What is MBSR?#

MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) is a structured 8-week program of exploration, cultivating mindfulness: better orientation in the inner world (body/feelings/thoughts) directly impacts our experience of self, others, environment.

You might consider the course if you:

  • want to know yourself better, i.e. cultivating wisdom;

  • want to learn to care about their inner space, to relate to oneself and others with awareness and kindness;

  • look for constructive approach to stress, be it from personal or professional life (overload, relationship conflicts, melancholy, loss of a close person, sickness);

  • deal with stress symptoms (inner restlessness, sleeplessness, migraines, fatigue, anxiety, irritation) or would like to prevent them from reoccurring;

  • would like to complement medical or terapeutical treatment (MBSR is not its replacement).

During the course, you learn to

  • be in contact with your own experience as it is happening (in body, feelings, mind);

  • how to recognize problematic aspects of experience (summarily called “stress”) and their dynamics: how they originate, how and why they amplify through often automatic reactions (e.g. tape-loops of self-pity, fear, negative judgement of oneself or others, helplessness, wanting to control the experience)

  • how to keep up with all that as it is happening, without getting lost;

  • all this via various mindfulness-oriented exercises presented in the course and practiced at home (with recordings, later without recordings), guided discussions of one’s experience in the group, some theory and written materials for individual study.

The standard structure is 8 weeks. That means 7 weeks of individual daily practice of mindfulness (“formal” practice in dedicated time − approx. 30−45 minutes a day, with recordings and other instructions; “informal” practice during daily activities) which is supported by 8 regular group sessions (each about 2-2.5 hours) with time for reflection, new exercises, support. There is one “day of mindfulness” towards the end of the course, for continuous practice in the group setting.

History

Historically, mindfulness has its roots in the Buddhist insight meditation (vipassanā).

MBSR itself was created in 1979 at Massachusetts university clinic by professor Jon Kabat-Zinn, active Buddhist meditator, who secularized select parts of the practice for general public use. Initially, chronic pain patients were targeted; later, MBSR was found to be effective for stress with various other causes. The program gradually spread mainly in the USA and Western Europe (in Germany, for example, health insurance partially covers participation in the course as burnout prevention & recovery), being commonly used also in business, education and health care settings. It inspired a number of derived programs such as Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBSR; targetting depression) or Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (substance use) and others.

MSBR was extensively studied academically and pioneered scientific research of mindfulness; nowadays, MBSR and mindfulness-related research is published in impacted journals. The main popular publication about the program is Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn.