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An eight week program that offers a meditative approach to working with
stress, pain and illness.
Sessions are held once a week for two hours and there is a full day
retreat toward the end of the program.
WHAT IS MINDFULNESS BASED STRESS REDUCTION?
Mindfulness is another word for awareness. Meditation techniques based on
mindfulness involve cultivating a non-judgmental awareness of our
moment-to-moment experience.
During the course you will learn to develop this awareness by paying
attention to your breath, physical sensations, thoughts and feelings
through meditation techniques that will be taught in the sessions.
It is not that mindfulness is the "answer" to all life's problems. Rather,
it is that all life's problems can be seen more clearly through the lens
of a clear mind.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
HOW DOES MINDFULNESS MEDITATION REDUCE STRESS?
We know from research on stress that it is not so much the stressor
itself, but how we perceive it and then how we handle it, that determines
whether or not we will experience stress.
Cultivating mindfulness can help us relate to our experience with less
anxiety and fear. We begin to develop a more friendly and caring attitude
towards ourselves and have more choice about how we relate to our
experience.
We begin to have a sense of spaciousness so that we can respond to life
rather than reacting automatically out of our old patterns and past
conditioning.
Mindfulness meditation can help us reconnect with our sense of wholeness
regardless of what we are facing, bringing greater balance, acceptance and
ease to our lives.
Mindfulness can be helpful to those of us living with stress from work,
our relationships, our healing of childhood wounds, our mid-life
transitions, chronic pain or illness.
It can help us experience our inner resources of relaxation, awareness,
and calm.
Mindfulness meditation strengthens our capacity to be present and to
experience our lives more directly and fully. It allows us to "own" each
moment of our experience - whether it is pleasant or unpleasant - whether
it is eating a delicious meal or experiencing pain in our body.
THE MODEL
This course is modelled on the Stress Reduction and Relaxation Program
developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., at the University of Massachusetts
Medical Center.
Mindfulness meditation has come to us through Buddhist teachings now over
2500 years old.
At the Massachusetts Clinic, mindfulness is taught on its own as a
powerful tool for self-understanding without the Buddhist context.
The Massachusetts program has been operating for about 20 years and
research indicates positive changes occur for participants including
decreased anxiety, depression and pain, and increased self-confidence,
immune functioning and sense of well-being.
Jon Kabat-Zinn is the author of Full Catastrophe Living and Wherever You
Go, There You Are.
BETH TROTTER,
M.A., R.C.C.
I
have practised meditation in the Buddhist Vipassana tradition and have been a psychotherapist and trainer in private practice since 1987.
I
have completed a 3 month intensive meditation retreat, have taught
meditation at Hollyhock and have trained in the Stress Reduction Program in
Vancouver with Adrianne Ross, M.D., a student of Jon Kabat-Zinn. I
bring a feminist perspective and a commitment to creating a safe,
supportive and respectful learning environment. I am also available for
teaching Stress Reduction to organizations or groups.
REGISTRATION
Please call if you would like more information about the Mindfulness-Based
Stress Reduction Program in Victoria, or would like to
register for
upcoming classes.
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