Mindfulness

Mindful Meditation is a skill set designed to lower stress so that you can be more present in your life and experience each moment as it is – without judgment. With this increased awareness, you will begin to see and accept things as they really are.
And with this increased acceptance, you will learn to respond rather than to react to whatever comes your way – within yourself and with others.

In my psychotherapy practice, I often teach clients about mindfulness because it can be a strong tool for understanding the emotional turbulence that causes stress. A mindfulness practice can provide an easily navigable roadmap to emotional clarity that opens doors to solutions for your anxiety, depression, fears, past or present trauma and their emotional relatives: restlessness, anger, jealousy, envy, malaise and dissatisfaction. This increased insight also informs your ability to cultivate the more positive emotional states of happiness, contentment and satisfaction.

I began my own mindfulness practice in 1995 when I interned at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center’s Stress Reduction Center under the direction of Jon Kabat-Zinn. Jon developed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and under his tutelage I trained to become an MBSR Instructor. At that time I was aware of what mindfulness had done for me personally, and saw its impact on so many participants with a very wide range of difficulties. I have taught mindfulness consistently since then to individuals, groups, in healthcare settings, to organizations, and as a conference presenter. I know firsthand the strength of mindfulness to illuminate the path to more positive behavioral changes that can help you, your family, friends and co-workers.

I invite you to learn more about mindfulness and how it has been shown to benefit health including reducing stress, reducing pain, lowering blood pressure, decreasing insomnia, increasing immune response and possibly affecting gene expression. Here are some articles from the popular press and research literature that you may find of interest:

“The Mindful Revolution.”
Time Magazine, Cover Story
February 3, 2014

“Actually, TIME, This is What the ‘Mindful Revolution’ Really Looks Like”
The Huffington Post, by Carolyn Gregoire. Posted 02/04/2014

Google employees learn mindfulness
Search Inside Yourself: Increase Productivity, Creativity and Happiness
Chade-Meng Tan

“If You’re Too Busy to Meditate, Read This”
FORBES: Leadership: Peter Bregman, 10/13/12