MBSR to the Stars ✨

A review of the HIGHLY empirically supported Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction 8-Week Course.

Discover an experience halfway through a mindfulness-based course widely known to heal chronic stress and depression after only 8 weeks of weekly meetings and a few homework tasks.

Following four weeks of the self-magnifying MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) course with Imagine Mindfulness im2(see my recent article MBSR So far to find out my motivations for joining the course & how I am doing it for free) I can say that it has been extremely worth my time and that it is definitely worth the full course price.

Table of Contents

Ø  Why I Am Taking MBSR

Ø  WHY Is Compassion an Essential Tool For Your Mindfulness Practice?

Ø  How Did MBSR Save the Day, Resurrect my Compassion?

Ø  Initial Couse Perceptions

Ø My Personal Experience

Ø Why YOU Should Take a MBSR Course

After completing a mindfulness meditation course for 21 days at a Buddhist monastery (Watchomtong in Germany), I felt that I had traversed all possible levels of utter complete mindfulness & ego-dissolution. However, I came to the realization (far too slowly), after finding the Awaken the Mind Initiative’s self-inquiry resources, that there was a huge factor lacking in my mindfulness practice.

Compassion

Although at the monastery we were taught to complete a short peace ☮ & compassion ♥ prayer for ourselves and our family following each meditation, I was unable to fully treat myself with compassion & forgiveness. MBSR was able to offer me the resources & support to FINALLY instill a solid base of self-compassion in my life.

WHY Is Compassion an Essential Tool For Your Mindfulness Practice?

Treating others with compassion is an important principal aspect of Buddhism that is incorporated in mindfulness. By allowing yourself to be completely present, you may dissolve the egoic patterns that keep you drifting to past & future thinking, leaving you in a constant state of suffering and anxiety (for further explanation on the power of mindfulness, refer to my article Is Mindfulness the Ultimate Medicine?).

Once the ego is no longer guiding your thoughts and actions, you are capable of treating everyone with complete compassion and giving, with wise actions and words. As the ego once separated you from others - with strong self-beliefs and opinions - the mind is now free to feel an unending empathy, understanding, and connection with all other beings. Hence, the large emphasis on compassion-building in mindfulness practices. However, the compassion should also extend to yourself.

But what happens when there is no more self Abby?

Alright, alright, don’t get a-head of yourself here. Patience🙏

I was missing the compassion piece because I was still thinking and planning with my mind on a daily basis. If I couldn’t seem to fit the full meditation time into my day, or wake-up as early as I did at the monastery, or be in complete awareness & mindfulness during conversations; I was hard on myself, and planning how I can better improve the next day. I was missing an aspect of Letting-Go, allowing things to be as they are in the moment, happy with whatever occurs, and yup I was feeding the ego till it was nice and fat, causing myself stress and suffering despite meditating so often.

How Did MBSR Save the Day, Resurrect My Compassion?

MBSR is like the gentle, kind, nurturing, and soft mother – compared to the hard-core, bootcamp-style Buddhist mindfulness meditation retreats.

MBSR incorporates, at great length, body-mind connection practices that bring your intuition to its full capacity. I noticed that as my natural intuition grew, I no longer had to stress about what decision to make, what was right or wrong, I could hear it and know right away, with that gut-feeling. I could release the tight-gripped control I was holding on my daily schedule and future plans.

First, the leader and founder of the  IM2 MBSR course, took the time to give me a full Enneagram reading. The Enneagram according to the innovative and international Integrative Enneagram Solutions website:

Definition and Meaning of the Enneagram

The Enneagram is a model of human psychology and personality theory, that is based on the idea that each person has a unique and innate personality structure, or "essence," that shapes the way they see the world and themselves.

The word "Enneagram" comes from the Greek words "ennea" meaning "nine" and "grammos" meaning "something written" or "a figure". The Enneagram symbol is composed of a circle with nine equidistant points, each representing one of the nine personality types. Its origin has an ancient history.

These Types are characterized by a unique combination of strengths, weaknesses, unconscious motivations, fears, and triggers that shape their thoughts, feelings, and actions. The Enneagram is not only a tool for understanding ourselves and others, but is also a powerful tool for growth, self-awareness, self-discovery, and spiritual growth. It can help individuals understand their own motivations and behaviours, as well as the motivations and behaviours of others, which can lead to more harmonious relationships, better communication, and more effective problem-solving.

Jerry Cambra, the IM2 founder, sent me a short questionnaire that allows him to easily assess your Enneagram chart. Then, a ‘short’ meeting is scheduled in which he reviews the reading he created with you. Our meeting ended up taking 2 hours, as he covers each part of your chart and there is a deep understanding of your enneagram established, much more then could be found by taking a free online quiz. I was already so grateful to be taking the MBSR course for free, and this was the cherry-on-top 🍒 that meant so much to me (it is clear how kind MBSR makes you, if this is what the facilitators are like). Jerry also offered me the resources that he utilized to create my enneagram, in case I wanted to investigate further - The Essential Enneagram and The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram: Nine Faces of the Soul.

How does this enneagram reading relate to the course teaching me self-compassion?

Not only was it a compassionate and supportive act by the course team, but the enneagram analysis process gave me a profound sense of how I have been operating as a result of my childhood surroundings, how I was lacking in self-compassion, and how this compassion absence was affecting alllll the other aspects of my life, happiness, and stress levels.

The enneagram, or other similar personality and behavior readings, should be a requirement prior to mental health courses. The understanding of myself that I was gifted made my course objectives clear as day, allowing me a simple ‘plan of action’ for the MBSR course to come. The reading gifted me a complete mirror reflection to better connect with myself, my intuition throughout the course. I knew exactly what areas of the course that I should lean-into for the best results for my mental health and mindfulness practice.

It was obvious that a lack of self-compassion was holding me back from being my best self, and that MBSR could help me fulfill this hole in my happiness.

Initial Couse Perceptions

At the first course meeting, as I was mentally preparing myself for 8 weeks of Saturday night classes, I was pleasantly surprised with the diversity of the group. We have group members joining online from New Zealand, Turkey, The United States, and me in The Netherlands. As the MBSR course is typically paired with the TAU (psychologists’ term for the normally prescribed mental or physical health treatment, ‘treatment as usual’), many participants are struggling from some form of a health problem, with ages varying up to 86 years young 😉. It was incredibly enlightening to hear the remarks from a couple of participants that were taking the course over again: what their experience was taking the course the first time, how it greatly benefitted them, and why they hope to further solidify the MBSR practices into their daily routine the 2nd time around. It was exciting (as excited as you can get during a Saturday night course) to see that we would not only be taught the MBSR practices but also given lessons on why the practices were relevant and helpful towards reducing our stress levels.

Each class would be some mix of an introduction mindfulness practice of guided breath-focus meditations or Qigong movement practices; a break-out room conversation with 2 to 3 other participants to reflect upon and actively listen about our experiences in the program so far; the weekly stress understanding lesson; an explanation of the upcoming week’s recommended homework practices; and an ending meditation practice.

We were welcomed to deepen our understanding of the weekly lessons by following along with recommended chapters of the book Full Catastrophe Living (FCL) by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the creator of MBSR and the 8-week course.

The majority of the small group conversations consisted of a collective self-frustration with being unable to complete all of the past week’s recommended homework tasks. Replies were always an interesting mix of saying that we should have more self-compassion for ourselves as long as we tried our best, and describing the lesson from FCL that - in the beginning of the course there may be mild added stress as we work to incorporate the necessary practice hours into our already busy routines, but that it would pay off with reduced stress in the end.

By the fourth week of the course, participants began adding how the course was already significantly changing their lives. Not only was it reducing their stress, but also leaving them with complex realizations about the naturally stressful world that they live and work in. I am honestly imagining the quantity of MBSR participants that quit their jobs, relocate, and/or dump their partners by the end of the course.

My Personal Experience

Four weeks into the course, it is hard to say which aspect of the course has contributed most to my greater natural relaxation, calm demeanor, and level headedness. Somehow, despite the beginning added stress of fitting the course into your normal life and work schedule, the changes that were at first disjointing and disruptive during the first three weeks of the course, magically fell into place over the halfway mark of MBSR.

During the first three weeks of the course, I realized how much trauma I was releasing from my body. Releasing trauma from my body is a normal occurrence during my long-term routine mindfulness meditation home practice, however it jumped to a whole ’nother level during the MBSR course. A problem following my retreat at the monastery was that despite releasing a massive amount of chronic pain that was stuck in my body from trauma and suppressed emotions, I still would experience tight hips – but, this would not be an uncomfortable issue during my 1 hour sitting meditations (I only noticed it while walking). However, throughout the MBSR course, my meditation sessions became more-and-more painful, feeling the heat arising in specific areas of my body and releasing from a burning, numbing foot sensation, which I had not experienced since the beginning ego-dissolution aspects of the monastery retreat. Now, four weeks into the course, I can reflect that the pain has significantly lessened, and it seems that my body has released the tension in my hips, with both of my knees able to reach the ground in a meditation posture and no longer feeling uneven during walking and biking, or balance yoga postures.

It seems that through the body scans we practiced, the Qigong, the mindful movement sessions, and the stress understanding lessons, I was able to connect with my body so much so that I could FINALLY allow my intuition to guide me, releasing my strict self-guidelines. As the course leads us to think more outside of our built perceptions and biases, that “There Is No Box”, we learned to embrace the lack of rules in life, that they had been arbitrarily placed by our personal experiences and demanding Western lifestyles. We are learning to brew this full-bodied, home-grown delicious self-compassion ☕, throwing out the nasty drinks that we were shoving down our throats for reasons that no longer mattered. How we had built up walls and barriers on our capabilities, limiting ourselves and adding stress with maladaptive stress solutions that at one time were helpful, and now well… maladaptive.

We are learning that we can simply guide our lives using the ABC’s…

If you are able to invest the time and the money (if financially in need, find the Palouse website on my Resources page), I would greatly recommend the course, only halfway through it, especially if you are struggling with any form of chronic stress that may be worsening your ability to have a successful physical or mental health treatment. MBSR can be completed alongside the TAU, afterwards, or on its own for stress-management.

Why YOU Should Take a MBSR Course**

Ø  Mindfulness can improve all areas of your daily life.

Ø  The reason you may have high stress may not only be your stressful situation, but an inability to hold self-compassion & empathy for your behaviors and feelings during tough times.

Ø  You need to improve your mind-body connection, such as – not noticing when you are full, hungry, thirsty, angry, or stressed, etc. until long afterwards.

Ø  You notice you have maladaptive stress reactions such as overthinking, keeping busy, yelling, freezing, or hiding/running away from the problem.

Ø  You suspect your chronic pain may be resulting from chronic stress/trauma, versus from an injury or genetic pre-disposition.

Ø  High stress is reducing your ability to heal during your TAU.

**Significant empirical evidence for MBSR to improve these life aspects. Checkout the works-cited section of my post MBSR So Far (this section is best read on a computer/laptop) or simply head to Google Scholar and place in the search bar MBSR + any specific demographics that you would like to know the MBSR results of. Such as, MBSR for people of color or MBSR for depression in women.

Subscribe at the bottom of the website page to receive the upcoming weekly holistic health articles, making sure you don’t miss my final review of the MBSR course in four more weeks 😉.

Remember, “There Is No Box” and know your ABC’s “Align, Balance, Center”.

🧘‍♂️ 🙏