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Welcome to happiness, and good luck with the MBSR ✨

Hello everyone. I just started the MBSR and so far its been a great way for me to focus my energies. Anyway today we had a Sunshower! The sky was very dark blue-grey, and then with the sun shining on the dark clouds there was the most vivid arc of rainbow! I was so thrilled to see it as I have not seen one in years. So I will take it as a sign that there is hope. A very joyful moment.

Hi everyone, Thanks a lot for sharing these meditations! Very helpful. I've also just discovered Rick Hanson's series of meditations (and talks). They are really great, just like all his other work. Hope you enjoy them: https://www.rickhanson.net/teaching/wednesday-meditations-with-dr-rick-hanson/. I'm now in my second week of the MBSR programme and am loving it. Cheers, Laura

Hello everyone. I hope you are all safe and well. My name is Devashish and I am a new member from India. I have been exploring mindfulness meditation off and on for the past 2 years, in an unstructured manner. I have been keen to learn more about MBSR for some time, and finally got the chance to do so now. I look forward to this journey and to getting to know all of you. Regards, Dev

This is my second 8 week MBSR course. The last one was through Brown University. I did it during the school term so I was distracted, but did enjoy it. I learned a lot. I am trying to get certified to teach but it is expen$ive through the normal channels. Thousands. Or at least from what I can tell. I was delighted to find this opportunity. If you search online you can find just about anything. Sometimes. I know the body scan is very important, but it is, or can be, a difficult skill. It is not so much my mind but my body. Oddly enough. I think I get it now though. why the body scan is so important. It is a holistic practice which involves everything but movement. I would like to know where Jon picked it up. The story behind it.

I'm finishing up week 3, and simply blown away by this incredible resource. Deep bows to everyone that makes this happen!! A few questions and comments. First, I'm about halfway through the Altered Traits book and I'm really grateful Richie and Dan wrote it. They humbly describe how their observation and testing methods have improved over the decades, and thoroughly describe how difficult it is to quantify states of mind. It's great to see pioneers in the mindfulness field dial back any unwarranted claims about the "mindful" panacea. Second, is anyone aware of any studies that measure heart activity during meditation (other than simple heart rate)? I've heard that when Richie first measured the brain activity of Tibetan monks they laughed and told him that the the skull monitors were useless cuz the mind is focused in the heart. I feel a ton of energy course through my body during meditation and at the end of 10 day retreats I've actually noticed thoughts be a byproduct of subtle heart activity. I'm aware of heart coherence meditations and the HeartMath Institute, but they seem either too fringe-y or unstudied. Finally, I'm noticing that so far in the course, there are almost no teachings from POC leaders. Many leaders in the insight meditation field are very active in undoing racism and unconscious bias, including Joseph and Sharon's Insight Meditation Society (where JKZ first thought of MBSR). Mindfulness is particularly useful in uncovering hidden states of mind and it might be good to speak about this type of work, and incorporate its lessons into the structure of the course as well. Apologies if this subject comes up later! I just figured I'd mention it here.

Welcome to happiness Dev ? I hope you find our community useful on your journey! Make sure you check out the Academy and magazine for more information about MBSR and other topics you might find interesting too. We're glad you found us ✨

@Temjen Sorry for the late reply! The experience is different for everyone, and every time you practice, so there's no right or wrong. You listen to your body sensations, your thoughts and emotions, and after the practice, you write some of the things down that came up. Here in the thread, there are already plenty of examples ranging from describing a peaceful experience to a tough time. I often recognize that some areas are quiet while feeling into the hands usually quickly experience some tingly feeling, and I easily recognize the temperature there. I hope this helped, and I am looking forward to reading about your experience. You already wrote another post about your experience. There you raise two questions. The first one you already answered for yourself. It doesn't matter, but then again, it does matter if it matters to you. So do the bodyscan in a way that is most beneficial to you. Your second question is "Is there any difference between breathing in & out through the mouth and breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth?" There are many answers to this from a medical, yogic or energetic perspective, and I do not have the expertise to give those answers correctly. From an MBSR perspective, I would emphasize the attitudinals of "beginners mind" and "curiosity". How are those ways of breathing different to you? Can you feel a difference? Where? How? This is an excellent invitation for further investigation into your own experience.

I just completed the first week and I'm reminded of how profoundly grateful I am to have this wisdom. I started my 12-year daily meditation practice in the vipassana tradition (MBSR has it's roots in this Buddhist lineage). However, I took a break from that method and focused on other approaches over the last few years because a tremendous amount of painful energy, sensations, and emotions were arising in practice and the traditional insight/mindfulness meditation, as it was taught to me, could not hold or help process my experience. After years of focusing on more somatic and experiential practices (mindful exercize, hatha and kundalini yoga, yoga nidra, visualization journeys, automatic writing, tapping, etc.) I'm delighted to dive back into my roots and re-approach mindfulness with a fresh perspective and more resilience. The body scan was a perfect way to start this course, as I primarily did body scans for years when I first began meditating. Perhaps my psyche was so disembodied and the mind so deafening that open awareness or simple breath meditation resulted in more stress, not less. This week reminded me of how body scans show me all the unconscious tension the body holds, even first thing in the morning I'm also noticing that body scans are a gentle and centering way to start the day, especially when the urge to tap on my gmail app to get the morning news seems so appropriate during this pandemic. While body scans are centering, I also notice a deep primal fear that if I relax all the way, something terrible is going to happen. Ugh! I've been meditating for over a decade and that belief is still so strong! So I always visualize comforting forces holding me. So, very grateful for this course and the people running it! Can't wait to dive into week 2.

There are lots of scientific studies out there that point towards a negative impact of chronic stress on not only our mental health but also on our physical health. This matches my personal experiences as since I had taken the MBSR course six years ago and I meditate almost daily I have had close to no sick leave days. So I would say I see scientific evidence AND I experience the connection. However, it's "only" a connection; it's not a necessary consequence. Even if I do all the right things, I might still get sick. I think the best example is smoking. Most of us by now agree that smoking is a good way to get lung cancer, but it's no guarantee, and neither is not smoking a guarantee to stay cancer-free. My point is "Never get sick again" is too much of a bold promise and might foster false hopes and expectations. At the same time, I am 5 stars supportive of consciously making the best of the connection and working on our physical and mental health and keeping our chronic stress levels low. For those interested in the status quo of the research, Google Scholar is an excellent start. Here's a predefined search for "stress", "immune system" but leaving out the results dealing with space flight.

I go through phases. I had a Tara Brach phase, where I would listen to her talks and draw mandalas. Training to be an MBSR teacher, I naturally read a lot by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Part of my journey has let me to investigate the work on self-compassion by Kristin Neff deeply. Through a Vipassana retreat, I focused on S.N. Goenka's teaching, and in the same year, I went to Plum village and dived into the world of Thích Nhất Hạnh and his monks and nuns, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I guess I like looking at life from different angles and through the lenses of different teachers again and again as I keep having new and deeper insights even with seemingly "easy" topics like thoughts.

Hello! I just started the MBSR and can´t find the audio guidance for the body scan. could anybody help me? .

Hi, I'm Amy, pleased to meet you! I'm a newish member too & currently on the MBSR course. Big congratulations on your post, it takkes a lot to put yourself out there & you did it, well done! Hope to keep in touch with you. Love & light x

I have successfully completed the MBSR program and it has definitely influenced my life and doula practice. I’m very grateful for this free program. I did note there was a certification emailed from happiness.com but did not receive that. At the end of my program I had a choice to review or get certification. As I choose review to happily give my positive feedback the certification option never reappeared. Just curious how to follow up on that?

Hi i'm new here , and l am looking forward to the future of this platform. Lets be honest about Facebook ? This resonates true .... Anyway a bit about myself . I love travelling ( hardly got started in terms of the world ) , so any experiences shared will be fun . Also just started the MBSR course . Hello again :-)

Hello All Just started the MBSR course last week and am finishing week 1 getting ready for Week 2. The videos in week 1 were incredibly inspiring and interesting. Thank you for Jon Kabat-Zinn and all the amazing teachers out there who have helped and shared their experience. I am a practitioning yogi and have practised yoga relaxation so am familiar with body scan techniques. Inevitably I still fall asleep myself during the practice! I find it's easier to relax in it whilst lying on the floor, but I'm more prone to sleep here. Doing it sitting in a chair keeps me from sleep, where at least I catch myself moving if I do find sleep coming on! In terms of practice, it's interesting starting at different points in the body. Vipassana meditation generally starts from top of the head and moves down to toes and then back up through the back of the body. With yoga it starts in the right hand. There are a number of different ways to approach it, it seems, and I wonder whether different ways would work at different times, depending on how one is feeling or might need at the time. It is interesting to experiment thus far. ? Thank you all for sharing. ?

Today was my first body scan. Physically I noticed far more tension in my body than I had thought I was carrying. I knew that my shoulders are full of knots but hadn’t realised how sore my head was - and that my tongue was glued to the top of my mouth. My dentist’s comments about signs of teeth grinding are starting to make sense! At one point I was surprised to find myself feeling very sceptical about whether the meditation was going to work for me. I’m totally sold on the science of MBSR (or so I thought!), so that was an unexpected train of thought. I was sorry to finish the meditation and am already looking forward to doing it again tomorrow.

I've used this meditation long before I started mbsr. It makes people easier to deal with. At least that's the result I found. I really struggle with my dad. But it was always easier to deal with him after I wished him to he safe, healthy, happy, and free from suffering. And I'd always start with this phrase, just as everyone wants to be happy and free from suffering, may my dad be content and free from suffering. It helped so much!!! So I love this meditation. I just like doing it without a recording best. But awesome practice to focus on!

I started meditating in 2014 after coming across more and more studies suggesting it's a positive effect on the mind, thoughts, emotions and our mental but also bodily health. So I was first convinced to try it by science. A few months after having done my first MBSR course (The same we offer here for free btw) I was blown away by the profound changes that had happened over time and were only really visible in hindsight. As I dug deeper into the science and worked on my personal practise that's when for me also the spiritual side started coming more into focus with questions about purpose, boundaries, morals, ethics, service, ... I practice daily, mostly insight meditation and loving kindness. Some days I allow myself to let a few minute checks in count as "having meditated" too.

Tara Brach has lots of inspiring pieces around the subjects of being too hard on yourself, feeling like not being enough. She calls it the trance of unworthiness. There's one thing I'd like to point out regarding the MBSR course. If we have way too much on our plate, after the course, we will still have way too much on our plate. But we get assistance developing behaviours like knowing and setting boundaries and asking for help.

Hi guys n gals.... Just a quick intro here. I'm new to this site and am undergoing the MBSR free course. I've been practising Yoga for a couple of years and it's really spoken to me. My friend a nutritionist introduced me recently to mindful eating and I decided I wanted to know more and apply this process to all things in life. My journey so far has taught me so much about myself and helped me with my Dad and Husband who both suffer from different strains of mental illness - after all its hard being strong and smiley all the time. I needed something for me to help me have a better understanding of the world and my loved ones as well as myself and have found mindfulness is just the ticket. It helps me approach situations in a better calmer way and deal with them so much more effectively. I look forward to continuing my journey with all you lovely likeminded people xxx

Welcome to happiness ✨ How inspiring to read about your journey so far with mindfulness and that it has helped you ? I hope you enjoy the MBSR course too!

In the MBSR course forum, I often talk about being the expert for yourself and therefore encourage people to make their own choices about what works and what doesn't work for them: alter a position, stand up or lye down and so on. At the same time, our mind continually tries to push us to choose comfort over courage: The courage to challenge yourself, your perceptions, your preconceptions, your relationship with the inner and outer world. How can we tell the difference? Where is the line between adapting to our unique situation and simply choosing comfort?

Welcome to happiness ✨ If you have any good traveling tips, feel free to start a new topic about that. I'm sure there are lots of others who share the love for exploring new places ? Hope you enjoy the MBSR course!

Welcome, Linda! Your motivation inspires me I'm currently doing the Grief course, and I don't know if I'll get a certificate at the end, but I can double check for you about the MBSR course, if that's the one you're enrolled in. I wish you the very best on your journey and please reach out if I can assist with anything ✨