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Week 1
 Introduction to Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction Cultivating Reverence for Living 
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What the Program Offers   Mindfulness Based
Stress Reduction Another name for mindfulness
is Awareness. This is a holistic program which
will involve Body, Mind, Emotions and Spirit. We
will focus on awareness of our breath, which
allows us to come back to ourselves, and
awareness of body sensations, thoughts, and
feelings. With mindfulness, we become centered.
Saki Santorelli defines mindfulness as our
capacity to pay attention moment to moment on
purpose. This is the opposite of zoning out
couch potato relaxationmindlessness.
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WE are always practicing somethinge.g.
irritation, judging, calmness. With mindfulness,
we learn to be aware of what were practicing and
we can learn to alter those practices in more
life-giving waysways that take us towards the
relaxation response.
Attends to body-mind-spirit. We will introduce
ways for you to listen to your own bodies and
minds, to notice where you hold stress in your
body, to observe your thoughts and emotions, and
to learn a way of being that can make life more
rich and pleasurable. This way of awareness or
mindfulness may also give you a sense of being
more in control. With mindfulness, we are
present and awake for more of our moments.
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Non-Striving
Attitude of Non-Striving. There are no
pressures, no tests, no grades, no one way to
do these practices. The goal is for you to
experience these practices for yourselves.
Simply show up for the class and do the practices
and lets see what happens.
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Joy of Meditation as Nourishment From The
Blooming of a Lotus by Thich Nhat Hahn  Breathing
in, I calm my body. Calm Breathing out, I
smile. Smile Breathing in, I dwell in the
present moment. Present moment Breathing out, I
know it is a wonderful moment. Wonderful moment.
Practice Body Scan
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Week 2
  Taking Hold of Your Mind Mental Noting and
Stretching and Strengthing
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Introduce Mindful Walking We do all kinds of
daily activities we arent aware ofexample-
showering. Another example- walking. We walk a
lot, but how often are we aware that were
walking? Were usually absorbed in thoughts
while walking. Our mind is telling us where we
want to go and our body gets us there. So, in a
way, the body is a chauffeur of the mind. When
the mind hurries, the body hurries. If the mind
is attracted to something, the body moves toward
it. If the mind is stressed/ tense, then the
body is stressed/tense. One way to bring
awareness into your daily life is to practice
mindful walking (or walking meditation) paying
attention to the experience of walking itselfto
the sensations in your feet and being aware of
your movement.
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Mind Training Mental Noting is a way of growing
this observer part of ourselves. It is
labeling what you observe naming your thoughts.
Examples worried, judging, tense,
irritated, happy, etc. Just as we physically
train the body with exercise, we can train the
mind through mental noting. We simply become
aware of (or pay attention to) what we are
thinking. We can practice mental noting in time
to the breath- for example, In breath, worried
Out breath, worried and so on. Notice we stop
thinking about what has triggered the worry and
simply name it and breathe it. Watch your
thoughts coming and going, like clouds in the
sky. Notice each feeling rising and falling,
like waves in the ocean. Observe what your mind
is up to, and learn to watch your thoughts and
let them go without getting caught up in them and
being driven by them.
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Anger If we are not aware, our actions are
impulsive which usually feeds the anger and keeps
you in a cycle of stress and suffering. If I
get into this cycle, the anger is in control- not
me. If Im angry and aware that Im angry, I can
take a breath and feel the anger in my body and
then choose how I want to respond to the anger.
I am in control and can choose my actions. In
order to become aware, I have to strengthen my
observer self. Use mental noting.
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Depression Sadness- What good does it do me to
be aware of it? It allows you to be aware that
you are also more than your sadness. Doesnt
deny the sadnessaccepts it, but also brings
awareness that you are more than the
sadness.  By mentally noting sadness, I can
think about what seeds of sadness I may have
been watering. I have become aware of my
mental/emotional state and can now make choices.
What seeds will I water?
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Practicing Mindfulness The key to being in
control of your mind is learning to be in control
of what we pay attention to and how long we pay
attention to it. Have there been times you have
been unable to stop thinking about things (the
past, the future, emotional pain, physical pain),
unable to concentrate on a task, unable to focus
on another person?
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Judging Most thoughts come under one of three
categories I like it I dont like it Im
neutral about it. This week, try practicing the
mental noting of this flow of attraction,
aversion, and indifference. Observe your
judging, how often you are thinking this is good,
that is bad. The mind that is always judging is
like carrying around a suitcase full of rocks on
your head. Its heavy and causes the body to be
tight. Remember dont judge your judging. We
want to cultivate a non-judgmental mind.
Exercise Soft Belly Breathing
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Week 3
Emotion Regulation Skills
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Understanding Emotions You Experience I want to
be able to identify an emotion without
identifying with the emotion. I am not my anger,
my fear, my sadness, etc. I am me and this is
the anger, the fear, the sadness. This is just
another seed that has been watered in my garden.
I am using mindfulness to separate my me-ness
from a particular emotional state. I begin to
understand what emotions do for me and to me.
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Reduce Your Emotional Vulnerability  Relating to
my emotions mindfully does not mean I wont ever
feel angry, scared or sad (thats suppressing!).
What it means is that I am able to stop the
emotion from hijacking my entire being. I build
a kind of resistance and resiliency to negative
emotional states in regard to the strength of
their ability to influence, control, overwhelm,
or possess me.
Decrease Emotional Suffering  This is the bottom
line and natural result. I often cause myself
suffering or more suffering by the way I am
reacting emotionally. Mindfulness helps me to
let go of painful emotions (they lose their
velcro capacity). Mindfulness metabolizes the
painful emotion, creating an opening for other
options, choices, responses.
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• Myths about Emotions 
• (Statements of non-acceptance or resistance)
• There is a right way to feel in every
  situation.
• Letting others know I am feeling bad is
  weakness.
• Negative feelings are bad and destructive.
• Being emotional means being out of control.
• Emotions can just happen for no reason.
• Some emotions are really stupid.

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Myths about Emotions 
7. All painful emotions are a result of a bad
attitude. 8. If others dont approve of my
feelings, I obviously shouldnt feel the way I
do. 9. Others are the best judges of how Im
feeling. 10. Painful emotions are not really
important and should be ignored.
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Self-soothing and self-defining       In working
with an upsetting emotion, first we self-soothe
with the breath, then we self-define.      
Self-soothing is observing the feeling, mentally
noting it by naming it, accepting that its here
by watching the breath as you name it. For
example, scared scared. Notice we are not
trying to make the emotion go away but to be
friendly to it. Remember whatever you resist,
persists. If I fight or ignore my fear, it only
gets stronger. Self-definition is what I say or
do, not what I try to get someone else to do. In
self-defining rather than other-defining, I work
with the one person over whom I have ultimate
control, myself.
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Working with Sadness/Depression  Nearly one in
five Americans will suffer from depression at
some time in their lifetime. At any given time,
1-3 of the general population is depressed.
    We rarely stop to question our negative
automatic thoughts, and our emotions usually
match them. If you have negative expectations
about yourself, others, and the future, these
deeply pessimistic thoughts become
self-fulfilling prophecies. We tend to perceive
or attend to things that confirm our point of
view. This seek and ye shall find phenomenon
then confirms our mood.   When governed by
strong emotions, the mind becomes a filter,
letting into conscious awareness only those
thoughts that reinforce that mood. With negative
automatic thoughts Stop. Take a breath.
Reflect on those thoughts. Then choose.
Exercise Self Tonglen, Environmental Tonglen
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Week 4
Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills
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Physical Opening Mindful Movements with Thich
Nhat Hanh and the Monks and Nuns of Plum Village
(35min.) Meditation Forgiveness Didactic
Material Basic Interpersonal Styles, Anger
Styles, Basic Message 1.      Aggressive
(Over-angry) I count, you dont count 2.     
Passive (Un-angry) I dont count, you
count 3.      Passive-Aggressive (Indirect
Anger) I count, you dont count, but Im
not going to tell you. Assertive I count,
you count
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The Strategy of Assertion (e.g. Concentrate on
what you need and want) Building Mastery and Self
Respect (e.g.. You build mastery when you do
things that make you feel competent and
effective. Remember a time when you worked
toward mastery.) Myths About Interpersonal
Effectiveness (e.g. If they say no, it will kill
me.) Legitimate Rights (or Choices) (e.g. It is
OK to want something from someone else.)
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Concluding exercise Forgiveness Meditation
For anything I may have done to harm another,
knowingly or unknowingly, I am forgiven. For
anything anyone has done to harm me, knowingly or
unknowingly, I forgive them. For anything I may
have done to harm myself, knowingly or
unknowingly, I forgive myself.
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Week 5 
Distress Tolerance Skills
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• Anger and Frustration
• We boil at different degrees - Ralph Waldo
  Emerson
• What pushes your buttons?
• Getting angry (daily/chronically) is like taking
  a small dose of a slow acting poison.
• Anger is a toxin to your body.
• About 20 of the U.S. population has high
  hostility levels that endanger their health

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Didactic Themes Working with Frustration and
Anger Prompting Events for Feeling Anger
Interpretations That Prompt Feelings of Anger
Experiencing the Emotion of Anger Expressing
and Acting on Anger Aftereffects of Anger
Exercise Qi Qong
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Week 6
 A Practice for Life Unconditional Friendliness

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Loving-Kindness Meditation
This is a practice that promotes healing and
wholeness it helps us cultivate love for
ourselves and for others.   Posture and
relaxation  Get into a comfortable, relaxed
posture preferably sitting upright so that
youre able to maintain some awareness, some
sense of energy and vitality.  
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Bring attention to your breath. Relax your head
and neck, your jaw, your shoulders. Breathing
in, I calm my body.   As you breath out, you
can imagine a wave of relaxation sweeping
downwards through your body, washing all of your
tensions down, out of your body, into the earth.
And as you breath in, you can imagine a wave of
energy flowing upwards from the earth into your
body, filing every fiber of your being.
  Breathing in, I feel calm and peaceful.
Breathing out, I am in a space of well-being.
Feel free from suffering, fears, worries, and
anxieties, and just dwell in calm and
peace.       
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Picture the person in your life who has cared
for you most, who has shown good will to you.
This person might be living or dead. Imagine
yourself in this persons presence, receiving his
or her loving-kindness. You might picture this
coming to you as beams of light.   Say to
yourself May I be filled with loving-kindness. Ma
y I be calm and peaceful. May I be safe. May I be
happy.
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Think of a person who has helped you along
your path in life, and   Say to yourself May
this person (or persons) be filled with
loving-kindness. May they be calm and
peaceful. May they be safe. May they be
happy. Think of a person for whom you deeply
care May this person (or persons) be filled with
loving-kindness. May they be calm and
peaceful. May they be safe. May they be happy.
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Think of a person for whom you feel neutral,
perhaps a stranger, someone you dont know May
this person (or persons) be filled with
loving-kindness. May they be calm and
peaceful. May they be safe. May they be
happy.   Think of a person toward whom you have
negative feelings May this person (or persons)
be filled with loving-kindness. May they be calm
and peaceful. May they be safe. May they be
happy.
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Think of everyone here in this group May we be
filled with loving-kindness. May we be calm and
peaceful. May we be safe. May we be happy.   Then
think of all beings everywhere May the entire
universe be filled with loving-kindness. May we
be calm and peaceful. May we be safe. May we be
happy.
Come back to an awareness of yourself and your
breath, and gently open your eyes.