Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course - Week 1

I’ve just started an 8 week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course, and will post a weekly review on it to let you know how I’m getting on, give you an idea of what is involved, and where you can find out more.

Stress Relief With a Raisin: Eating meditation

In the first class you practice eating meditation. All this means is to eat with awareness. And all that means is to just eat. Not think about what you have to do that evening, about the shopping or cleaning the car. Just bringing you mind to the sensations, smells, tastes, sights and sounds of eating.

So last Thursday night I found myself sitting in a circle with a group of 12 others, all of us intently staring at a raisin sitting in each of our palms. And after a few minutes becoming aware of the details on the raisin’s surface, patches of light and dark, folds in the skin, reflections, and the sensation of it lightly resting on my palm.

If other thoughts appear you’re encouraged to just gently but firmly bring you mind back to now. In this case back to the raisin sitting on your palm. We continued like this- next picking up, smelling the raisin, placing it against the lips, noting the sensation, putting it in the mouth but not chewing. Just noticing how it felt. And asking the question- Whats happening now? Noticing where the tongue was, noticing saliva building up in the mouth, and perhaps the urge to chew building up.

Next we were all instructed to bite into our raisins- noticing how the tongue pushed it to the side of the mouth, noticing if it went to the left or right. Feeling the teeth bite through the surface, and tasting the sweet bitter juice flow over the tongue and mouth. Noticing the clenching of the jaw when chewing, and finally the sensation of the raisin passing down the throat as it is swallowed.     

It was, I can safely say ,the best raisin I have ever eaten!

What is the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course?

Its a training programme developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn 20 years ago, at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre, which used mindfulness meditation to reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression and pain. Patients were usually referred from clinics where they had been unsuccessfuly treated for these symptoms for several years.

Kabat-Zinn used mindfulness meditation techniques based on Buddhist meditation practices, particularly insight meditation or Vipassana. Mindfulness has been described as paying attention in a very particular way: non judgmentally with intention. Have a look at What is Mindfulness Meditation? for more on this.

Initially training includes lying ,sitting and walking meditation, and later everyday activities like brushing your teeth and taking out the rubbish. Participants are encouraged to observe all of their experiences, thoughts and feelings with a detached interest. To bring awareness to the moment, to what is happening now. This tends to reduce stress, anxiety and depression, which are usually triggered by worrying about future or past events. If you are really present now, in the moment, worries fall away. As Mark Twain said “I have know a great many troubles but most of them never happened”.

Next Time I’ll talk about Lying Meditation- based on the Vipassana Body scan

Related Articles on this site

• Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course (series):
  Week 2: The Body Scan
  Week 3: Sitting Meditation

Further Reading

• Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn published by Piatkins
  (outlines the stress reduction programme in detail)

Related Links

• From meditation to MBSR SharpBrains

Photo at top of page by 60058591@N00

mindfulness, stress, Jon Kabat-Zinn, meditation, anxiety, depression

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