MBSR

Opening the Heart at Stanford, Google and Beyond

Five years ago, a professor of neurosurgery at Stanford had a revolutionary idea: open a center dedicated to compassion right in the middle of the university. Today, The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) flourishes within this citadel of academia. Here, it quietly pursues its mission of supporting and conducting rigorous scientific studies of compassion and altruism, developing ways to cultivate compassion and promote altruism within individuals and throughout society.

UCSD Offers Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workshop for Nurses

We are thrilled to announce registration is now open for our Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workshop for Nurses January 28, 2012, 9am-3pm at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, La Jolla, CA. Please join workshop leaders Lois Howland, DrPH, MSN, Livia Walsh LMFT, MS, MA, RN, and Amy Holte, PhD, MEd, in this exciting experiential workshop. You will gain insights on bringing mindfulness into your daily life for self-care along with exploring strategies for offering mindfulness to your patients to promote healing.

Wondering about ways that MBSR touches lives? This graduate says it beautifully and powerfully.

Meditation

In the course of teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, I have had the opportunity to hear first-hand how participation in the program has had an impact on the lives of many people. I know from my own experience of mindfulness practice how powerful it can be, but I often struggle with how to put that into words that really capture the experience. Fortunately, every now and then, one of our MBSR participants articulates it so poignantly and eloquently that I get a new look at how this practice changes lives.

Meatballs and Mindfulness: It Just Doesn't Matter!

(Fair warning, I have previously refenced Caddyshack as a source of dharma teaching a few months ago, and today I will draw upon another Bill Murray 70s comedy, Meatballs, for inspiration. If you consider such pop culture references offensive, I invite you to turn to the more conventional items elsewhere on our blog. -SH) 

Mindfulness and Yoga: Complementary Paths of Health, Healing, and Wellbeing

YogaAs I’ve been teaching various forms of contemplative practice over the past dozen years or so in different settings with a wide variety of groups, I have observed that people who practice “yoga” do not always have a sitting meditation practice, and that people who meditate do not always have a contemplative-oriented movement practice.

Bringing Affectionate Curiosity to Urges and Cravings: Mindfulness as a Means to Prevent Relapse for Women in Early Recovery

The following is a description of the process of adapting the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program (MBSR) to work with women in early recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, enrolled in three residential substance abuse treatment programs, and in one outpatient program, located in an urban center in Massachusetts. Most participants started the intervention two to three weeks after detoxification treatment. A total of 318 women (45% Latina, 35% Black, 20% White) completed baseline interviews.

Got sleep? If not, choose mindfulness.

Do you often lie in bed unable to fall asleep? Do you regularly wake up in the middle of the night or too early in the morning? If so, you are not alone. About 1 out of every 10 adults has chronic insomnia. Insomnia causes daytime problems like feeling fatigued or being unable to concentrate. Insomnia is associated with accidents, low productivity and serious health problems.  It is also an important risk factor for depression. The most common treatment for chronic insomnia is sleeping pills.

Mindful Eating: The Power of Mindfulness Practice for Client and Clinician

I found my way to meditation years ago out of necessity — not unlike how people come into therapy and the mindfulness-based courses I teach. Knowing how useful meditation had been in my own life, I began looking for a way to incorporate mindfulness and meditation into my psychotherapy practice for individuals and in groups. The intersection of abuse, body image and eating/food issues is insidiously woven together for many people. Each year I find myself sitting with an increasing number of women struggling with disordered eating borne out of stress and suffering.