The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course does not have a prerequisite; it is open to anyone willing to commit to an intensive training in mindfulness where participants draw on their own resources to explore what it means to care for themselves, find peace, and experience healing. While people have practiced mindfulness for centuries, 30+ years ago Jon Kabat-Zinn, molecular biologist and founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, designed a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program to help people reduce symptoms of stress, pain, and illness. The MBSR 8-Week Intensive is modeled on the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
For 8 weeks you will be part of a living container—a group of individuals devoted to exploring mindfulness as a means to living fully in the only moment there is: now. Highly experiential, the course requires you to come with a sense of curiosity. You will be provided all necessary instruction and materials to guide you in formal practices, gentle movements, body scanning, and more. Much practice will be done in silence; there will also be time for whole group and small group dialogue.
With almost 30 hours of class time and 45 minutes-1 hour of homework 6 days per week, this course requires a commitment, but the experience can forever alter the way you experience yourself and your life. Most people who participate fully in an MBSR course report decreases in physical and psychological symptoms, an increased ability to relax, reduction in pain levels, an enhanced ability to cope with chronic pain, greater energy and enthusiasm for life, improved self-esteem, and an ability to cope more effectively with stressful situations.
For 8 weeks you will be part of a living container—a group of individuals devoted to exploring mindfulness as a means to living fully in the only moment there is: now. Highly experiential, the course requires you to come with a sense of curiosity. You will be provided all necessary instruction and materials to guide you in formal practices, gentle movements, body scanning, and more. Much practice will be done in silence; there will also be time for whole group and small group dialogue.
With almost 30 hours of class time and 45 minutes-1 hour of homework 6 days per week, this course requires a commitment, but the experience can forever alter the way you experience yourself and your life. Most people who participate fully in an MBSR course report decreases in physical and psychological symptoms, an increased ability to relax, reduction in pain levels, an enhanced ability to cope with chronic pain, greater energy and enthusiasm for life, improved self-esteem, and an ability to cope more effectively with stressful situations.
Mindfulness: the state of settled mind and body; a practice of living in the moment as it is, without judgment; a mind-body process for cultivating gentle self-awareness that can lead to more peace and less physical and emotional pain.
Reasons people report
for taking an MBSR course:
for taking an MBSR course:
Medical Conditions
Chronic pain, high blood pressure, diabetes, headaches, cancer, fibromyalgia, GI distress, heart disease, and more
Prevention and Wellness
As part of a pregnancy plan, to achieve more balance in life, to learn to take good care of oneself physically and emotionally, to establish better practices of exercise and healthy eating, to enhance the quality of interactions with others, to feel more peace and happiness, to relax, to reconnect with spontaneity and play
Stress
Related to work, relationships, finances, habits, social situations, and life in general
Psychological and Emotional Distress
Sleep disorders, anxiety, panic, depression, grief, OCD, eating disorders, negative thinking, frustration, anger, impatience, low self-esteem, feelings of helplessness, habitual patterns of behavior
Riverside is the first healthcare system in Hampton Roads
to offer an 8-week MBSR course modeled on the Stress Reduction Clinic
at the University of Massachusetts Medical School
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