session2.pdf

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

Homework

Week 2

• Practice mindfulness formally for 45 minutes every day for at least 6 days this

week alternating between the Body Scan CD and the Mindful Yoga I CD for

guidance.

• Practice mindful sitting meditation for 15-20 minutes a day.

• Practice mindfulness of your breathing from time to time throughout the day

• Read and reflect upon Mindfulness and Yoga by Lena Koob-Emunds, RYT

• Read and reflect upon “Mindful Yoga” article by Jon Kabat-Zinn

• Read and follow along with the instructions and figures for Yoga I CD

• Cultivate an intention to increase your level of awareness during daily activities

such as: eating, showering, brushing your teeth, washing dishes, taking out the

garbage, reading to the kids. . .

Reflections

What is the use of planning to be able to eat next week, unless I can really enjoy the meals when

they come? If I am so busy planning how to eat next week that I cannot enjoy what I am eating

now, I will be I the same predicament when next week’s meals become now.

- Alan Watts

We develop this sense of interconnectedness by acknowledging all that is eaten in its original

form: envisioning the wheat that comprises the bread, the milk of the cow, the pod of the pea.

The ocean of fish. And the sun which feeds them all. We take in the sacred, the germ of life, like

the Eucharist, in gratitude and respect. - Stephen Levine

When was the last time you had a glass of water and really drank it? - Thomas Merton

www.BeMindful.org Steve Shealy, PhD 813-980-2700

Mindfulness and Yoga

By Lena Koob-Emunds, RYT

What is Yoga:

Yoga is an ancient Eastern Indian system of balancing body, mind, and spirit. It is a practice

that takes us on the journey to our innermost self. We all share a deep longing for knowing

ourselves, knowing what lies beyond our conditioned mind which causes a great deal of suffering

in our lives. We long to be free and be in the experience of connectedness with all humankind,

the whole universe. Yoga is a path of union that takes us back to our essence, the recognition of

who we really are. When we are in that place of recognition we get a glimpse at the ultimate

freedom that lies at our core; a freedom that is our birthright, a freedom that we all share. It is

this freedom that allows us to truly see that we are not separate from the rest of creation. We

stop resisting the grander flow of energy and start to open to grace. Through the practice of yoga

we gradually start to embrace the whole rainbow of our existence, without trying to change

anything. Yoga is the art and science to live in a skillful way and to respond to each life

situation with compassion and love. In essence, the practice of yoga brings together apparent

opposites into a harmonious union – a place in the middle, which is the gateway to our own

hearts. There are six predominant paths of yoga, one of which has gained prominence in the

west; it is called Hatha yoga

What is Hatha Yoga:

Hatha yoga emphasizes the physical aspect of yoga without excluding the other aspects of being,

however. The yoga postures or asanas of Hatha yoga work each part of the body to stretch and

tone the muscles, increase fluidity in the joints, and promote flexibility of the entire skeletal

system. They benefit the internal organs, glands, and nerves as well. By releasing physical,

mental and emotional tension, they increase energy, maintain health and create a sense of well

being. An asana is not static or stagnant; it is not a posture you assume mechanically. It involves

focus, sensitivity and the openness to an ever-changing flow of energy. When you allow yourself to

enter this current of energy you will find yourself in a balanced place between movement and

resistance.

What does mindfulness have to do with yoga?

When I first started practicing yoga I was eager to get into the “final pose”, oftentimes not only

loosing my balance or breath, but even injuring myself on occasion. As I slowly learned to focus

my attention more I realized what this practice is ultimately about: to connect with the present

moment and by doing so stepping into the fullness of who I really am. Now I cultivate

mindfulness while I am practicing yoga, build the postures from the ground up and know where I

am and how far I can go without overstepping my boundaries for that particular moment in time.

Similarly, I know to serve my innermost intention more fully by challenging myself beyond

perceived limitations. I am finding myself in a deeper connection to the process as a whole,

building strength and stamina along the way and enjoying every step of it.

How does mindfulness relate to the bigger picture of yoga?

The Sanskrit word smriti , most often translated as “mindfulness”, literally means

“remembering”. To remember lies at the core of yoga – to re-member or re-collect is to bring back

together all the seemingly disparate parts of our experience into an integrated whole. When we

remember we pay attention to what is happening. Why is this important? Because that is all

there is. Our appointment with life is always in the present moment. If we aren’t here for it, we

miss our life. We cannot live in the past. It is gone. We cannot live in the future. It is not yet

here. When we are mindful of our thoughts, feelings and actions on a moment-to-moment basis,

www.BeMindful.org Steve Shealy, PhD 813-980-2700

we open ourselves up to the fullness of our life - not dejecting, nor clinging to any one experience,

rather embracing the whole spectrum of what life has to offer; in so doing we also open the door

to the vast world inside and around us.

How do we embody mindfulness in our yoga practice?

Mindfulness is the cultivation of being open and sensitive, connected to the universal aspect of

our being, and, at the same time honoring our uniqueness, the individual aspect and allowing

both energies to harmonize with each other. The practice of mindfulness embodies a balance

between muscular contraction (self-effort, discipline) and organic extension (surrender,

expansion).



Feel your skin soften; become more sensitive to whatever arises - be it physically,

mentally, emotionally.



With focus and clear intention hug the muscles to the midline of the body.



From this place of stability extend your inner radiance out in all directions.



Take a moment and pause – remember your deepest intention for the practice.



Be mindful of the breath – let go of any control and allow the breath to guide you deeper.



Your steadfast awareness and re-connection to your foundation is your door to freedom.



Move from the inside out, being sensitive to the breath, dancing with the breath.



As you are exploring the pose, sensations may arise in your body. Be mindful of the

quality of the sensations. Work with discomfort, but honor true pain. Notice reactivity

and aversion, and let your breath bring you back to a pure awareness of the sensation.



Do not force yourself, but go to your edge and notice any resistance you may feel.



You do not need to get anywhere, but see if you can relax the resistance to being here.



“Holding” a posture is just a concept. In fact, there is nothing to hold, and all is process.

From moment to moment, you are re-creating and re-aligning and re-fining the posture.



There is exquisite beauty in the balance between clear focus and the surrender to this

moment.

Qualities that evolve from the practice of mindful yoga:

(the interplay of seemingly opposed, yet highly complementary energies)

Awareness, clarity, equanimity, compassion, joy, sensitivity, love, steadfastness, tranquility,

freedom, naturalness, acceptance, refinement, non-clinging, effortless ease, focus, authenticity,

peacefulness

Inspiration:

Do not pursue the past. Do not lose yourself in the future. The past no longer is. The future has

not yet come. Looking deeply at life as it is in the very here and now, the practitioner dwells in

stability and freedom. We must be diligent today. To wait until tomorrow is too late. Death

comes unexpectedly. How can we bargain with it? The sage calls a person who knows how to

dwell in mindfulness night and day “one who knows the better way to live alone”.

- Buddha in the Bhaddekaratta Sutta

Suggested further reading: Mindfulness Yoga by Frank Jude Boccio (This book touches in

depth on my favorite subject: mindfulness. To me yoga is the practice of mindfulness...to be

present in each moment as it unfolds. “Mindfulness Yoga” is an excellent guide to remind us of

the power of living in the moment as we practice on and off the mat.)

www.BeMindful.org Steve Shealy, PhD 813-980-2700

Mindful Yoga by Jon Kabat-Zinn

For a number of years in the late 1970s, Larry Rosenberg and I taught back-to-back evening

classes in a church in Harvard Square. He would teach vipassana meditation (a Buddhist

practice of mindfulness), and I followed with mindful hatha yoga. The idea was that everyone

would take both classes. But Larry and I were always bemused by the fact that most of the

people in the meditation class didn't want to do the hatha yoga, and most of the "yogis" didn't

come for the meditation class.

We saw the hatha and meditation as different but complementary doors into what is ultimately

the same room--namely, learning how to live wisely. Only the view from the doorways was

different. We had a definite sense that the meditators would have benefited from paying more

attention to their bodies (they tended to dismiss the body as a low-level preoccupation). And the

hatha yogis, we felt, would have benefited from dropping into stillness for longer stretches of

time and observing the arising and passing away from moment to moment of mind/body

experience in one sitting posture. We didn't push our view of this on either group, and we tried

not to be too attached to who showed up for what, especially since we saw the essence of what we

were both teaching as identical. Nonetheless, it was an interesting phenomenon.

Over the years, my own experiences of combining mindfulness meditation practices and hatha

yoga into a seamless whole prompted me to experiment with different ways of bringing these

ancient consciousness disciplines into contemporary mainstream settings. I wanted to explore

their effectiveness in transforming health and consciousness. How might they be connected?

For one thing, the hatha yoga had the potential, I thought, to help reverse the huge prevalence of

disuse atrophy from our highly sedentary lifestyle, especially for those who have pain and

chronic illness. The mind was already known to be a factor in stress and stress-related disorders,

and meditation was known to positively affect a range of autonomic physiological processes, such

as lowering blood pressure and reducing overall arousal and emotional reactivity. Might not

training in mindfulness be an effective way to bring meditation and yoga together so that the

virtues of both could be experienced simultaneously as different aspects of one seamless whole?

Mindfulness practice seemed ideal for cultivating greater awareness of the unity of mind and

body, as well as of the ways the unconscious thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can undermine

emotional, physical, and spiritual health.

This personal exploration led ultimately to developing a clinical service for medical patients in

which we used relatively intensive training in mindfulness meditation practices based on the

vipassana and Zen traditions, along with mindful hatha yoga, with medical patients suffering

with a wide range of chronic disorders and diseases. This program evolved into an 8-week course,

now known as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).

MBSR is now offered in over 200 medical centers, hospitals, and clinics around the world. Many

of these programs are taught by physicians, nurses, social workers, and psychologists, as well as

other health professionals who are seeking to reclaim and deepen some of the sacred reciprocity

inherent in the doctor-caregiver/patient-client relationship. Their work is based on a need for an

active partnership in a participatory medicine, one in which patient/clients take on significant

responsibility for doing a certain kind of interior work in order to tap into their own deepest

inner resources for learning, growing, healing, and transformation.

www.BeMindful.org Steve Shealy, PhD 813-980-2700

Hatha yoga has played a large and critical role in this work from the very beginning, and many

yoga teachers have been drawn to teach MBSR. Through a seamless integration of mindfulness

meditation and hatha yoga, MBSR taps into the innate potential for healing that we all have. It

mobilizes our ability to cultivate embodied wisdom and self-compassion; and by so doing it

teaches us to live our life and face whatever arises with integrity, clarity and open-hearted

presence.

Mindfulness lies at the very core of Buddhism in all its forms. Yet its essence is universal in that

it is about refining attention and awareness. It is a powerful vehicle for cultivating deep insight

into the ultimate causes of suffering and the possibility of liberation from that suffering.

The ancient stream of hatha yoga practice is another of the great consciousness disciplines. My

first taste came in 1967 at a karate school in Boston, where a young Vietnam veteran named Tex

was using it as a warm-up. I quickly fell in love with the yoga. I was training in the Zen tradition

at the time, and the two seemed to complement each other perfectly. That conviction has only

deepened over time.

The appeal of hatha yoga is nothing less than the lifelong adventure and discipline of working

with one's body as a door into freedom and wholeness. Hatha yoga was never about

accomplishment or perfection, or even about technique by itself. Nor was it about turning one's

body into an elaborate pretzel, although the athleticism that is possible in hatha yoga (if one can

manage to steer clear of narcissism) is a truly remarkable art form in its own right. Certainly, we

are seeing a marvelous flowering of interest in many different kinds of hatha yoga in

mainstream circles now. The question is, how mindful is it, and is this flowering oriented toward

self-understanding, wisdom and liberation, or is much of it just physical fitness dressed up in

spiritual clothing?

Mindful yoga is a lifetime engagement--not to get somewhere else, but to be where and as we

actually are in this very moment, with this very breath, whether the experience is pleasant

unpleasant, or neutral. Our body will change a lot as we practice, and so will our minds and our

hearts and our views. Hopefully, whether a beginner or an old-timer, we are always reminding

ourselves in our practice of the value of keeping this beginner's mind.

first published in Yoga International, Feb/March 2003. Visit www.yimag.org

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