Class #1 — Returning to Wholeness through the Body
Our first job in mindfulness is to return to feeling the body more fully.
Class #1
This exploration of mindfulness starts with looking at our attitudes and feelings towards our lives. We suggest that there is much more right with you than there is wrong with you. No matter how significant, all the problems and challenges that complicate your life can be worked with. This course is an opportunity to work with our attitudes in a supportive environment.
Mindfulness is an embodied, experiential process. So often we treat the body as a piece of machinery driven around by the mind, separating ourselves from our physical selves. In doing so, we miss many cues from the body about stress and how we react to life. And we miss connecting with the body to support possible pathways to healing, well-being, and stress reduction.
Mindfulness definition
Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition”
“Mindfulness is paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”
On purpose
We don’t control attention fully, but we can notice where it is and gently guide it.
Present moment
Our minds live in past and future. Almost constantly.
And we miss the only moment we actually have.
Non-judgmentally
Not no judgment. That’s unrealistic.
More like - holding experience lightly.
Less grip, more space.
MBSR - Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
Jon Kabat-Zinn created Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, or MBSR, back in the late 1970s.
The idea is pretty simple. He took mindfulness meditation, which comes from Buddhist traditions, and stripped it of religion. Then he turned it into a structured 8-week program that could be used in hospitals and clinics to help people deal with stress, pain, and illness.
He started it at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, working with patients who didn’t really have other options. People with chronic pain, anxiety, long-term stress.
The goal wasn’t to “fix” them, but to help them relate differently to what they were experiencing.
MBSR is basically training your attention. You learn to notice thoughts, emotions, and body sensations without getting totally caught in them. Over time, that can reduce reactivity and stress.
It’s now one of the most researched mindfulness programs in the world, and it’s still used in medical and mental health settings everywhere.
In his book Arriving at Your Own Door, Jon Kabat-Zinn writes about mindfulness as a way of coming home to yourself:
Mindfulness is moment to moment, nonjudgmental awareness, cultivated by paying attention. Mindfulness arises naturally from living. It can be strengthened through practice. This practice is sometimes called meditation. But meditation is not what you think.
Meditation is really about paying attention, and the only way in which we can pay attention is through our senses, all of them, including the mind. Mindfulness is a way of befriending ourselves and our experience. Of course, our experience is vast, and includes our own body, our mind, our heart, and the entire world.
In Asian languages, the word for mind and the word for heart are the same word. So when we hear the word mindfulness we have to inwardly also hear heartfulness in order to grasp it even as a concept and especially as a way of being.
One scholar described mindfulness as “the unfailing master key for knowing the mind, and thus the starting point; the perfect tool for shaping the mind, and thus the focal point; and the lofty manifestation of the archived freedom of the mind, and thus the culminating point”. Not bad for something that basically boils down to paying attention
The Window of Tolerance
Most of us easily notice when we’re overwhelmed or shut down. This worksheet supports you in finding your “sweet spot”, the state where you feel present, grounded, and able to handle what life brings. The goal is to notice when you’re in this zone and learn what helps you stay there or return to it.
The Window of Tolerance is the optimal range of nervous system function where you feel regulated, present, and able to respond thoughtfully to stress. In this window, you think clearly, connect with others, and address challenges without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down. Outside this range, you may feel overloaded or disconnected
The Three Zones
Opening, Closing, and the Three Circles of Growth
Growth doesn’t move in a straight line. You won’t always feel positive or ready to grow, and that’s normal.
Sometimes you have the energy and space to open up, learn, and stretch. Other times, you don’t. That’s when you need to close, slow down, and take care of yourself.
You can think of your experience like moving between three circles:
- Comfort Zone in the center, where you pull in and rest
- Growth & Learning, where you’re open and expanding
- Overwhelm, where it’s too much, and real learning can’t happen
The key is noticing where you are, and not forcing yourself too far.
A few questions to reflect on:
- What does it look like when you feel open and available?
- What does it feel like when you need to close?
- What actually helps you take care of yourself in those moments?
- What helps you come back out into growth again?
- How do you notice when you’ve pushed too far and hit overwhelm?
Homework
- Formal: Practice the Body Scan meditation six days this week.
- Informal: Practice the "mindful check-in" during each day.
- Consider: How will you make time for home practice? What is a realistic intention?
This week, we’ll connect with feelings in the body with a “mindful check-in.”
Practices
Class 1 Body scan:
Class 1 mindful check-in:
Class 1 reflection:
Practice Tips and Insights
During the meeting it was suggested that we gather tips and shared experiences to support each other’s practice.
So I added this page to the website Students Reflections