Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Workbook

1 Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Workbook Ken Lunn ISBN-13: 978-1517597801 Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose in the present moment and non-judgementally John Kabat-Zinn 1996 This Workbook and its contents including images is copyright Ken Lunn and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International License. The intention is that it can be used by others for providing the maximum benefit to all. Please use with integrity and respect, and if you adapt or extract honour the terms of the license. For more details of the license see Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction WorkbookMindfulness Based Stress ReductionMindfulness is a popular subject in the press as a way to improve wellbeing, and the NHS has adopted Mindfulness approaches in clinical care and in the workplace.

2 This course is intended to help you understand what Mindfulness is, but much more importantly to experience sessions will provide practices and insights that can help people to be less reactive to life s challenges, to be more aware and responsive, and to have more choice in dealing with difficulties. The sessions will be experiential and use a range of awareness practices including simple movement practices. The aim is to become more in touch with thoughts, feelings and body sensations so we can respond with less Stress . Mindfulness will be introduced from a secular perspective without any assumption of prior knowledge or practice. So, what is Mindfulness ? In the late 1970 s Jon Kabat-Zinn established a Stress Reduction clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

3 He was inspired to take a number of Buddhist practices and teach them to people who had chronic and persistent medical problems that clinicians were unable to cure. The intention was not to cure those illnesses, but to help people live more effectively with their problems. The programme developed and was remarkably successful, and a protocol call Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was created and used extensively, both within Massachusetts hospital and more widely. Over the next two decades, alongside good anecdotal evidence, studies started to show that there were significant benefits arising from MBSR. A development of that protocol, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was developed, and studies showed that as an intervention this was marginally better than drug therapy for helping people with certain depressive illnesses to avoid relapse, and it is now an NHS recommended treatment.

4 John Kabat-Zinn originally defined Mindfulness as paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally . That is an easy thing to express, but not easy to do. Mindfulness has become very popular and the media is bringing a lot of attention to it. This course should leave you much more informed and give you a rich should follow the course rigorously through use of the home practices, where much of the experiential learning will take place. You are not marked on your compliance with home practice, but it is daily practice that cultivates Mindfulness even if it can be difficult at times. If you miss a day or more of practice, or do not meet the target times for practice, note that in your diary and bring that experience with you to the next session.

5 Whatever you do, take care of yourself. Mindfulness is about learning to be kinder to yourself and exploring personal boundaries, not pushing yourself beyond your limits. If you have any concerns or problems, speak to a tutor regardsKen Page 2 Copyright Ken Lunn 2015 Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction WorkbookGuiding PrinciplesThis course is meant to be a learning experience for each individual. Everyone will take away different things from it. The learning is co-created by the group, and will come as much if not more from the participants as from the tutors. It is important to protect that group experience. Therefore as a group we ask participants to observe a few simple will be invited to share their experiences.

6 Learning will come out of the group, as we all have different experiences of the present moment. Please treat anything that is shared as confidential. is obliged to share their experiences - you are welcome to just will be working with our edges , and exploring our personal boundaries. However, if there is anything about a practice you are really uncomfortable with, you need not follow it. You can discuss it privately with a tutor. Do not do anything that is likely to cause you harm. you need anything for your own comfort, please sort yourself out. There are blankets and cushions provided. If you need the bathroom at any time, just take time you are going to leave the session before the end, or need to miss a session, please let one of the tutors know.

7 The course is progressive, and builds on earlier experiences. there is anything you think the tutors should know, please speak to them privately if register is kept, please put your name down before you you can t make a session, please can you let us know in advance. turn up in good time for the class. is a label that is widely used, and it means many things to many people. Rather than define it, we will be exploring it throughout the course. Your experience should enrich your personal course is experiential, and not theoretical. The tutors would be happy to discuss theory outside of the class and recommend reading for those wanting to explore further. is developed through practice. To benefit from the course, you are encouraged to try the practices yourself on a daily basis.

8 Personal learning will come from regular practice, including the struggle to do that practice. Each week there will be some home practice which is an important part of the course is secular and not tied to any particular religion or world view. There will be strong overlaps with some Buddhist practices, and if you have any questions on that the tutors would be happy to clarify to the best of their abilities. Buddhism has a strong emphasis on ethics and wisdom that are not so explicit in Mindfulness practices, and different Buddhist schools have subtly different uses of the term Mindfulness . respect the environment we are working in. Page 3 Copyright Ken Lunn 2015 Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction WorkbookCourse Outline.

9 Week 1: Coming to our senses The first week will introduce Mindfulness and some exercises that are intended to make us much more aware of what is going on in our bodies. The intention is to start to move away from automatic pilot, where we are driven by our inner thoughts and feelings, and to become more in touch with the world around us. Week 2: Exploring our edges, and coming home to our bodies By being more in touch with our body and feelings, and noticing how we react, we can start to take a little more control. Our natural tendency to challenges is the "fight or flight" response. That might have worked well in more primitive times, but in modern times the tendency is to contain our reactions which creates Stress .

10 In this session, we start to explore the edges that we have, and understand a little more about how our 3: Being present Staying in the present moment and not getting lost in thoughts or daydreams is an important skill to practice. This session looks at meditation practices that can be long or short. There will also be some mindful movement practices that help us to gently wake up to our bodies. Week 4: What is Stress ? This session we looks at how we respond to Stress . Stress is not just caused by the events in our lives, but also in the way we deal with them. Different people respond to the same events in different ways. By now we will have explored some useful tools, and now we will see how they can be applied.