taking care of yourself in the best way Riding Waves of Pain. Changing your experience of pain. The Loving Kindness Meditation. Unconditional kindness to oneself and others

Session 8. Developing and maintaining your mindfulness skills

Review. The core principles of mindfulness Mindfulness Practice in Daily Life. Keep breathing Looking After Yourself. An anchor in times of need Resources.


Movement

Waking up the Body Opening and Stretching Do-In Tapping Tai Chi Excercise Qi Gong Excercise Walking Meditation

Practice

Introduction to Sitting Body Scan 10 Minute Sitting Meditation Mindfulness Movement

Three Step Breathing and Mountain Excercise

The Mountain Meditation The Raisin Excercise Three Step Breathing Loving Kindness Meditation

Session One

The body scan Science of mindfulness Automatic pilot Raisin meditation Practice is essential

Video - MP4

Audio - MP3


Session Two

Focusing on breath

Session Three

Mindfulness Movement Waking up the body and mind Opening and Stretching Do-In Tapping Tai Chi Excercise Qi Gong Excercise Walking Meditation Listening to our senses

Session Four

Coping with stress

Session Five

Acceptance is not resignation

Session Six

Effective communication

Session Seven

Lifestyle choices Dealing with pain

Session Eight

Maintaining Practice


Please Note:The recommendations given in this course are generic and are not intended to replace formal medical or psychiatric treatment. Individuals with medical problems should consult with their physician about the suitability of this course.

References.

1. Jon kabat Zinn. ‘Full Catastrophe Living’, (1996), Piatkus: London, 2. http://www.umassmed.edu/Content.aspx?id=43102 3. Davidson, Richard J. PhD; Kabat‐Zinn, Jon PhD; Schumacher, Jessica MS; Rosenkranz, Melissa BA; Muller, Daniel MD, PhD; Santorelli, Saki F. EdD; Urbanowski, Ferris MA; Harrington, Anne PhD; Bonus, Katherine MA; Sheridan, John F. PhD (July 2003), Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine: July 2003 - Volume 65 - Issue 4 - p 564–5704. Baer, Smith, Hopkins, Kreitemeyer, Toney, (2006), ‘Using self-report assessment methods to explore facets of mindfulness’, Assessment, 13 pp. 27-45 Low, Stanton, Bower, (2008), ‘Effects of acceptance –oriented versus evaluation emotional processing on heart rate recovery and habituation’, Emotion, 8,pp. 419-245. Gard T, Hölzel BK, Sack AT, Hempel H, Lazar SW, Vaitl D and Ott (2012), “Pain attenuation through mindfulness is associated with decreased cognitive control and increased sensory processing in the brain.”, Cereb Cortex. United States, 11, 2012. Vol. 22(11), pp. 2692-702. 6. Moore A1, Gruber T, Derose J, Malinowski P (2012), Regular, brief mindfulness meditation practice improves electrophysiological markers of attentional control. Front Hum Neurosci.7. Dr Linda Carlson , ( 2012), Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Physical Conditions: A Narrative Review Evaluating Levels of Evidence.211 Mindfulness based Interventions,( MBIs), papers, studies and trials relating to and for people coping with a wide array of physical diseases and mental conditions. Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary.8. Dr Linda Carlson-Department,(2012),Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Physical Conditions: A Narrative Review Evaluating Levels of Evidence.211 Mindfulness based Interventions,(MBIs), papers, studies and trials relating to and for people coping with a wide array of physical diseases and mental conditions. Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary.9. Dr R Hanson . (2009) The practical neuroscience of happiness, love, and wisdom. Buddha’s brain – , New Harbinger Publications,Inc.10 John garrie Roshi. The way is without flaw. (1998), - Sati press 11J Allen M1, Dietz M, Blair KS, van Beek M, Rees G, Vestergaard-Poulsen P, Lutz A, Roepstorff (2012) A. Cognitive-affective neural plasticity following active-controlled mindfulness intervention. , Neurosci. JNEUROSCI.2957-12.2012. 12. Jon kabat Zinn. (1996) (Adapted from)‘Full Catastrophe Living’, Piatkus: London13 D. Goleman. (2006) Emotional intelligence; , Random House LLC


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