Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a group of tools that has been brought together by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD from MIT, medical doctor and professor at the University of Massachusetts in the US. Very knowledgeable and experienced in many different sorts of mindful practices both from the East and the West, Jon Kabat-Zinn has founded the Stress Reduction Clinic where patients are sent in time of crisis (heavy sickness, in intense pain, in very unbalanced emotional states, etc.) to learn and handle their present situation as good as they can.

One of the mindfulness based program we offer is the classical 8-week program. A detailed description of which can be found in Jon's book 'Full Catastrophe Living'. We present here a summary (you may find many of the same summary on the Internet :-)).

The overall duration spreads over eight weeks. Our groups are composed of 8 to 12 participants. Sometimes the people have comparable profile sometimes not. Each session lasts up to 2,5 hours. But we also use shorter version where it is appropriate. We propose also either a full day or a half day, depending on the total number of people. In any case, it includes a meal that we use to also practice mindfulness while eating. Participants are expected to practice units of 45 minutes a day. We also recommend that they should not skip a session which may mean that on a given day they may only be able to practice 15 minutes. Each week is placed under a particular themes and every fortnight a new technique is introduced. The program is composed of formal and informal practices that are taught in the classes with an accredited teacher.

The main learnings in terms of tools can be summarised as follows:

• Week 1 & 2: learning to perform the body-scan;
• Week 3 & 4: learning to be in motion while staying mindful: mindful yoga;
• Week 5 & 6: learning to use different types of meditation; and
• Week 7 & 8: learning to sit still and walk mindfully in the silence of one's own presence.

Our understanding of each of these steps can be synthesised as follow:

• body-scan: bringing mind and body together in a more co-ordinated fashion, allowing the mind to bring focus and attention on certain parts of the body as well as feel the body as a whole. In turn, it allows the body to send feedback to the mind about the perceptions experienced.
• mindful-yoga: symbolically, it is meant to demonstrate that mindfulness can be practiced in action, in particular in daily life. Challenging body postures give us the chance to experience our limits and nevertheless stay focused and mindful.
• mindful meditation: at the beginning, the support of the guidance from the teacher or CD's help make the passage between action and inaction. It breaks the depth of the silence and possibly create experience and space for deeper level of experience that one may go through if the practitioner keeping on practicing.
• mindful walking: the role of mindful walking is fundamental to really give oneself a chance to grasp what being may mean. It might be at time challenging for beginners as well as well trained practitioners. It is the moment of truth, can we sustain the company of our true presence in the here and now, no mater what is and as it is, without the urge to alter it, without wishing it to be different?