Mindfulness springs from an ancient tradition designed to tap our innate human capacity for happiness, health, and wellbeing. At its essence, mindfulness involves bringing the body and mind into the same place at the same time in a purposeful, open-hearted, and non-judging way. Mindfulness is not a philosophy or a theory that can be learned from a book; it is the practice of bringing compassionate awareness to the immediate circumstances of our lives, moment-by-moment.
Mindfulness helps us unlock the body’s natural healing capacities and fosters mental and emotional resilience in the face of life’s inevitable stresses. Mindfulness does not seek to eliminate life’s difficulties, but works to change our relationship with those difficulties, transforming habitual patterns of reactivity, resistance and judgment into compassionate self-awareness in the face of all life’s joys and challenges.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn, whose work has helped bring mindfulness into the mainstream, has called mindfulness simply “the art of being fully human.”
One does not have to be a Buddhist, or subscribe to any belief system, to practice and benefit from mindfulness; it is an innate capacity that is already present in all of us, and simply needs to be uncovered. Focused on tapping this inherent capability of our mind and body to participate in our own healing, mindfulness is a complement, not a substitute, to other conventional medical treatment modalities.
Resources
The Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare and Society:
The flagship organization where the MBSR curriculum was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn includes info on the program, teacher training, and mindfulness research.
http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/
UC Berkeley:
Offers info on mindfulness including videos and meditations.
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/mindfulness/definition
UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center:
Includes guided meditations and information on mindfulness.
http://marc.ucla.edu
Integrative Restoration Institute:
Information on iRest, an evidence-based, trauma-sensitive mindfulness intervention focused on the body.
https://www.irest.us/
American Mindfulness Research Association:
Offers information on various avenues of mindfulness research.
https://goamra.org
Mindful Magazine online:
Explores various topics related to mindfulness.
http://www.mindful.org
Mindfulness in the News
Anderson Cooper’s experience with mindfulness on 60 Minutes:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mindfulness-anderson-cooper-60-minutes/
NPR story on ABC’s Dan Harris’ adoption of mindfulness practice:
http://www.npr.org/2015/01/04/374910817/how-a-skeptic-learned-to-love-meditation
More on Dan Harris of ABC:
http://www.mindful.org/dan-harris-meditation-10-percent-happier/
Video / Presentations
US Congressman Tim Ryan on mindfulness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sZDM93HFGs
“How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life” by the Center for Mindfulness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJjyrzqkXrE
Guided meditation by Jon Kabat-Zinn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5ssKPoKQzY