Part 1: What is Mindfulness?
“Mindfulness is awareness, cultivated by paying attention in a sustained and particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. It is one of many forms of meditation, if you think of meditation as any way in which we engage in (1) systematically regulating our attention and energy (2) thereby influencing and possibly transforming the quality of our experience (3) in the service of realizing the full range of our humanity and our (4) relationships to others and the world.”
(Mindfulness for Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn)
Meditation is a formal way to practice mindfulness. Other formal practices include a guided body scan and walking meditation. Informal mindfulness practice can include a variety of activities in which you direct your attention to the present moment, placing yourself in your physical body, and often times away from the chaos of a distracted mind.
For this course, we will refer often to the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, especially from his book, Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness.
Jon Kabat-Zinn is an American scientist and professor who studied at MIT and created the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
He created the center to bring what he learned about mindfulness to the medical community. His "Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)" program continues to be the benchmark in the United States in bringing secular meditation to our modern society.
Learn more about him and MBSR here.
Step One: Read
Please read the The Introduction and Part 1: Meditation: It's Not What You Think, that you can easily access for free , on Amazon with the "Look Inside" feature.
Step Two: Spend Time with the Experts
“What mindfulness slowly brings to our understanding is how much our experience is shaped by our minds. To have that insight as a personal experience rather than something one reads in the growing body of scientific literature on the subject is transformational. It loosens that reactivity which can trap us in a limiting loop, and allows for very different responses which can manifest in all kinds of ways – greater creativity, more empathy, more patience, less judgment.”
