Mindfulness

Since mindfulness is a practice-based approach rather than theory, it has always been very difficult for me to explain this concept. It's like explaining what chocolate is without using five senses.

Mindfulness is the awareness of the present, it is the study of the present with clear awareness. Mindfulness can sometimes be confused with “living in the moment”. However it’s not about noticing the beautiful moments and looking at the bright side. It is observing happy moments and painful moments objectively, being able to say “I am in pain right now” when you are feeling it and continuing to move forward with it without trying to eliminate that pain.

Our mind travels throughout the day, either in the past or in the future. Even when we think we are in the moment, this is the case.

The only moment we can make a change is now. Mindfulness is a good tool to learn to give space and time to emotions and thoughts that travel through past and future.

Of course, it is not possible to be aware of every moment, but returning to the present as much as possible during the day, taking a breath from our anxious thoughts, allows us to get closer to ourselves.

Making room for mindfulness in our daily lives; teaches us to turn the countless thoughts we carry on our backs into roots of the tree of life. so those anxieties and stressful thoughts take root and develop us.

Instead of suppressing and multiplying feelings and thoughts, bringing them to the surface with mindfulness exercises and recognizing them even if they are unpleasant helps us to get close to ourselves.

Jon Kabat-Zinn developed the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program (MBSR) in 1979 at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Initially made available for chronic patients who did not respond well to conventional therapies, it is today used by hundreds of thousands of people for a variety of causes around the world. Numerous studies demonstrate that MBSR is useful for lowering chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and overall stress.

As with many mindfulness meditation programs, it has its roots in spiritual teachings, but is largely grounded in medical and psychological science. It is therefore founded on science and accessible to anyone.

How may Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction benefit me?

The program will help you train your attention so that you can build self-awareness, allowing you to make more logical and practical judgments in your daily life, as well as become more present-minded and aware. The program's experiences aid in avoiding excessive reflection on the past and future. It promotes learning to respond as opposed to reacting to stress. It makes you question your usual reaction patterns.

Since MBSR was created, research has shown that most people who completed the program are better able to deal with both short-term and long-term stress, and their physical and mental symptoms get better as well. People who finished the program and made mindfulness a part of their lives also reported long-term relaxation, less pain, a better ability to deal with chronic pain, and a renewed sense of excitement and vitality.

What does the MBSR course look like?

The program consists of weekly group meetings (these are 2.5-hour lessons) and home practices. Participants are responsible for daily home practices (which usually take 45 minutes). In addition, a 1-day retreat is held in which the practices learned are repeated on a designated day during these eight weeks.