The following Mindfulness Meditations and links to other resources form part of the Home practice over the eight weeks of the MBSR course.
If you would like to have a go or for those in a hurry, here is a shorter Ten Minute Meditation
If you would like to have a go or for those in a hurry, here is a shorter Ten Minute Meditation
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Session One
The journey begins with developing Mindful Awareness. This week we practice with the Body Scan. To hear and download the meditation recordings, click on the green links below |
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Body Scan Meditation 32 minutes
Get yourself comfortable, have a pillow and a warm blanket handy and take some quality time for yourself
For a deeper understanding of Mindfulness and how it can help here are some links:
Get yourself comfortable, have a pillow and a warm blanket handy and take some quality time for yourself
For a deeper understanding of Mindfulness and how it can help here are some links:
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This is a link to a Bill Moyers TV programme called 'Healing from Within'. It is from the early days of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction programme with Jon Kabat-Zinn. (Fast forward to around 3 minutes in if you wish to skip the intro) |
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Session Two
In Session 2 we look at how our perceptions can sometimes mislead us. We also begin to explore mindfulness of breathing.
Mindfulness of Breath meditation - 10 minutes
Young girl or old woman?
Session Three
In this session we bring awareness to sensations of the body in movement and in stillness as we begin to explore Sitting Meditation. We continue to develop our present moment awareness.
We also start to work with the short 3 Step Breathing Space and taking a Pause. Practicing this regularly throughout the day helps us to have it available as a useful Mindfulness tool in times of difficulty.
Three Step Breathing Space
or you might prefer to simply take a moment to stop what you are doing, drop your attention into the soles of the feet ('grounding') then take a few deep, slow breaths.
As a reminder, setting a timer to go off regularly throughout your day can be helpful, or linking this short practice with a daily activity such as walking to your car, getting out of bed in the morning, having a cup of tea.
or you might prefer to simply take a moment to stop what you are doing, drop your attention into the soles of the feet ('grounding') then take a few deep, slow breaths.
As a reminder, setting a timer to go off regularly throughout your day can be helpful, or linking this short practice with a daily activity such as walking to your car, getting out of bed in the morning, having a cup of tea.
Before following Mindful Movement practices
please listen to this track
Stretch and Breathe - Carole - 28 minutes can be done standing or sitting in a chair. We begin with gentle stretches followed by Mindfulness of Breath sitting meditation.
Sitting Meditation on Breath and Body - Carole - 20 minutes
Lying Down Mindful Movement - Carole - 37 minutes
Below you will find two YouTube videos, the first with the kind permission of Karunavira, where he guides a Do-In and QiGong Mindful movement session.
The second video is with Neil Golub offering, for those who would like to explore these, some suggestions on sitting positions for meditation.
It's important to say here that meditation postures don't need to be uncomfortable. The guidance will often invite you to take an alert and upright posture but the main thing is to take care of yourself and your body. There are many ways to sit in meditation and during this session we will explore some of the options.
Mindful Movement is not about getting ourselves fitter or more supple - although this may happen as a side benefit! It's more about strengthening the connection between mind and body so that we can better understand the messages the body is giving us, for example, when the early signs of stress show up. It can also alert us to attitudes that we might have that may not be serving us, such as over-striving.
For attitudes towards Mindful Movement you might like to revisit
this short talk by Jon Kabat Zinn on Non-striving
Before following Mindful Movement practices
please listen to this track
Stretch and Breathe - Carole - 28 minutes can be done standing or sitting in a chair. We begin with gentle stretches followed by Mindfulness of Breath sitting meditation.
Sitting Meditation on Breath and Body - Carole - 20 minutes
Lying Down Mindful Movement - Carole - 37 minutes
Below you will find two YouTube videos, the first with the kind permission of Karunavira, where he guides a Do-In and QiGong Mindful movement session.
The second video is with Neil Golub offering, for those who would like to explore these, some suggestions on sitting positions for meditation.
It's important to say here that meditation postures don't need to be uncomfortable. The guidance will often invite you to take an alert and upright posture but the main thing is to take care of yourself and your body. There are many ways to sit in meditation and during this session we will explore some of the options.
Mindful Movement is not about getting ourselves fitter or more supple - although this may happen as a side benefit! It's more about strengthening the connection between mind and body so that we can better understand the messages the body is giving us, for example, when the early signs of stress show up. It can also alert us to attitudes that we might have that may not be serving us, such as over-striving.
For attitudes towards Mindful Movement you might like to revisit
this short talk by Jon Kabat Zinn on Non-striving
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Session Four
In this session we begin to learn about and explore our patterns of reactivity to stress.
Sitting Meditation on Breath and Body - Carole - 20 minutes
Session Five
We can't escape it, Life throws up challenges, either physical pain and illness, or emotional challenges. We don't want it, we don't like it, but turning towards these things can introduce us to liberating ways to work with these things.
Turning towards difficulty meditation - Carole
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In this video, Vidyamala Burch, of Breathworks, talks about how we might work Mindfully with difficult bodily pain.
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In this video, Tara Brach talks about Working Skillfully with Pain |
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Session Six