Jason Marsh - Why Mindfulness Matters

Nice article from the current issue of Greater Good on why mindfulness matters, how to cultivate it our lives, and just what exactly what mindfulness is.

Why Mindfulness Matters

By Jason Marsh | May 17, 2010

This month on Greater Good, experts explain the benefits of mindfulness--and how you can cultivate it.

It’s been 30 years since Jon Kabat-Zinn launched his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. What began as a bit of a lark—an attempt by a molecular biologist to bring Buddhist meditation (minus the Buddhism) into the mainstream of medicine—has grown into a genuine social movement, with variations of the MBSR program developing everywhere from elementary schools to hospitals to the halls of Congress. At the same time, a growing body of research has documented the physical and psychological health benefits of practicing mindfulness, even for just a few weeks.

Still, the term “mindfulness” is likely to raise more than a few questions. For starters: What, exactly, is it?

Danielle Rothman

“Simply put, mindfulness is moment-to-moment awareness,” writes Kabat-Zinn in his groundbreaking book Full Catastrophe Living. “It is cultivated by purposefully paying attention to things we ordinarily never give a moment’s thought to. It is a systematic approach to developing new kinds of control and wisdom in our lives.”

Kabat-Zinn has made it his life’s work to promote secular applications of mindfulness. And this month on Greater Good, we’re highlighting why that work is so important.

Throughout the month, we’ll be featuring stories by pioneers who have applied Kabat-Zinn’s MBSR program to different realms, from schools to prisons to childbirth and parenting education to the lives of Iraq war veterans. Each story is unique, but they all demonstrate the profound benefits that can come from cultivating mindfulness: reduced stress, heightened compassion and self-control, and a deeper engagement with the people in our lives. And they all make clear that these benefits can be made available to almost anyone with proper training.

This training can take different forms. Kabat-Zinn has stressed that although mindfulness can be cultivated through formal meditation, that’s not the only way.

Jon Kabat-Zinn delivering his talk at the Greater Good Science Center event, "Compassion, Mindfulness, and Well-Being."

“It’s not really about sitting in the full lotus, like pretending you’re a statue in a British museum,” he said in his presentation at a recent Greater Good Science Center event. “It’s about living your life as if it really mattered, moment by moment by moment by moment.”

Video from that dynamic and inspiring presentation, part of the GGSC’s new “Science of a Meaningful Life” series, is also a highlight on Greater Good this month—a terrific opportunity to watch Kabat-Zinn elucidate the practice and the purpose of mindfulness.

Resources

• Watch the video of Jon Kabat-Zinn explaining what mindfulness is and why it matters
• For more on mindfulness and its applications, GGSC members can read The Greater Good Guide to Mindfulness

You’ll also find other mindfulness resources, including tips for teaching mindfulness to kids and links to leading organizations that study and teach mindfulness.

And all of these valuable resources are collected in “The Greater Good Guide to Mindfulness”—the first in a series of “Greater Good Guides” we’re publishing on our website as a way to dig deeper into some of Greater Good‘s key themes. The guides are available only to members of the Greater Good Science Center—good reason to start your membership today!

Taken together, from Kabat-Zinn’s video presentation to our many articles on the topic, we hope these materials provide a better sense of what mindfulness is, what its benefits are, how it’s practiced, and how you might cultivate more of it in your own life.

Here is a taste of the Greater Good Guide to Mindfulness (download the PDF to read the whole guide).

It’s been 30 years since Jon Kabat-Zinn launched his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. What began as a bit of a lark—an attempt by a molecular biologist to bring Buddhist meditation (minus the Buddhism) into the mainstream of medicine—has grown into a genuine social movement, with variations of the MBSR program developing everywhere from elementary schools to hospitals to the halls of Congress. At the same time, a growing body of research has documented the physical and psychological health benefits of practicing mindfulness, even for just a few weeks.

Still, the term “mindfulness” is likely to raise more than a few questions. For starters: What, exactly, is it?

“Simply put, mindfulness is moment-to-moment -awareness,” writes Kabat-Zinn in his groundbreaking book Full Catastrophe Living. “It is cultivated by purposefully paying attention to things we ordinarily never give a moment’s thought to. It is a systematic approach to developing new kinds of control and wisdom in our lives.”

Kabat-Zinn has made it his life’s work to promote secular applications of mindfulness. In his presentation at the recent Greater Good Science Center event, “Compassion, Mindfulness, and Well-Being,” he explained that mindfulness can be cultivated through formal meditation, but that’s not the only way.

“It’s not really about sitting in the full lotus, like pretending you’re a statue in a British museum,” he said. “It’s about living your life as if it really mattered, moment by moment by moment by moment.”

Kabat-Zinn used his GGSC talk, part of the Center’s “Science of a Meaningful Life” event series, to elucidate the practice and the purpose of mindfulness, and to reflect on the extraordinary growth and influence of his MBSR program.

So far, more than 18,000 people have completed the eight-week program, where they practice basic mindfulness techniques, from sitting meditation to an exercise in eating mindfully, and consider how to draw on these practices as they navigate the challenges of everyday life. Many enroll because they are suffering from ailments ranging from high blood pressure to depression to cancer. Research shows that most of them enjoy significant improvements in their physical and mental health: less pain, higher self-esteem, more excitement about life, and a greater ability to relax and cope with stress. They even show fewer symptoms of physical illness.

But as Kabat-Zinn told the audience at his GGSC talk, the applications of mindfulness go far beyond its medical value. “People who come and understand what we’re doing, the first thing they say is ‘Oh my God, this isn’t about stress reduction,’” he said. “‘This is about my life.’”

Indeed, the broad, everyday relevance of mindfulness is demonstrated by how widely it is being embraced in new programs across different sectors of society. School-based programs teaching mindfulness to kids have taken off over the past few years; mindfulness-based programs are also gaining traction in prisons and among substance abuse counselors. These programs and many others have used MBSR as a model, and they’re fueled by the increasing number of studies that link mindfulness to emotional balance and stronger immune systems, among other benefits. Whereas just a handful of studies with the word “mindfulness” in the title were published 25 years ago, now that number is approaching or exceeding 100 each year.

We offer this guide as a companion to Kabat-Zinn’s GGSC talk (video of which can be found at www.greatergoodscience.org), highlighting resources, research, and some of the many innovative applications of Kabat-Zinn’s MBSR program.

While by no means comprehensive, we hope it provides a better sense of what mindfulness is, what its benefits are, how it’s practiced, and how you might cultivate more of it in your own life.

Additional resources:

• Mindful Education May 13, 2010
• Tips for Teaching Mindfulness to Kids May 13, 2010
• Mindful Kids, Peaceful Schools Summer 2007
• Losing my Mindfulness September 2, 2009

Tags: meditation, awareness, Psychology, mind, Buddhism, Jason Marsh, Why Mindfulness Matters, mindfulness, Greater Good, Jon Kabat-Zinn, book, Full Catastrophe Living, mindfulness-based stress reduction, The Greater Good Guide to Mindfulness