Cultivating our innate capacity for mindfulness

We all have the innate capacity to be mindful - awake and present to the world inside and around us. Instead of offering an escape from the challenges of the world as it is, mindfulness allows us to engage more fully with each present moment. Paradoxically, as we embrace the ups and downs of our daily lives with curiosity, compassion, and acceptance, we develop a steady presence capable of responding to our own stress and pain with integrity and wisdom.

Developing mindful awareness is simple but not easy, and requires practice, just like any other worthwhile skill. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a scientifically supported method for training mindfulness meditation and movement practices that can be integrated into the fabric of daily living. Over four decades of research on MBSR shows positive and often profound effects, including:

• Increased ability to manage and leverage stress

• Improved self-awareness and ability to provide self-care

• Enhanced capacity for emotion regulation and experience of the full range of emotions

• Increased focus and ability to disengage from negative habits and thinking

• Improved sense of well-being and gratitude for the simple pleasures of existence

• Renewed sense of connection to self, others, and the world

• Decreased medical symptoms

• Reduction in symptoms of burnout

• Shifts in perspective that can alter the relationship with unwanted and difficult thoughts, feelings, and sensations

I offer Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) through Rush University Medical Center on a quarterly basis. I also offer adaptations of MBSR for schools, businesses and other organizations.