Have you ever longed for a tranquil feeling inside when commotion is swirling all around you?
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) may be for you!
This class teaches a variety of mindfulness meditations techniques that will increase your ability to respond more skillfully to stress. You will learn to recognize your unique reactions to stress, find more effective ways to respond to stressful situations, and discover how to use your own inner resources to find greater health and well-being.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the process of bringing our awareness on purpose to what we are doing at the time we are doing it. This awareness allows us to respond with greater skill and creativity to life’s stressors. We can learn how to free ourselves from habitual patterns of reacting to stressors such as anxiously anticipating the future or constantly focusing on the past or just going through the motions of living not being awake to what is happening now.
Meditation
Meditation is the training practice that is used to cultivate mindfulness.
MBSR
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is an 8 week intensive class in the practices of mindfulness meditation and their application to stress reduction. The program was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979 at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. The course is highly participatory and will include gently stretching and mindful yoga, guided formal meditation practices, group reflection and dialogue and informal meditation practices designed to bring mindful awareness to everyday life. MBSR is a complement to traditional medical and psychological treatment, with over 30 years of research demonstrating reductions in symptoms and improvements in quality of life for participants. See research tab for research studies on mindfulness.
Benefits of MBSR
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Improve your general physical and psychological health.
Reduce stress in your life.
Increase concentration and effectiveness when focusing on tasks.
Enhance your feelings of well-being and happiness.
Growth in self-esteem, self-acceptance and confidence.
Improve interpersonal and relationship skills.
Increase ability to relax and enjoy each moment of your life by being fully present.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD pioneered MBSR at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 1979. Since then meditation has gone mainstream in America. The program is highly respected in the medical community, with classes in over 200 hospitals nationwide. The effectiveness of MBSR has been confirmed at major universities. For more information about research and MBSR, visit www.umassmed.edu/cfm and click on research.
AMRA serves as a professional resource to the sciences, humanities, practice communities, and the broader public on mindfulness from the perspective of contemplative practice. This website contains a monthly mindfulness research newsletter and archives of mindfulness research studies. www.goamra.org
