I treat my mind to peaceful thoughts.
Treating the body really is about treating the mind. It is all psychosomatic. Every bit of it, no exceptions. ~ Abraham
Scanning the landscape and choosing what to focus on and what to leave in the background is one of our greatest gifts. . . Why not train and improve this ability? ~ Daniel Goleman
Mindful Living On the Rise
The article, No Blueprint, Just Love in the February 2015 Mindful magazine tells us that mindful living is catching on.
In 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn recruited chronically ill patients not responding well to traditional treatments to participate in his newly formed eight-week stress-reduction program. Now, 36 years later, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and its offshoots have entered the mainstream of health care, scientific study, and public policy.
High Hopes
His hope was that by starting a stress-reduction clinic based on relatively intensive training in mindfulness meditation and yoga – and their applications in everyday living – they could document how these practices might have a profound effect on the health and well-being of individuals. The larger purpose was to effect a kind of public-health intervention that would ultimately move the bell curve of the entire society. Now it is clear that mindful living manages stress, boosts concentration, reduces blood pressure and builds the immune system.
Going Deep
Those involved in the work have paid attention to the essential element that mindfulness is not a special state you achieve through a trick or technique. It is a way of being. If there is an instruction manual for being human, then Western science and medicine have supplied one part of it, and the contemplative traditions have supplied another – the part that has to do with discovering and cultivating our deep interior resources.
Lots and Lots of Mindfulness MBSR has grown to the point where they now talk about mindfulness-based interventions in all sorts of areas – depression, childbirth, education, addiction, to name a few. People can receive MBSR training in more than 500 locations in 42 of 50 states in the US, with more being added monthly.
Mindful Schools – one of a growing number of programs presenting mindfulness for students and teachers – has presented its in-school program to more than 18,000 students in 63 schools since 2007. In classrooms that implemented mindfulness programs, early results show an estimated 50% reduction in reactive behavior.
More than 80 corporations, small businesses and institutions worldwide have made mindfulness-based training available within their organizations.
Process
Walking Meditation ~ 10 minutes
There are many forms of walking meditation. This is a simple one that relies on a pace that is close to how we might walk in everyday life so it can be adapted for walking in the street – just as long as you remember to pay attention to streetlights and other people.
From Barry Boyce, editor, Mindful Magazine