To begin with, it is helpful to have a clear understanding of what mindfulness is: deliberately paying attention to things we normally would not even notice, and becoming aware of our present moment experience as it arises, non-judgmentally, and with kindness and compassion. When we practice mindfulness, we pay attention to what is happening in our mind and our body; to our thoughts—the stories we tell ourselves—as well as to emotions and physical sensations as they are arising.
Mindfulness meditation has its origins in Buddhist practices that are over 2,500 years old. Prince Siddhartha, who became the Buddha, dedicated his life to finding the cause of suffering and he recommended mindfulness as a way of overcoming grief, sorrow, pain, and anxiety, and of realizing happiness.
In 1979 mindfulness began to be used therapeutically by Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn and colleagues at the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Hospital, USA. Kabat-Zinn developed the eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program as a way of helping people learn to live with chronic medical conditions. These were people who the doctors could do nothing more for—for example, those with terminal illness, chronic back pain, or who had HIV. Many of them were suffering from depression and anxiety as a result of their condition.
In MBSR, mindfulness is cultivated through formal meditation practices, such as sitting and the body scan, as well as mindful movement, such as yoga, and informal practices in which participants bring mindfulness meditation into their everyday lives. Through these practices participants discover a different way of being with their suffering. The program cultivates qualities such as patience, acceptance, and equanimity, which enable them to deal with stress, chronic pain, and illness with greater ease, skill, and wisdom. Clinical research has shown that beneficial physical changes occur in participants completing the course, including a stronger immune system, lower blood pressure, and shifts in the way the brain deals with difficult emotions. The benefits of the MBSR program spread by word of mouth and through the media, and it was soon offered to people of all ages in all walks of life. Today, MBSR programs are popular in schools, prisons, and in the sports and business worlds, as well as in healthcare, where they are practiced as much by healthcare providers as by patients themselves.
In 2001 Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was developed by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, and Zindel V. Segal. Based on MBSR, MBCT was developed specifically for the treatment of depression, but has since been adapted for other clinical conditions, including anxiety, eating disorders, and addictions. MBCT is recommended by NICE (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) in the UK for the treatment of depression in individuals who have suffered three or more episodes.
In essence MBSR and MBCT are very similar. There is a difference in that MBSR is usually taught to generic groups of people suffering from a variety of physical and psychological conditions or disorders and/or general life stress, whereas MBCT is usually taught to a group suffering from a specific condition, such as depression or anxiety, and so would include course content appropriate for that condition. However, the emphasis on the deliberate and non-judgmental present-moment awareness of one’s own experience is at the core of both MBSR and MBCT.
The evidence base for the therapeutic uses of mindfulness-based approaches to health is growing all the time. Research is commonly done with participants on a structured eight-week course, incorporating a daily practice of both formal and informal meditations, as well as classroom teaching. The practices in this book are predominantly informal and, although they are not a substitute for therapeutic care, they are a good place to start practicing mindfulness if you are a beginner.
If you already have some experience of mindfulness meditation, I hope this book will encourage you to bring it more into your daily life. While the formal practices are without doubt important, the more we can weave mindfulness into the fabric of our lives, the more we will reap the benefits.