1. Mindfulness-based stress reduction
Week 2

2. Welcome to class Welcome back to class for week 2
Review of homework assignment
What worked, what didn’t work?
How was your journaling?
Anyone feel less stressed this week?
Students, welcome back to class for week 2. Let’s review how your homework assignment. Though it was optional, I hope many of you took advantage of the opportunity to try mindfulness meditation in your daily life.
Spend 15 minutes in class discussion using the three questions on this slide.
Use the white board to write down important items shared by class members.

3. Week 2 class overview Short warm-up meditation
Watch 25 minute interview with Jon Kabat-Zinn
Relationship between mindfulness and stress reduction
How to be mindful of your body
Deeping your mindfulness meditation experience
Homework and handouts
Q&A
Today’s class will go about an hour and a half, per our syllabus. We will start with a warm-up meditation to get us more focused and aware of the present moment. I will show you an excellent interview with Jon Kabat-Zinn, developer of the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction program. He will review the benefits of mindfulness meditations. Please take notes, because he will share some exciting concepts. Next, we will spend some time learning about the relationship between mindfulness and how it reduces stress and improves our health. We will then learn to be mindful of our body and learn the body scan technique. Our last topic for the day will be how to deepen our practice with mindfulness meditation; how to take it to the next level for even more health benefit. Before we end, we will review this week’s homework assignment and pass out the handouts. We’ll end with Q&A session, so get your questions ready.

4. Warm-up exercise
Please get into a comfortable position for this war-up exercise, sitting in your chair, on the floor, or on your cushion. When everyone is ready, we will begin.

5. Journal activity
Spend out 5 minutes writing in your notebook or journal how you are feeling mentally, emotionally, and physically.
What effect did this mindfulness meditation have on you?
What did you learn?
Wasn’t that a wonderful exercise? I hope you feel your sense of stress and anxiety beginning to diminish. Let’s take a few minutes to complete a journal activity. Just as a reminder, these journal activities are meant to deepen your experience with mindfulness meditation. Let your thoughts and feelings flow, and write down what comes to mind, without judgement.
Now that we have finished writing in our journals, who wants to share what they wrote?
(Spend about five minutes in class discussion).

6. Interview with jon kabat-zinn
Class, for the next 25 minutes, we are going to watch an engaging interview with the founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. Get out your notebook or journal to take notes. He will cover the following topics:
What he wants people to know about mindfulness - Major misconceptions about mindfulness - What the research says about mindfulness
How to learn mindfulness if you can't attend an MBSR class - Whether or not you need to have a formal, sitting meditation practice - Tips for fitting mindfulness into a busy life - How mindfulness can help with chronic pain - The best way to teach children about mindfulness
(University of Minnesota, 2016)

7. Mindfulness and stress reduction
EVERYONE lives with the challenges of stress. No one is exempt. Stressors come from day-to-day events and experiences, illness and disease, pain, sickness, death in the family, divorce, children, our employment, etc.…
In our culture, we typically want to avoid dealing with or even talking about our stress, apprehensions and our fears.
Unmanaged stress negatively affects our health, our mental state, our emotions, our relationships, our ability to function correctly at work, our communications with others.
We don’t control the world around us; therefore, it will be impossible to fuller avoid stress and its effects. We should not turn FROM stress, but turn TOWARDS it. We MUST learn to deal with it appropriately.
Spend about three minutes on each bullet point. Ask the class what else causes them stress and anxiety in life? Do they agree with the statement that our in our culture, we typically avoid or run from our stress, or we don’t like talking about it. Ask the class how stress has negatively affected their personal life, or their jobs, or relationships. Ask for specific examples. (Stahl & Goldstein, 2010)

8. Avoiding mind traps Negative Self-Talk Habitual Styles of Thinking
Have you ever stopped to realize you have a voice in your head? This is your self-talk. Often times it is very negative and critical. This negative self-talk amplifies our stress. Do these phrases sound familiar? “I am so stupid for doing that!” “I am worthless!” “I’ll never get this right!”
Habitual Styles of Thinking
Catastrophizing – in tough situations, we EXPECT disaster and the worst possible outcome.
Exaggerating the negative – “I’m improving at work, BUT I’ll never get promoted.
Mind reading – thinking you know what someone else is thinking and feeling, but without REAL evidence.
The “shoulds” – Unbreakable rules for yourself. “I SHOULD never feel like this.”
Negative Interpretations
Interpreting situations in a negative way, rather than positive. “My date didn’t call me back; she MUST hate me now.”
Spend about ten minutes discussion the bullet points on this slide. At the end, explain to the class that the purpose of mindfulness is to help us RECOGNIZE and AVOID these debilitating and stress inducing mind traps. With time and practice, students who actively use mindfulness will be able to learn to see the mind traps up ahead and steer clear of them, thereby avoiding the associated stress and anxiety (Stahl & Goldstein, 2010).

9. Mindfulness of body
We only have one body on this journey through life. Being mindful of our bodies helps us learn what our bodies need and what they don’t need to thrive. We learn how stress affects our bodies, and how to live with physical pain and illness.
Benefits of being mindful of our body using the BODY SCAN technique
Helpful in working with stress, anxiety, and even pain.
The ability to have an “in-the-body” experience.
You’ll become AWARE of a wide range of physical sensations: itches, tingling, pain, heaviness, cold, warmth, muscle tightness, etc.
The Body Scan is a deep investigation of your body.
Did it ever occur to you that we only have one body? This one body will be the one that gets us through our earthly journey. Mindfulness of body helps us learn more about our bodies, what makes them tick, how we can thrive. Being aware of our bodies will help us identify how stress affects us. The body scan is a technique that will help you experience your body in a different way, and help you reduce and avoid the effects of stress (Stahl & Goldstein, 2010).
Spend about five minutes reviewing this slide with the students. Describe what it means to have an “in-the-body” experience as opposed to an “out-of-body” experience.

10. The body scan
Let’s try the Body Scan now. Get into a comfortable position, as you have in past practice meditations. When everyone is ready, I will play the video.

11. Journal activity
Spend out 5 minutes writing in your notebook or journal how you are feeling mentally, emotionally, and physically.
What effect did the BODY SCAN have on you?
What did you learn?
The Body Scan is an amazing exercise. Let’s do a journal activity. Follow the instructions on the screen.
Now that we have finished writing in our journals, who wants to share what they wrote?
(Spend about five minutes in class discussion).

12. Deepening your practice
Mindfulness of Breath
Focusing on the breath, your inhalations and exhalations, you learn a lot about the nature and fragility of life. Breathing resembles the ebb and flow of the ocean. By observing the breath, you begin to realize that life is in constant change.
Mindfulness of Sensations
Being aware of physical sensations, both internal and external, allows you to be more reflective of the present moment. Unlike the body scan, focus on what your predominant sensation is in your body. You will realize that the human body is a dynamic organism, and you will better understand the nature of change.
Mindfulness of Hearing
Focusing on the rise and fall of sounds, you will further learn the impermanence of life. Sounds are constantly changing around you. Observe these sounds without judgement.
Up till now, we have learned the basics of mindfulness meditations. Now we are going to more formalize the process and learn deeper techniques. There are five techniques we will discuss. The first three are on this slide (Stahl & Goldstein, 2010).
Spend about five minutes with the class on this slide.

13. Deepening your practice
Mindfulness of Thoughts and Emotions
Now we focus on our inner thoughts and emotions. It won’t take long to recognize that our thoughts and feelings are constantly changing. Do not worry so much about the contents of your thoughts, but learn to just experience the joy of the process. Doing such will make you aware of the stories we create and the traps we set, then learn to disengage with them.
Choiceless Awareness
Choiceless awareness is also called present moment awareness. This the ultimate purpose of mindfulness meditation – focusing on the present moment. You will realize that our body and minds are one and constantly changing with our surroundings. It’s like sitting by a river and watching whatever flows by, without judgement or rationalization.
Moving through these five phases of deep mindfulness meditation will help reduce and avoid the negative effects of stress in our lives. We become aware that life is in constant change. We learn to appreciate the impermanence of life, but also experience the joy that life should bring to us. We don’t have to be a subject to stress and experience the ill-effects. Life can and should be a joyful experience (Stahl & Goldstein, 2010).

14. Homework and handouts Distribute the handouts Homework
Using the handout, complete the body scan exercise at least one time during the next week. On the other days, complete any type of mindfulness meditation. Write daily in your journal and reflect on how your health and well-being is improving.
Questions and Answers
Pass out the handouts. This week’s handout will help the students conduct a body scan meditation at home.
Spend the last few minutes of class answering questions they have.

15. References
Stahl, B., & Goldstein, E. (2010). A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
University of Minnesota. (2016). What is mindfulness? Retrieved February 3, 2017, from University of Minnesota: