Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

What would it take to really be alive right now? Living fully in this moment, as exhilerating or painful as this moment may be? Just being here, for this time in our life; nothing to push away, nothing to hold onto for dear life - just the experience of the only moment we have.

What does it take to be completely happy, contented with the life you have and not wishing for something more, or something less?

Matthieu Ricard, Tibetan monk, scientist and Buddhist philosopher lets us in on the simple secret to happiness in his lecture on Ted.com. It is surprising to our way of thinking that happiness is not conditional. In fact when we strive for different conditions in the pursuit of being happy - more money, bigger house, less work; we can never attain the goal. It always remains beyond our grasp.

To be truly happy takes training. It is not dependent on the relative conditions of life, but rather on training the mind to be still.

The Path to Stress Reduction

For over 30 years Jon Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues have trained over 10,000 people to practice bringing stillness into their lives; the quietude beyond the diagnosis of terminal cancer, chronic back pain, severe heart problems, depression and anxiety. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programs have helped people live in stillness when faced with the catastrophes that life sometimes offers. The poem The Guest House by Rumi perhaps captures this sentiment best:

This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

The Program

MBSR is an 8-week program of instruction on the art of bringing meditation into your life. It offers a method of for enhancing stillness in one's life. It is a way to take care of oneself and promote relaxation and wellness in daily living.

The skills learned in this program include:

• Mindful breathing
• Attending to little things - daily awareness
• Paying attention to the body
• Mindful movement
• Awareness of our own emotional reactions
• Letting go - acceptance.