This document provides an overview of mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR). It discusses what mindfulness is, how to practice mindfulness meditation through focusing on the breath and other exercises. Some key points include: - Mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment without judgment. It can be practiced through focusing on sensations like breathing. - MBSR has been shown to help with various health conditions like chronic pain, depression, anxiety and others. - Proper meditation posture and bringing attention back to the breath when the mind wanders are important aspects of mindfulness practice. - Mindfulness can be incorporated into daily activities and different types of guided meditations are described.

1. Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
The What , The Why & The How
Most of information in this presentation has come from the lectures, musings, books and writings of
Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn

2. Is Everybody

3. What is Mindfulness
It is a secular application of
mindfulness, which is a practice of
deliberate and carefully focusing
attention a sense of compassion

4. Mindfulness is Easy for Some

5. How to Walk the Tightrope Mindfully
• The practice of mindfulness is extraordinarily simple
to describe, but it is in no sense easy. True mastery
requires special talent and a lifetime of practice. The
simple instructions given below are analogous to
instructions on how to walk a tightrope:
• Find a horizontal cable that can support your weight.
• Stand on one end.
• Step forward by placing one foot directly in front of
the other.
• Repeat.
• Don't fall.
• SAM HARRIS

6. Walking the Tightrope Mindfully, Continued
• Steps 3-5 require little practice. Happily, the benefits of
training in meditation arrive long before mastery ever does.
And falling, from the point of view of MBSR, occurs ceaselessly,
every moment that one becomes lost in thought. The problem
is not thoughts per se but the state of thinking without
knowing that one is thinking.
• As every meditator soon discovers, such distraction is the
normal condition of our minds: Most of us fall from the wire
every second, toppling headlong--whether gliding happily in
reverie, or plunging into fear, anger, self-hatred and other
negative states of mind. Meditation is a technique for breaking
this spell, if only for a few moments. The goal is to awaken
from our trance of discursive thinking--and from the habit of
ceaselessly grasping at the pleasant and recoiling from the
unpleasant--so that we can enjoy a mind that is undisturbed by
worry, merely open like the sky, and effortlessly aware of the
flow of experience in the present. SAM HARRIS

7. What is and When do we do with
Mindfulness?
• The science of mindfulness delves into
any of the practices of intentionally
focusing on the present moment without
judgment.
• Mindfulness can be done in our day to
day lives ,” on the fly” , eventually, but
requires one to be be dedicated to living
one’s life “ Deliberately”.

8. Mindfulness

9. Mindfulness is Daily Activity
• A Mindfulness practice can be incorporated
into any number of Venues.
• Tai Chi & Qi Qong
• Yoga
• Walking
• Contemplative and Centering Prayer
• To Begin with, however, we start with the
Breath

10. Conditions Amenable to Treatment with
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
• Chronic Pain Fibromyalgia
• Depression Anxiety Disorders
• Diabetes-Type I
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Cancer-Related Stress
• Headache Syndromes
• Hypertension
• Coronary Artery Disease
• Insomnia

11. Attitudes to have and How to Practice
Mindfulness
• The seven attitudinal factors of mindfulness
“constitute the major pillars of mindfulness
practice” (Kabat-Zinn) of MBSR training and
practice. The following descriptions are from
Jon Kabat-Zinn’s seminal book.
• “Full Catastrophe Living”
•

12. Seven Attitudinal Factors
of Mindfulness

13. Seven Attitudinal Factor of Mindfulness
•
• Non-judging
•
• Patience
•
• Trust
•
• Non-striving
•
• Acceptance
•
• Beginner’s mind
•
• Letting go

14. Non-Judging

15. Non-Judging
• “The Judgements of mind tend to dominate
our minds and make it hard for us ever to find
peace” In the context of meditation ,
premature judgement and rejection of
experience is extremely common .Our
Intention is to
• “Be With” whatever arises,
• This intention requires gentleness and
kindness, especially towards our own selves.

16. Patience

17. Patience
•
• “To be patient is simply to be completely in each
moment, accepting it in its fullness”
• To keep bringing the mind back again to the
breath,back to the present moment and back to
sensation of body requires tremendous patience
and perseverance.
• This is the working ground of a meditation
practice.
•

18. Trust

19. Trust
•
• Learning to trust one’s own experience,
feelings and intuition — loosening oneself
from the tyranny of authority and inner harsh
judgement — has the “taste of freedom”, a
hallmark of a genuine practice and essential
for individual development and healing.

20. Non-striving

21. Non-striving
•
• “Everything we do, we do for a purpose. To get
something, be something or be somewhere. In
meditation, this attitude can be an obstacle” Our
cultural tendency is to be in a ”driven-ness” state of
mind . Though this “driven-ness” has enabled us to
enjoy unprecedented accomplishments, this ”driven-ness”
has also resulted in extraordinary levels
of stress and other associated problems. To refrain
from bringing this tendency into our meditation and
mindfulness practice we attempt to cultivate an
attitude of “Non-Striving”. “Non-Striving” is best
understood as not straining or forcing for a result.

22. Acceptance

23. Acceptance
• “Consider that one must accept theirself
as they are, before you they really
change”.
• This attitude is about attending to one’s
experience with clarity and kindness.
• This attitude is an essential foundation of
meditation practice.

24. Beginner’s Mind

25. Beginner’s Mind

26. Beginner’s mind
•
• “Too often we let our thinking and our beliefs
about what we ‘know’ prevent us from seeing
things as they really are”. Approaching each
meditation as if it were your first time,
building from “the ground up” from the body,
contacting the breath, asking of yourself
“what is really happening now” are hallmarks
of beginner’s mind.

27. Let it Go!

28. Letting go
• Letting go, or non-attachment, is fundamental
to the practice of mindfulness. The tendency
to want to hold on to what is pleasant in our
experience and to reject what is unpleasant, is
usually an automatic response. Cultivating the
attitude neither holding onto, nor rejecting
experience, is a challenging principle, but
essential to the practice of mindfulness living
and meditation.

29. Mindfulness, the Why, the Science
• Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray
matter density
• Anatomical magnetic resonance (MR) images from 16 healthy,
meditation-naïve participants were obtained before and after they
underwent the 8-week program. Changes in gray matter
concentration were investigated using voxel-based morphometry,
and compared with a waiting list control group of 17 individuals.
Analyses in a priori regions of interest confirmed increases in gray
matter concentration within the left hippocampus. Whole brain
analyses identified increases in the posterior cingulate cortex, the
temporo-parietal junction, and the cerebellum in the MBSR group
compared with the controls. The results suggest that participation
in MBSR isassociated with changes in gray matter concentration in
brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion
regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.

30. Mindfulness Research Links
• Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter
density and Mindfulness Changes Brain Structure
http://www.umassmed.edu/uploadedFiles/cfm2/Psychiatry_Resarch_Mindf
ulness.pdf
• http://yourbrainhealth.com.au/27-minutes-mindfulness-meditation-day-changes-
brain-structure/
• Mindfulness meditation alleviates depressive symptoms in women with
fibromyalgia: Results of a randomized clinical trial
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/art.22478/full
• Mindfulness Meditation May Lessen Anxiety, Promote Social Skills, and
Improve Academic Performance Among Adolescents With Learning
Disabilities
• http://chp.sagepub.com/content/13/1/34.short

31. Mindfulness Research Links
• Influence of a Mindfulness Meditation-Based Stress Reduction
Intervention on Rates of Skin Clearing in Patients With Moderate to
Severe Psoriasis
http://journals.lww.com/psychosomaticmedicine/Abstract/1998/09000/In
fluence_of_a_Mindfulness_Meditation_Based_Stress.20.aspx
• Mindfulness meditation training effects on CD4+ T lymphocytes in HIV-1
infected adults:
• http://journals.lww.com/psychosomaticmedicine/Abstract/1998/09000/In
fluence_of_a_Mindfulness_Meditation_Based_Stress.20.aspx
• Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: Evidence of brief mental
training/ 4 days
• http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810010000681
• Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and
psychological mediators
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030645301000243X

32. Mindfulness Practice Help : Google up the Following
• How do I sit?
Andy Puddicombe, founder of the Headspace meditation app, explains
how to sit when you meditate. Headspace has also partnered with The
Guardian to produce The Headspace Meditation podcasts, five free
podcasts exploring mindfulness in other facets: mindful eating, mindful
commuting, walking, sleep, etc.
• Guided Breathscape
Mindfulness pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness-Based
Stress Reduction (MBSR), takes us through a 20-minute meditation
focusing on the breath.
• The Body Scan Practice
Elisha Goldstein, Mindful's Mental Health blogger, takes us through a 10-
minute body scan practice you can try lying down or sitting in a chair.
• Setting up a Mindfulness Meditation Group
Betsy Nelson on how she did it, why it helps, and how you can too.

33. Mindfulness Audios: Google Up the Following
• Free guided meditations from UCLA
Each week has a different theme, and usually includes some introductory
comments, a guided meditation, some silent practice time, and closing
comments. Presented by the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center.
• UCSD Center for Mindfulness
Guided audio files for practicing Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
(MBSR) from the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness.
• Basic mediation with Tara Brach
Free meditations that you can stream or download.
• Contemplative Mind in Society
Guided practices from from Mirabai Bush, the center's director, Diana
Winston from UCLA's Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, and Arthur
Zajonc, president of the Mind & Life Institute.
• Insight Meditation Society
Selected talks, podcasts, and audio streams, including various lengths of
guided meditation.

34. Mindfulness READS: Google up the following
• Meditation: Getting Started
So you want to start practicing meditation, but need to know the very basics—like
how to sit. Mindfulness pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn offers helpful tips for beginners.
• Five Steps to Mindfulness
“Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in.” Mindfulness can transform your life.
Meditation master Thich Nhat Hanh teaches five exercises to help you live with joy.
• Body and Mind Integration
Yoga practice and meditation work extremely well together, say Cyndi Lee and
David Nichtern. They show us how.
• Is it working?
So you're practicing mindfulness, but sometimes it just doesn't feel like it's
working. That's natural. In order to stay on track, says Donald Altman, it's
important to stop now and then and recalibrate your thinking. Here's how.
• Full Catastrophe Living
• Full-Catastrophe-Living-Audiobook Jon Kabat Zinn

35. How to Meditate and be Mindful

36. Mindful Eating Exercises

37. Eating One Raisin : A First Taste of Mindfulness
• Holding
• First, take a raisin and hold it in the palm of your hand or between
• your finger and thumb. Focusing on it, imagine that you’ve just dropped in
from Mars and have never seen an object like this before in your life.
• Seeing
• Take time to really see it; gaze at the raisin with care and full attention.
• Let your eyes explore every part of it, examining the highlights where the
light shines, the darker hollows, the folds and ridges, and any asymmetries
or unique features.
• Touching
• Turn the raisin over between your fingers, exploring its texture, maybe
with your eyes closed
• if that enhances your sense of touch.
• Smelling
• Holding the raisin beneath your nose, with each inhalation drink in any
smell, aroma, or fragrance that may arise, noticing as you do this anything
interesting that may be happening in your mouth or stomach.

38. Eating One Raisin : A First Taste of Mindfulness
• Placing
• Now slowly bring the raisin up to your lips, noticing how your hand and arm
know exactly how and where to position it. Gently place the object in the mouth,
without chewing, noticing how it gets into the mouth in the first place. Spend a
few moments exploring the sensations of having it in your mouth, exploring it
with your tongue.
• Tasting
• When you are ready, prepare to chew the raisin, noticing how and where it needs
to be for chewing. Then, very consciously, take one or two bites ito it and notice
what happens in the aftermath, experiencing any waves of taste that emanate
from it as you continue chewing. Without swallowing yet, notice the bare
sensations of taste and texture in the mouth and how these may change over
time, moment by moment, as well as any changes in the object itself.
• Swallowing
• When you feel ready to swallow the raisin, see if you can first detect the intention
to swallow as it comes up, so that even this is experienced consciously before you
actually swallow the raisin. Following. Finally, see if you can feel what is left of the
raisin moving down into your stomach, and sense how the body as a whole is
feeling after completing this exercise in mindful eating.
• Following
• Finally, see if you can feel what is left of the raisin moving down into your
stomach, and sense how the
• body as a whole is feeling after completing this exercise in mindful eating.

39. Breathing, It is Important

40. Mindful Breathing
To Meditate with Mindful Breathing
• is to bring the the body and mind back
• to the present moment,
so that you do not miss,
• your appointment with Life
• Thich Nhat Hanh

41. Meditation Instructions:
• Sit comfortably, with your spine erect, either in chair or cross-legged on a cushion.
• Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and feel the points of contact between your body
and the chair or floor. Notice the sensations associated with sitting—feelings of pressure,
warmth, tingling, vibration, etc.
• Gradually become aware of the process of breathing. Pay attention to wherever you feel
the breath most clearly—either at the nostrils, or in the rising and falling your abdomen.
• Allow your attention to rest in the mere sensation of breathing. (There is no need to control
your breath. Just let it come and go naturally.)
• Every time your mind wanders in thought, gently return it to the sensation of breathing.
• As you focus on the breath, you will notice that other perceptions and sensations continue
to appear: sounds, feelings in the body, emotions, etc. Simply notice these phenomena as
they emerge in the field of awareness, and then return to the sensation of breathing.
• The moment you observe that you have been lost in thought, notice the present thought
itself as an object of consciousness. Then return your attention to the breath—or to
whatever sounds or sensations arise in the next moment.
• Continue in this way until you can merely witness all objects of consciousness—sights,
sounds, sensations, emotions, and even thoughts themselves—as they arise and pass away.
• If your Fall , Asleep, Rest, then Wake Up, and return to your breath, stop when you wish.
• Repeat daily, attempting to reach a 30 to 50 minute session when able

42. Mindful Awareness of One’s Hand Exercise

43. Hand Scan Mindfulness Exercise
• 1. Sit in a chair as for the breath awareness or l
• ie down, making yourself comfortable, lying on your back on a mat or rug on the floor or on
your bed. Choose a place where you will be warm and undisturbed. Allow your eyes to close
gently.
• 2. Take a few moments to get in touch with the movement of your breath and the sensations
in the body When you are ready, bring your awareness to the physical sensations in your
Hand, especially to the sensations of touch or pressure, where your hand makes contact with
the Chair, your body ,floor or bed. On each outbreath, allow your hand to let go, to sink a little
deeper into the Chair ,floor,body or bed.
• 3. Remind yourself of the intention of this practice. Its aim is not to
• feel any different, relaxed, or calm; this may happen or it may not. Instead, the intention of
the practice is, as best you can, to bring awareness to any sensations you detect, as you focus
your attention on each part of the body in turn.
• 4. Now bring your awareness to the physical sensations in the lower
• Each aspect or part of your hand, becoming aware of the changing patterns of sensations in
your palm, as you breathe in, and as you breathe out. Take a minute to feel the sensations as
you breathe in and as you breathe out.
• 5.Having connected with the sensations in the palm, bring the focus or "spotlight" of your
awareness your thumb, and then each of your fingers. Focus on each of the Fingers and
thumb, in turn, bringing a gentle curiosity to investigate the quality of the sensations you find,
perhaps noticing the sense of contact between the fingers, a sense of tingling, warmth, or No
particular sensation.

44. Hand Scan Mindfulness Exercise,continued
• 6. When you are ready, on an in breath, feel or imagine the breath entering the
dorsum of your hand, Then, on the outbreath, feel or imagine the breath coming
all the way in its entirety, of your entire hand. then breathe
• 7.When you become aware of tension, or of other intense sensations in a
particular part of your hand you can "breathe in" to it, allowing the in breath
gently to bring awareness right into the sensations, and, as best you can, have a
sense of their letting go, or releasing, on the outbreath.
• 8..The mind will inevitably wander away from the breath and the hand from time
to time. That is entirely normal. It is what minds do. When you notice it, gently
acknowledge it, noticing where the mind has gone off to, and then gently return
your attention to the part of your hand you intended to focus on.
• 9.After you have "scanned” your entire whole hand in this way, spend a few
minutes being aware of a sense of the hand as a whole, and of the breath flowing
freely in and out of the body.
10.If you find yourself falling asleep, you might find it helpful to prop your head up
with a pillow, open your eyes, or do the practice sitting up rather than lying down. You
can adjust the time spent in this practice by using larger chunks of your body to
become aware of or spending a shorter or longer time with each part. When you are
ready to Finish, take a gentle mindful inbreath in, then an outbreath, and gently end
your session.
•

45. Questions and Comments

46. You Tube Links on Mindfulness
• Mindfulness with Dr Jon Kabat Zinn
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc&list=PL4
D58C28EFE2376DC&index=97
• Mindfulness - On Our Mind
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxQkZd_jtKQ&index=106
&list=PL4D58C28EFE2376DC
• Befriending Your Mind, Befriending Your Life: Jon Kabat-Zinn
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYfvyeZhLfk&list=PL4D5
8C28EFE2376DC&index=107
• Jon Kabat-Zinn "Heartfulness”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aaJtBKwK9U&index=11
3&list=PL4D58C28EFE2376DC