Mindfulness has been described by Dr. Kabat-Zinn as “the awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.” Through mindfulness-based practices, participants develop increased present-moment awareness of experience as it arises, including the thought, emotional, and behavioral patterns which tend to occur in relation to stressful situations. Participants learn that, though they cannot always change the circumstances in which they find themselves, they can choose how to respond more clearly and skillfully, and less reactively, when faced with difficult situations.

The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program was originally developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre in 1979 to help people learn to better cope and live with stress and pain.  Kabat-Zinn’s early research was startling. Not only did measures of stress and anxiety fall dramatically, but patients with heart disease, psoriasis, and chronic pain, all showed significant symptom reduction after participating in the 8-week program. These improvements have been repeated many times in the past forty years, and there is an abundance of research demonstrating the health benefits of mindfulness practice. MBSR is now offered around the world, and these practices are reducing the negative effects of chronic stress, and helping people learn a different way of relating to self and others, with greater compassion, acceptance and curiosity. People are discovering that cultivating a mindful presence can increase resilience and allow for more effective coping.

The sessions are highly experiential in nature. Participants are led through meditations that are scaffolded through the eight weeks, each with the intention of increasing the ability to move and focus attention to one’s present experience, whether it be on the breath, sounds, body sensations, emotions or thoughts. Through voluntary inquiry, participants  become aware of their moment to moment experience and develop an attitude of acceptance and curiousity.

“Mindfulness can only be understood from the inside out. It is not one more cognitive-behavioural technique to be deployed in a behaviour change paradigm, but a way of being and a way of seeing that has profound implications for understanding the nature of our own minds and bodies, and for living life as if it really mattered.”

A recent Harvard study, A Wandering Mind is an Unhappy Mind,  found that we let our minds wander 47% of the time, and that when our minds wander, they don’t tend to go to “good” places. Our minds, when given “free reign”, go to anxiety about the past or worry about something in the future. When our minds are on this “autopilot”, we are not present and aware of our thoughts and emotions, and tend to feel stressed, anxious and worried. We go into “reaction mode”.

Mindfulness is a skill, like any other skill, that needs to be developed through daily practice. Our brains have neuroplasticity and this muscle, of developing moment to moment awareness, has been shown to improve over time. As a result, instead of reacting, we can have a mindful response.

The beneficial effects of meditation and mindfulness-based therapies are supported by a growing body of evidence. Over two decades of clinical research has shown that it can benefit people suffering from anxiety, recurrent depression, chronic pain, substance abuse and other conditions. Benefits include:

• Stress reduction
• Reduced rumination
• Decreased negative affect (e.g. depression, anxiety)
• Less emotional reactivity/more effective emotion regulation
• Increased focus
• More cognitive flexibility
• Improved working memory