Mindfulness meditation is a meditation technique that involves accessing the state of “mindfulness”, also called “Mindfulness”. The MBSR program helps to develop this state. In this article, you will discover what mindfulness and the MBSR program are, the benefits of mindfulness meditation, the history of the MBSR program as well as its content and the flow of an MBSR session.

Like other forms of meditation, the benefits of mindfulness meditation are numerous, it is recommended in case of:

• Insomnia: its relaxing and anti-stress effect slows down the time it takes to fall asleep and improves the individual’s quality of sleep.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Mindfulness meditation reduces the obsessions and ruminations associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder, by taking a step back from parasitic thoughts.
• Depression: Mindfulness meditation is associated with a decrease in the frequency and intensity of negative emotions and an increase in the frequency of positive emotions. Thus, it would help fight against depression and prevent relapses.
• Anxiety and Stress: Studies have shown that this practice helps reduce an individual’s level of anxiety and stress.
• Addiction: A study has shown the beneficial effects of this practice on alcohol consumption, impulsivity, satisfaction and cognitive flexibility in individuals suffering from alcoholism.
• Eating Behavior Disorder: Meditation allows individuals with eating disorders to have a new perception of food and their relationship to food, and to become aware of the influence of their emotions on pathological behavior.

In general, mindfulness meditation improves the well-being and cognitive capacities (memory, attention, concentration, creativity) of the individual when it is practiced regularly.

It is always very difficult to approach the chapter of the health benefits of practicing mindfulness. The experience is different for each person, which is why where a person will notice a tangible improvement in their sleep or a better management of their negative emotions, others will testify to a more diffuse feeling with in the background, a feeling. of more completeness in their life in general.

MBSR instructors strive to emphasize that good practice means expecting nothing from it. This warning really constitutes a paradox with regard to the world in which we live today where each action, each project is broken down into objectives to be achieved. As such, mindfulness meditation is a confusing practice because it induces the learning of letting go, including our goals, and it is precisely by cultivating this attitude that its benefits are deployed.

The world of science has widely demonstrated the health benefits of a regular practice of meditation because it acts on stress and all the problems that can result from it: anxiety, negative emotions, pain, immune system, addictive behavior or even over a lifetime. It would also make it possible to reduce depressive relapse and insomnia, to strengthen memory, concentration, attention, creativity and empathy. We now find a plethora of scientific studies relaying the approach of what is called body-mind medicine, where we study how the mind can have a beneficial effect on all kinds of pathologies.

Mindfulness meditation is accessible to all audiences. However, this approach is contraindicated for people who suffer from the following disorders and who require appropriate treatment:

• acute depression;
• unstable bipolar disorder;
• dissociative and psychotic disorders (hallucinations, delusions);
• recurrent panic attacks.

Mindfulness and the MBSR program

The Mindfulness or “Mindfulness”, according to the Anglo-Saxon term, indicates a way of being. It is an attitude that we develop as we train ourselves to deliberately direct our attention to how we are feeling in the present moment, moment by moment. This is done without the filter of our judgments and comments, and is possible regardless of our experience, whether it is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

Cultivating mindfulness is a real training of the mind. Regular meditative practice allows for a better understanding of oneself, of others and of events than of the events we are going through.

Initially offered in hospitals, the MBSR Stress Reduction through Mindfulness program is now offered to a large audience and contributes to making this millennial discipline a fully secular and booming practice.

The MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) program as defined by its founder, the American Jon Kabat-Zinn, is an eight-week program designed to bring us into not in learning this practice. At the end of the eight weeks, and as long as the protocol has been rigorously followed, most of the participants see an improvement in their lives. Also, they become independent in their practice even though they enjoy group meetings to continue practicing mindfulness meditation.

At the origin of the MBSR program is Professor of Medicine Jon Kabat-Zinn, who founded and directs the Stress Reduction Clinic as well as the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine , Health Care and Society) of the Medical University of Massachusetts in the United States.

If mindfulness meditation is booming today, it is certainly because it touches the heart of everyone’s individual concerns. However, his success is also due to the work of this man who dedicated his life to him.

A diligent practitioner of meditation from Buddhism and yoga for many years, this American scientist understood that there was no need to be a Buddhist to meditate and obtain benefits. Thus, from the beginning of the 80s, he codified this MBSR program whose essence is mindfulness meditation, but this time in an entirely secular version and this, to benefit a greater number of people.

Its second merit is to have introduced mindfulness meditation in the world of health, even within hospitals. The first participants in the MBSR program were patients suffering from all kinds of pathologies and for whom meditation has proven to be beneficial. This breakthrough in the hospital world gave it all the legitimacy to launch the first scientific studies.

Meditation is now a field of research in its own right, partly thanks to Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn but also thanks to other researchers such as the illustrious neuroscientist Richard Davidson.

A considerable number of people, all over the world, have been initiated into Mindfulness through the MBSR Stress Reduction Through Mindfulness program since its inception in the late 1970s. From the hospital environment where it took root, this program has gradually broadened its target to reach today all universes and social circles. Over time, several variations have appeared for more targeted audiences, the best known being the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) program for the prevention of depressive relapse based on Mindfulness. There is also the MBPM (Mindfulness-Based Pain Management), a mindfulness program for pain, and the MBCP which is a Mindfulness program targeted at pregnancy, birth and motherhood. Other programs have appeared such as the MBRP (Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention) which is based on the treatment of addictions, the ATM mindfulness meditation program (Attention It Works) specifically for children or the Mindfulness Leadership Programs. dedicated to business and leadership. Mindful Eating now has a dedicated program.

The MBSR program takes place over eight weeks with one session of 2 hours per week. It also contains a full day retreat.

An MBSR session begins with a mindfulness exercise in which participants focus on their feelings and perceptions in the present moment. After this exercise takes place a time of exchange during which the participants express their feelings and their lived vis-à-vis this experience.

Participants must also perform mindfulness exercises outside of sessions, every day for 30 to 45 minutes in order to integrate mindfulness into their daily lives. This is done in the first place with an audio medium, then without.

To all this is added theoretical contributions on the main principles of mindfulness.

Sylvie Chabas, Mindfulness practitioner

The MBSR program is extremely adept at conveying the essence of mindfulness. It is universal, simple, deep and accessible to all.

What drives me personally to want to transmit the content of this MBSR stress reduction program is, in my opinion, that it goes much further than the simple question of stress. Here is a sentence that I have heard several times since I walked in this universe: “I started this program to calm my stress and I discovered another way of living”.

Géraldine Desindes, Mindful Eating Practitioner

The Mindful Eating program is for anyone looking for a more peaceful relationship with their food. It allows us to become aware of automatic behaviors and brings us to more presence and respect for ourselves, several times a day, during those moments of meals that can be so pleasant and regenerate. It is a way of cultivating this attention that makes us feel more alive and closer to others. As we eat as we breathe, as we speak, as we walk, eating mindfully is an invitation to cultivate a new art of living.