Basics of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is, perhaps, one of the major contributions to evidence-based mindfulness therapies. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s development of this model of intervention was both timely and exquisite. In clinical care of psychological
and physical problems, these skills and practices are of utmost importance for improving (according to the most recent meta-analytic reviews in 2014 and 2016)
depression, anxiety/stress, chronic pain and emotional regulation – so important in various addictions and improvement in physical illnesses. Below I will list the most basic components to the MBSR model of practice.
These include:
- Clear understandings of mindfulness in theory and in everyday life;
- Mindfulness and mind-body interactions;
- Selected breathing practices;
- Mindfulness meditation;
- Mindfulness walking;
- Haha yoga practices;
- Body scan practices;
- Extensive home practice of skills;
- Mindful eating practices (may be included);
- Loving kindness meditation (may be included);
- Compassion and self-compassion practices (may be included);
- Modifications of RAIN (recognize, allow, investigate, dis-identify) may be included;
- Cognitive aspects of the mindfulness-based path to practice (especially mindfulness-based cognitive therapy) may be included; and,
- Spiritual experience in the mindfulness-based path may be included, especially in more advanced Buddhist path practices.
Research has consistently supported MBSR (as noted above) for improved outcomes in various physical and psychological problems. Once people become involved in regular home practice (or group practice with a sangha), improvement are generally maintained. You may want to search for “MBSR research support.” I will not document the numerous studies here. The single most important variable in success is regular daily practice of core skills (mindfulness, meditation, yoga, etc.). Ideally, such practice would range from at least 20 minutes to an hour each day.
For more information refer to Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990, 2009). Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. New York: Delta Trade Paperbacks. See also Kabat-Zinn, J. (2005). Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness. New York: Hyperion.
By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC
From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont
Author of Mindful Happiness
Vipassana is a very old form of meditation, there must be something helpful about practicing it. A key principle in Vipassana is that as people learn to refine perception of awareness – in this case usually of bodily sensations – they also begin to realize a key tenet of meditative theory. That tenet is: all experiences and phenomena of the human mind and body are impermanent. Awareness and the experience itself simply arise and fall away. Mindful attention and refined concentration on personal experiences (including joy and suffering) augment understandings that all human experience (including human life) is impermanent. Readers are advised to read Goenka on your own. In that way you will obtain a well-informed cognitive explanation of the process. Here I will provide a few Vipassana guidelines and training suggestions. I hope you will try them.
your eyes opened or closed, relax your jaw, bodily muscles, and move into a slower, deeper breathing pattern. Refine your attention so you can become aware bio-perceptually of the feeling of your breath in your body. Many thoughts will come into awareness; simply allow them to pass and return stronger attention to the feeling of your breath as you breathe in and out. As you sit quietly paying strong attention to the feeling of your breath, notice gently what you are seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling. Just pay close attention without judging, associating, following, expanding, or responding to whatever arises in awareness. Starting at the very top of your head, pay close attention to any sensation that arises. You may even notice that the attention by itself may cause some form of feeling. Slowly move to the tip of your nose, then to the center front of your throat. Just noticing sensations in a more concentrative manner. Move onto another part of your body and just pay attention to the sensations as they arise and fall away. Practice pure awareness without evaluation, seeking, dreading, etc. As you also notice thoughts and emotions arising, simply label them “thought” and “emotions.” Do nothing with them; simply continue to pay strong attention to the sensations you notice in various parts of your body. To extend this practice, select one part of your body to pay strong attention to it for 15 minutes or more.
This is a very brief post about love and respect for “lost loved ones” – those special people who have left their human body and mind behind.
activity, and brain stem medullary structures, the vagal nerve system can be used positively in well-informed psychotherapy for improving various emotion-regulation conditions leading to suffering. One primary link in the polyvagal interactions deals with breathing via satisfaction of oxygen demands of the human living system. Since it is now common in more advanced body-mind therapies to include breathing retraining, the more a competent therapists knows about using polyvagal skills the better.
proceed.
