Some of us become unwell through the effects of stress and others are suffering from stress as a result of a condition or illness. Stress has far reaching mental and physiological effects and can easily undermine the quality of day to day life. Stress and depression are very closely related.

Often we spend time pushing away things we don’t want and trying to get hold of what we want: this can take a lot of energy and can be the cause of some of the distress we are stuffering from. In the meantime we may be too distracted to notice the joyful moments of our lives.

Mindfulness meditation is paying attention to our experience moment to moment, in a kindly, open hearted way.

Becoming more aware of our thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations may not sound like an obviously helpful thing to do however, it has surprising results: many people report finding new strength to help make wise decisions about their health and life.
Mindfulness is also known as ‘insight meditation' and recently it has been extensively researched* and been proven to be of benefit in improving quality of life for many different groups of people.

This course is based on the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn. Since its inception in the 1970s it has been run across Europe and America. It has benefitted people with depression, cancer, chronic fatigue, anxiety, ME, MS, eating disorders, stress, addiction and specific groups such as pregnant women, victims of violence and prisoners. It is now prescribed by the NHS to prevent relapse after depression.

Mindfulness has been being practiced for more than 2500 years; in the 1970's Jon Kabat-Zinn from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, developed the 8-week course known as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). This course been evolving over the last 30 years and uses traditional techniques in a non-religious, and easily usable format. During this time MBSR has been widely researched and a huge evidence base now exists to support its validity in helping people over come the effects of stress, chronic pain, anxiety, and many other conditions.  Kabat-Zinn says:

" we are apt to get so caught up in the urgency of everything we have to do, and so caught up in our heads and everything we think is important, that is is easy to fall into a state of chronic tension and anxiety that continually drives our lives on automatic pilot... The way of being... which emerges naturally out of the cultivation of the practice of mindfulness, can serve as a doorway into a profound way of knowing ourselves better, and for mobilizing the inner resources we all have, no matter what our situation or our condition, for learning, for growing, for healing, and for transformation across the life span..."

Jon Kabat-Zinn. Full Catastrophe Living . Piatkus. 1990. p 6.

To quote from the Mental Health Organisation 2010 report:

" Mindfulness has been the subject of growing attention and interest in recent years, thanks to the rapidly expanding evidence base demonstrating that it can be helpful for many mental and physical health problems, as well as improving well-being more generally.

Mindfulness is an integrative, mind-body based approach that helps people change the way they think and feel about their experiences, especially stressful experiences. It involves paying attention to our thoughts and feelings so we become more aware of them, less enmeshed in them and better able to manage them."

These links give some background to mindfulness:

WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?
http://www.bemindful.co.uk/about_mindfulness

This link shows Kabat-Zinn Speaking at the UCSD Medical Centre:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvXFxi2ZXT0 
and in this one he speaks beautifully on how to find meaning within a life which seems to be hopeless or beyond joy:         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fpLGpeeW5c&feature=related

This link gives information on Kabat-Zinn: 
http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Jon_Kabat-Zinn

MBSR has been adapted by Mark Williams (University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry), and others, to work specifically with those suffering from recurrent depression. Mindfulness is  integrated with CBT and is called MBCT (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy). Mark Williams speaks in a short video clip in this link about MBCT:    
http://oxfordmindfulness.org/

In this clip Andrew McCulloch, CEO of the Mental Health Foundation,speaks of the the value of MBCT, and research done into GP's attitudes towards MBCT:
http://www.bemindful.co.uk/mbct/evidence

You will be part of a group of between 10 and 12 people. We will meet for 2 ¼ hours each week to learn various mindfulness techniques and skills to help you manage the effects of stress which may have been undermining your quality of life.
You will be supplied with CDs to lead your home practice.

By the end of the course you will have :

• established a daily meditation practice
• discovered that having a busy mind and a million thoughts does not mean you can’t meditate!
• learnt tools to use in everyday life to be with the precious moments life offers
• learnt tools to prevent the difficulties and unpleasant events life brings from taking over and determining negative experiences
• leant about the way stress impacts on the body and how this can be worked with.

This list is not exhaustive; as individuals we will all have our own experience of stress and our own experience of overcoming its effects. This course embraces the notion of our own uniqueness.
It may be helpful to think of this course as eight weeks of daily meditation practice with a weekly support session. The benefits of mindfulness will only be experienced if you fully commit to the home practices of 45 minutes a day. Please think carefully about whether this is possible for you at the moment.
If you feel that this course might be of benefit to you, please contact me. A telephone consultation is conducted to help you ascertain if this course will meet your specific situation and needs.

You have a real gift as a teacher and ability to enrich lives with what you teach. BP

I've found the course to be amazingly useful in very many different ways.

Prior to attending I wasn't 100% sure what the course entailed but I'm now constantly aware of the benefits it's brought about.  The one thing I found most useful was the group discussions; the sharing of thoughts relating to the meditation, possibly more than the practise itself.  It was sharing of a group forum with a heightened sense of listening, sharing and patience.

It's relatively easy ( I find ) to manage one's own personal meditation but much harder to find / create a group with the characteristics of the one you brought us all into.  I found this more 'special' because of it's rarity. JF.

Susanna is a very caring person and this comes across in her presentation. She is very inspiring as she directs you carefully through the practices. PF.

It has enriched my life immeasurably because I have regained contact with my SELF. I now feel less afraid of everything because meditating has given me the certain knowledge that ‘the centre will hold’. That if everything else were to be taken away from me, the inner me is indestructible. RH.

I wish the course could continue; I will miss it. Chloe

What a wonderful course, made especially so by Susanna – Thank You. BP.

The course has helped me:

...to accept myself as I am. To let it be. Paul

...to learn to have self compassion and be able to calm the nervous system. Anonymous.

...learning that I am not alone with life’s difficulties! Jill

...to be more aware, present. Bella

Recent published research on mindfulness; it may yield information for you relevant to your particular area of interest.

http://www.mindfulexperience.org/

The Mental Health Foundation published a report entitled “The Mindfulness Report” in January 2010. It outlines the supporting evidence for the use of mindfulness in the NHS.

To read about mindfulness:

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/welcome/

OR:

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/media/news-releases/news-releases-2009/4-january-2010/?locale=en

To order the report (£15):

http://www.bemindful.co.uk/about_mindfulness/mindfulness_evidence#

Here are some recommended papers;

Baer, R.A. (2003). Mindfulness Training as a Clinical Intervention: A Conceptual and Empirical Review.

http://psy7501.alliant.wikispaces.net/file/view/Baer2003.pdf

Grady, M.L. & N. (1995). Investigation. Listening as Deeply as We Possibly Can. http://www.dharma.org/ij/archives/1996b/narayan.htm

Goleman, D. (2003) Finding Happiness: Cajole Your Brain to Lean to the Left  http://www.bemindful.org/golemanart.htm

Hayes A.M. et al (2004). Clarifying the Construct of Mindfulness in the Context of Emotion Regulation and the process of Change in Therapy.

http://jimhopper.com/pdfs/HayesFeldman2004.pdf

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003) Mindfulness-based Interventions in context: Past, Present and Future.

http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~pgoldin/Buddhism/MBSR2003_Kabat-Zinn.pdf

Kabat-Zinn, J. (1982). An Outpatient Program in Behavioural Medicine for Chronic Pain Patients Based on the Practice of Mindfulness Meditation.

http://brainimaging.waisman.wisc.edu/~perlman/0903-EmoPaper/kabatzinn-mbsr-1982.pdf

Kenny, M.A., Williams, J.M.G. (2006). Treatment-resistant depressed patients show a good response to Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2808477/

Lazar, S.W. et al (2005). Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361002/

Lutz, A., Slagter, H.A., Dunne, J.D., Davidson, R.J. (2008). Attention Regulation and Monitoring In Meditation. Trends In Cognitive Sciences. Vol 12.No 4.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18329323

Santorelli,.S.F. (1996). Mindfulness and Mastery in the Workplace.

http://www.nhchc.org/Curriculum/module2/module2B/
RP1MindfulnessandMasteryintheWorkplace.pdf

Shapiro, S.L., Carlson L.E., Astin J.A., Freedman B. (2006). Mechanisms of Mindfulness.

http://www.rickhanson.net/wp-content/files/papers/MechanismsofMindfulnessLR.pdf

Shapiro, S.L., et al (1998). Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Medical and Premedical Students.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/rv62q98671062146/

Shapiro, S.L., et al (2005). Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Health Care Professionals:Results From a Randomized Trial.

http://www.eusoulyoga.com.br/gerente/_UPD/Arquivos/Mindfulness-Based%20Stress%20Reduction%20for%20Health.pdf

Speeth, K.R. (1982). On Psychotherapeutic Attention.

http://www.noeticus.org/uploads/1-Speeth-On_Psychotherapeutic_Attention.pdf

Teasdale, J.D., (1999). Metacognition, Mindfulness and the Modification of Mood Disorders. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy. 6, 146-155

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/61007512/abstract

Teasdale, J.D., (2003). Mindfulness Training and Problem Formulation.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118891547/abstract

Teasdale, J.D. et al. (2000). Prevention of Relapse/Recurrence in Major Depression by Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy.

http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~pgoldin/Buddhism/MBCTrelapsedepressionTeasdale2000JCCP.pdf

Williams, J.M.G. (2008). Mindfulness, Depression and Modes of Mind. Cogn Ther Res. http://www.springerlink.com/content/
qv6773846005/?p=9372cb70db2e4cf2aa004c95a54d5855&pi=0

Additional Articles recommended by The University of Bangor. These may be available on line.

Baer R.A., 2003, ‘Mindfulness Training as a Clinical Intervention: A Conceptual and Empirical Review,’ Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(2): 125-143.

Grossman P., Niemann M.A., Schmidt S., Walach H., 2003, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Health Benefits: A Meta-Analysis, (In Press), Journal of Psychosomatic Research.

Kabat-Zinn J., 1996, Mindfulness Meditation:What it is, What it isn’t, And It’s Role in Health Care and Medicine, in Haruli, Y., Ishii, Y., and Suzuki, M. , Comparitive and Psychological Study on Meditation, Eburon, Netherlands,  p. 161-169.

Kabat-Zinn J., 2003, ’Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Context:Past, Present and Future’, Clinical Psychology Science and Practice, 10. 144-156.

Ma S.H., Teasdale J.D., 2002, ‘Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for depression: replication and exploration of differential relapse prevention effects’, J Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Mason O.J., Hargreaves I.  2001. ‘A qualitative study of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for depression’, British J Medical Psychology, 74, 197-212.

Teasdale J., 1999, ‘Emotional Processing, three modes of mind and the prevention of relapse in depression’, Behavior Research and Therapy, 37 s53-s77.

Teasdale J., 1999, ‘Metacognition, mindfulness and the modification of mood disorders’, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 6, 146-155.

Teasdale J.D., Segal Z.V., Williams J.M.G, 2003, ‘Mindfulness Training and Problem Formulation’, Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(2): 157-160.

Teasdale J.D., Segal Z.V., Williams J.M.G. et al., 2000, ‘Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy’, J Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(4): 615-23.

Teasdale J.D., Segal Z.V., Williams J.M.G., 1995, ‘How does cognitive therapy prevent depressive relapse and why should attentional control (mindfulness) training help?’ Behavioral Research and Therapy, 33, 25-39.

Williams J.M.G., Teasdale J.D, Segal Z.V., Soulsby J., 2000,‘Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Reduces Overgeneral Autobiographical Memory in Formerly Depressed Patients’, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109(1), 150-155.

For further information please visit: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/mindfulness/index.php.en?menu=0&catid=0

Crane, R. (2009). Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy. East Sussex: Routledge.

Germer, C, K. (2009). The mindful path to self-compassion. New York: Guilford.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go, there you are: Mindfulness meditation in everyday life. New York: Hyperion.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2004). Full Catastrophe Living. London: Piatkus. Santorelli, S. (1999). Heal Thy Self. New York: Three Rivers Press.

Segal, Z,V., Williams, J.K.G., Teasdale, J.D. (2002). New York: Guilford.

Kornfield, J. (2002). A Path With Heart. Rider Books.

Williams, M., Teasdale, J., Segal,Z., Kabat-Zinn, J. (2007). The Mindful Way through Depression. New York: Guilford.

Susanna Scamell 01263 740392

email: susanna@yoga-meditation-relaxation.co.uk