#312 What exactly is "Mindfulness"?

     "Mindfulness", is a unique method of promoting maturation of one's way of being in the world, developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD in 1979 at the UMASS Medical Center. Kabat-Zinn, a cell biologist researcher, tailored what he knew about Buddhist meditation and certain mind-body exercises, to a broad, secular American audience suffering from a wide variety of chronic diseases and illnesses, for which Western medicine was ineffective. He called it "Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)" and encouraged health-care professionals to learn this practice and then use it therapeutically.  http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/stress/index.aspx
     He started research on the effectiveness of MBSR from the beginning. This research has grown exponentially since then. The 11th Annual International Scientific Conference for Clinicians, Researchers and Educators is being held on April 17-21, 2013  http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/conference/index.aspx
     Due to the worldwide popularity of MBSR, the term "Mindfulness" is often inappropriately used by a variety of practices that differ significantly from MBSR in both content and flavor.
      The content of MBSR is fairly standardized, and is evidence-based by Western scientific criteria. The flavor of MBSR is strictly secular - both devoutly religious people of different traditions, as well as those with no interest or even averse to religion, are equally comfortable in, and thus are able to benefit equally from MBSR. This is because the goal of MBSR is strictly to reduce the suffering we all share as human beings, and to improve quality of life, through improved mental functioning & mind-body awareness.
     Mindfulness contains no dogma - participants learn various exercises, and only if they personally experience benefits, are they encouraged to continue them.

     See also: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2012/11/234-shared-world-of-deep-meaning-and.html

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