Palouse Mindfulness-based Stress Reducation (MBSR) course is a free online resource made available by a retired psychotherapist with 30 plus years of meditation practice himself, Dave Potter.
The online course has been fully translated into Spanish, Russian and Portuguese.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a form of meditation.
There are various ways to describe Mindfulness. Here's how some of the leaders in the field define it:
Thich Nhat Hanh - “Mindfulness refers to keeping one’s consciousness alive to the present reality. It is the miracle by which we master and restore ourselves.”
Jon Kabat Zin - “Mindfulness is the awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally.”
Rob Nairn – The Mindfulness Association - "Mindfulness is knowing what is happening, when it is happening, without preference.”
The Oxford Mindfulness Centre (OMC) - "Mindfulness involves paying attention to our experience in the present moment, with curiosity, compassion and acceptance. It is a blend of modern psychology and the ancient wisdom of meditation, which helps us to live life more fully and with a greater sense of perspective."
Mindfulness meditation comes in many guises. Through yoga, I was practising mindfulness before I called it that. Yoga has 8 branches and at least 2 of those branches - dharana (concentration) and dyana (meditation) - are mindfulness practices. I then went on to practice CEB (Cultivating Emotional Balance) which comes from a collaboration between the Dalai Lama and western scholers - a way to bring meditation into western mainstream culture. Way back in the 1970's, around the same time as this collaboration began, Jon Kabat Zin was using the scientific method to assess and record the benefits of regular mindfulness practice at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. These benefits are now very well documented and accepted in the mainstream medical world, and the Palouse MBSR course has details of it all on the website.
In 2017, I was looking for an online mindfulness course. This was pre-pandemic and offerings were limited and costly. Thankfully, I clicked on the Palouse MBSR link. The course was really well laid out and totally free, no ads even. So I began to work my way through it - first the "At a glance" page, the "Introduction" page, and then I started going through the Week 1 materials (so informative) and I started doing a daily guided practice as suggested for week 1 - the bodyscan. It was easy. Naturally, some bits I enjoyed more than others, but, more importantly, I was developing a daily mindfulness habit almost without even noticing. Everyday I would open the site and read or watch some of the suggested materials and do a guided practice. I joined the closed facebook group and found that really helped to keep motivated too, knowing others were doing it too, and it helped to answer questions I had.
Way before the end of the course (it's recommended you take at least 8 weeks to complete it) I was automatically doing formal and informal practice everyday, more than once a day. It seemed strange to think about how I got through life before it. It helped so much in so many ways, but mostly I noticed how much it helped with the way I reacted to things. It was like life slowed right down. Something not favourable would happen, and I would watch my automatic reaction with curiosity, think about whether that best served me, and consider the possible alternative reactions. I might not chose any of the alternative reactions, but that was okay too, because a big art of mindfulness is self-compassion and kindness - I was doing the best I could in that moment - and that was enough.
While these are small details - they are fundamental details of life too, and totally transform the experience of life.
There is much more I can say about it - how regular mindfulness practice helps addictions leave you, how mindfulness eating helps you eat better, how relationships improve as you become less reactive, how life becomes richer and the world appears friendlier... but hopefully I have motivated you to find out for yourself. Click on the link at the beginning of the blog to get started.
I would like to end by sending my deep gratitude and appreciation to Dave Potter, for so generously making the information available online for free, and for his continuous (mostly single-handed) superb maintenance of the site. What a blessing.
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