Can Three Hours Change Your Life?

The journey of a lifetime begins with the first step …

“Introducing Mindfulness” –  Three one-hour classes

developed by the Oxford Mindfulness Foundation (Oxford University, UK)

Taught IN Person or Live on Zoom

The core 3-session program offers an introduction to mindfulness practice and theory in a format intended to be accessible to anyone new to mindfulness. Three key themes are explored:

• Attention– Understanding the mind’s natural tendency to be scattered and to wander; how we can train attention to create choices about where and how we place attention.
• Knowing and Being– Exploring different ways of knowing and being; recognizing how much of our experience is shaped by our thoughts; that other more experiential and observing modes are available to us.
• Responding not Reacting– Recognizing the difference between reacting and responding and developing ways to create the space to make choices between them.

Participants are taught basic mindfulness practices: Sitting Meditation, the Body Scan and explore mindful intentional appreciation and bringing mindfulness into personal interactions moving from reacting to responding.

Three sessions may be expanded to five sessions: The 5-session program includes all the teaching from our 3-session course and in addition, there are two sessions added.

One session is added before the three-session program. This session explores the specific challenges people may be experiencing. The second additional session is added after the three-session program. This last session reviews the possible impact of mindfulness on these challenges.

Benefits for participation in Introduction to Mindfulness 

• A sense of more space or time in the day
• An ability to resource oneself in more challenging moments such as distractedness, stress or anxiety
• An ability to begin to respond throughout the day with greater clarity, compassion in ways that align with what’s important 
• Greater appreciation of what is pleasant and enjoyable in life

This is the definitive  Eight Week Course developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical center by Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979. Initially intended to support chronically ill patients who weren’t getting full benefit from standard medical treatment, the course demonstrated benefits for many problems, including chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and distress related to life’s many stressful events and circumstances.

Taught IN Person or Live on Zoom

Now more than forty years later MBSR is the one of the most scientifically studied meditation programs and is provided at more than 720 medical centers world-wide.

MBSR is an intensive introduction to mindfulness mediation and mindful living.

Based on group process and experiential learning, it is appropriate for any adult regardless of health condition. The teachings are evidence based and fully secular in orientation.

Eight weeks – One 2 ½ hour class each week

30 to 45 minutes daily home practice with guided recordings

One all day session on a weekend between sessions six and seven

Orientation Session

• History of MBSR
• Mindfulness: What it is—and what it isn’t
• Research into benefits for health and wellbeing
• Practical Logistics:
• Dates and times
• What to expect in class and between classe
• Benefits and risks
• A brief practice experience
• Time for questions

Session One and Two

• What is mindfulness
• Attention and Perception
• Body scan practice
• Mindfulness of the breath
• Attentional focus: “Sitting meditation”
• Mindfulness in daily activities – eating mindfully
• Encountering the pleasant

Session Three and Four:

• Stress in our lives
• The Stress Response
• Mindful movement – Yoga and walking
• Going deeper with the breath and focused attention
• Encountering the unpleasant

Session Five and Six

• Awareness of habitual patterns in thought and action
• Responding Instead of Reacting
• Going deeper in mindful practices
• Neuroscience findings – how the brain works
• Communicating mindfully

The All Day Retreat

• 7 ½ hours of guided practice and talks
• Sitting, walking, Yoga, body scan, mindful eating … and more

Sessions Seven and Eight

• Mindful movement
• Sitting meditation
• Mindful consumption
  • Food
  • Media
  • Work and entertainment
• Developing your own practice
• Closing and continuing

Four week course using mindfulness practices to protect attention and working memory from degradation under stress and improve functioning.

Available in the fall or winter of 2024.

More details to follow.