Message from mhogan

[Anonymous]

In December, I had the opportunity to attend an introductory Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) seminar. MBSR was started in Mass. by a medical doctor and practicing Buddhist, Jon Kabat-Zinn. He proposed that meditation and mindfulness training would assist those suffering from disease. At first, he was not taken too seriously, so he asked for only the worst suffering patients. When he showed improvement in those, some in the medical community started to take notice. He has since gone on to co-establish institutes and a specific program - Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. His program has been peer-reviewed on many occasions.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction is an 8-week program in which the practitioners are taught meditation in different forms. They are taught sitting meditation, yoga, walking meditation, eating meditation, etc. They are also taught how to do body scans in order to become more in touch with their bodies. They are taught how to connect with themselves and their bodies in acceptance so as to reduce their levels of stress. This has been shown to improve health and overall well-being.

Although the program teaches meditation through the Vipassna Buddhist tradition, the program itself is not religious. It uses meditation is a technique and not a religious ritual. It is interesting to see Buddhist practice enter into Western consciousness as such a "new" concept. Time magazine in 2003 had a couple of different covers on the link between meditation and health. It will be interesting to see where this influence goes.

For anyone interested in taking the 8-week MBSR class, it starts on Jan. 8 through Insight LA (insightla.org). I already have committments on Monday nights, but it should be interesting and fruitful for those who can find the time.