What is Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MSBR)?

MBSR is built on the belief that the insight, wisdom, and compassion of the meditation tradition are as important and important as the major Western discoveries in human life. If human beings have a guidebook, then Western science and medicine provide one part, and the contemplative tradition provides another part, which is related to discovering and cultivating our deep inner resources.

A group plan developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the 1970s to treat patients struggling with life difficulties and physical and/or mental illness (Kabat-Zinn, 2013).

Hospital patients, since then it has been widely and effectively used by people from all walks of life.

In fact, according to the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts, more than 24,000 people have taken advantage of the Mbsr program (Mindfulness Center, 2017) first launched by the center in 1979.

MBSR is a flexible and customizable method of stress reduction. It consists of two main parts: Mindfulness Meditation and yoga. Rather than following a script or formulating well-described steps, it is better to practice mindfulness in the way that best suits the individual (Mindfulness Center, 2017).

Mindfulness meditation and yoga, and their application in daily life, we can record how these exercises have a profound impact on people's health and happiness. The broader purpose is to conduct a public health intervention that will eventually move the bell curve of the entire society.

Although in practice everyone's MBSR is usually different, but it is based on the same principles. 

The following description is taken directly from the Mindfulness Center website:

1.Let the experience become a challenge rather than a trivial matter, thereby turning your mindful observation of life into an adventure in life, not just another thing you "must" do for yourself.

2.Emphasize the importance of personal effort and motivation, as well as various forms of regular and disciplined meditation practice, whether or not a person "feels" the urge to practice on a certain day.

3.Performing formal mindfulness practice requires immediate change Lifestyle, because it requires a lot of time investment (45 minutes a day in the clinic, at least 6 days a week).

By consciously being aware of the importance of each moment in practice, jumping from clock time to the present:

1.Oriented by education rather than treatment, using relatively large "class" participants in a limited time course structure to provide A community of learning and practice, and a "critical mass" that helps foster motivation and ongoing support. And the sense of acceptance and belonging.

2.Medical heterogeneous environment, in which people with multiple diseases participate in courses together without being isolated according to diagnosis or intervention conditions and professions. The advantage of this approach is to focus on what people have in common, rather than on the peculiarities of their particular disease (where they are "right", not where they are "wrong"). This is left to the attention of other dimensions. Where appropriate, provide health teams and professional support groups for specific categories of patients (Mindfulness Center, 2017).

How does MBSR work?

Through the regular mindfulness training provided by the MBSR course, people are familiar with their own behavior patterns, especially those related to stressful situations. They also learned that although their environment may not always change, they can choose how to respond. In MBSR, this process is described as going from reaction to reaction, the latter means having a clearer perception of the environment through contact with current thoughts, feelings and emotions.

What can Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction do for me?

The program can train your attention, help you develop self-awareness, and allow you to make more reasonable and wise decisions in your daily life. We invite you to integrate mindfulness into your daily life, which will also help you understand more and focus on the present. These strategies can help you avoid contemplation, whether it is about the past or the future. You can learn to respond to stress instead of responding to it. You can also change the usual response mode.

Kabat-Zinn also created this show to try to divert people's attention from self-narratives that constantly emphasize "me" and "me". The question "Who am I?" is much more important than the answer.

MBSR cannot cure the disease. It is intended to be a supplementary aid to traditional medical treatment or a help to your life. It should not be used to replace professional psychotherapy, it can only be used in conjunction with it. It can be used for those suffering from chronic pain, usually in oncology. Before starting the MBSR course, please consult your doctor if you wish to use the procedure as an aid to your prescribed treatment.

Research conducted in the decades since the creation of MBSR has shown that most people who completed the program later reported significant benefits, including increased short- and long-term stress response, reduced physical and physiological symptoms, and intense relaxation Sense, relieve pain, improve the ability to cope with chronic pain, and re-energize life and vitality.

What should I look for when signing up for an MBSR course?

Make sure your instructor is certified. They can list information on where they obtained certification on their website, or they can include them in a database. Although they emphasized that the MBSR course is not effective due to its focus on the present, there are still some aspects that are necessary.

1.Experience should be a challenge, not a chore. This should be something the participants want to do for themselves, not something that is daunting and something they have to do to stay healthy.

2.Understand the importance of one's own efforts and motivation, which means that practice should be done every day even if it is difficult or unnecessary.

3.Understand that this is a lifestyle change that must happen immediately. Combining 45 minutes of meditation in a day with on-site classes 6 or 7 times a week is a compromise, but participants must be aware of participating in the class.

4.Improve your awareness of the importance of the moment during the exercise.

5.This comes from an educational rather than a therapeutic environment. Scheduled but limited group practice live meetings are important.

6.The heterogeneous medical environment means that when used for clear medical purposes, participants should not be divided into multiple categories based on their diagnosis. This allows you to focus on what everyone has in common, rather than their experiences, to distinguish them from others due to illness, disease, or condition.

7.Pre-show and post-show interviews are not required, but they are usually helpful. This can be as simple as completing a survey before and after the course.

8.The plan should include: orientation meeting (2.5 hours), eight lessons per week (2.5 to 3.5 hours per lesson), a full-day retreat (7.5 hours) planned for the sixth week, "formal" and "mindfulness" meditation methods. Informal" mindfulness meditation methods, daily tasks, individual and group assignment discussions and exit assessment strategies, and personal self-assessment in week 8 of the course.

9.All course instructors must meet MBSR preparation and proficiency standards.

10.Because the group format is critical to MBSR, the class size should not exceed the teacher’s ability to listen and assist each student when needed, nor should it be so large that the group aspect of the project is no longer useful.

Check out the organizations that offer your MBSR courses. Several universities, including Brown, have begun to provide MBSR courses and teacher training. Taking courses from well-known universities or people trained by them is a good way to know if you will take a real MBSR course. In addition, there are other recognized organizations offering MBSR courses. If you are not sure whether the organization you are looking for is reputable, please check their reviews online or check their website according to MBSR standards of practice to ensure that the course contains all the necessary components that are considered an MBSR course.

The 8-Week MBSR Program

The eight-week MBSR course provides a reliable protocol that has been used in many studies on the effects of mindfulness meditation practice. People who have taught it a lot have seen that it has its own integrity. Kabat-Zinn said that if they tried to reverse the situation, a little more, a little less, take it out, put it in, they found it was not as effective. However, it is only a framework. As we said, it is as effective as what the teacher gives it and how it "maintains space". If you have a script or formula, it won't work. If the teacher feels that he is not competent for one of the elements, such as yoga, then it will not work for him to bring in external experts. They must be trained and personally embody. In an interview with Mindful, Kabat-Zinn said: “As a teacher, you try to convey things that cannot be expressed in words. Mindfulness is also sincere: you need poetry and prose. What really makes mindfulness training work is love. If the teacher who teaches the class fundamentally loves what he is doing and the people in the class, this will work. If not, it will disappear. "

The Foundational Science of Mindfulness-Based Interventions 

As early as 1982, Kabat-Zinn Decompression Clinic began to conduct mindfulness meditation research. Since then, more than 25,000 people have completed their innovative multi-week plan, later known as MBSR, to learn to develop their ability to cope with stress, pain and even chronic diseases. Kabat-Zinn applies the basic principles of mindfulness meditation to patients in a medical environment, and his work in developing the MBSR program has proven effective in helping to alleviate the pain of previously debilitating medical conditions (such as chronic pain). It also provided fertile ground for cooperating with Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the founders of the field of affective neuroscience, for systematic research.