Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Back in April, I posted to our blog on mindfulness and how it can help us to live better by being more present to our lives. I think everyone knows how much I enjoy encouraging our scholars to explore tools that can help them grow on many levels - yoga and meditation being two very significant tools in my mind. Dr. Kabat-Zinn’s work on mindfulness is interesting, and I think, a great entry point to the practice of becoming more mindful. I’m meeting with each of you this week and I’ll be chatting about this, in addition to inviting you to listen to a short podcast of Dr. Kabat-Zinn from Public Radio’s “On Being” with Krista Tippett. There are a ton of cool programs on this site, by the way. You know, for in your spare time….

I posted the podcast on SharePoint (if you wish to download it and listen) and here is a link to the transcript of the podcast, which also includes a link to download it from Public Radio’s website. I’m also including a link to Dr. Kabat-Zinn’s bio and short video of him encapsulating the primary focus of his work. Finally, we have a “McNair IPod” that I will be “passing around” to interested parties….I have a variety of items on the IPod; you might find some of them interesting and/or useful and/or fun!

Transcript from On Being – Opening to Our Lives
http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2011/opening-to-our-lives/transcript.shtml

Dr. Kabat-Zinn’s Bio and Short Video
http://www.eomega.org/omega/faculty/viewProfile/a274a257be0c65faeca0ec1277c22ec1/?content=PPC&source=1G.SEF.KBZNJ.bio&gclid=CMmhjoXksakCFUa8Kgod_n1iOw

Cheers!

Mindfulness

I am so excited about exposing our scholars to yoga and meditation. Since I talk about this a lot, I think everyone knows how deeply I believe these practices can enhance your lives, on many levels. I am including a passage by Dr. Kabat-Zinn who is a world-renown expert on mindfulness and the Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. I learned about Dr. Kabat-Zinn’s work about a year ago and it has helped me greatly. For the 2011 scholars, one of the first things for our next “to do list” starting this summer will be to listen to a podcast of Dr. Kabat-Zinn explaining this idea and practice. Here is just a quick taste; Heather shared this in class this past week.

In his book, “Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life,” Dr. Kabat-Zinn writes:

“Mindfulness is an ancient Buddhist practice which has profound relevance for our present-day lives. This relevance has nothing to do with Buddhism per se or with becoming a Buddhist, but it has everything to do with waking up and living in harmony with oneself and with the world. It has to do with examining who we are, with questioning our view of the world and our place in it, and with cultivating some appreciation for the fullness of each moment we are alive. Most of all, it has to do with being in touch.”

“Mindfulness is a simple concept. Its power lies in its practice and its applications. Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. This kind of attention nurtures greater awareness, clarity, and acceptance of present-moment reality. It wakes us up to the fact that our lives unfold only in moments. If we are not fully present for many of those moments, we may not only miss what is most valuable in our lives but also fail to realize the richness and the depth of our possibilities for growth and transformation.”

Here is a link to more information on Dr. Kabat-Zinn, if you are interested.

http://www.umassmed.edu/Content.aspx?id=43102

JON KABAT-ZINN, PH.D., is founding Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is also the founding director of its renowned Stress Reduction Clinic and Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He teaches mindfulness and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in various venues around the world. He received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from MIT in 1971 in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate, Salvador Luria.