Mindfulness - Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Week Retreat July 2018

Serenity Now!

Are you easily ‘stressed out’?

Do you find it difficult to quiet your mind?

Thoughts racing? Lose focus easily?

Difficulty sleeping? Too much or too little?

Easily angered with your kids or spouse?

Do you experience panic attacks?

Digestive difficulties?

Do you worry about your health a lot?

Learning to pay attention, (vipassana meditation), a skill which can be cultivated, will help to reduce stress and diminish many problems associated with a busy lifestyle, stressed out mind and allow you to stop spinning and greet your life with awareness, acceptance and a calm response to whatever comes your way.

The goal of meditation is not to have your mind go blank and feel blissed out, unaware of life around you. Rather it’s a skill to cultivate awareness, noticing everything and choosing what, when and how to respond.

Imagine living with a greater sense of ease, more peace in life, resilient, able to deal with stress effectively and with less anxiety. MBSR is the program that cultivates that skill. Traditionally an eight week program, but this week retreat will include all of the curriculum in a condensed time frame, allowing you to deepen your practice through the week and decide what form of mindfulness suits you best.

Mindfulness is a way of cultivating awareness of whatever is happening in your life and invites you to be present moment to moment. As you become more aware of the subtlties of thoughts, emotions and actions, you naturally become less reactive to emotional situations and better able to respond to events from a place of calm perspective. This MBSR program incorporates an educational component with the experiential learning of mindfulness meditation and yoga, in a way that enables you to apply what you learn to your daily life. There is no goal of having your mind go blank and feel blissed out.

Here are some reasons this week can benefit you:

• Reduced anxiety & panic feelings
• Increased coping with feelings of depression, anger, or other strong emotions
• Improved sleep patterns
• Improved immune sytem
• Lower blood pressure
• Opening doors to new ways of  `seeing’
• Increased ability to manage chronic pain
• Taking time just for you
• Understanding how stress manifests physically and emotionally

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MBSR was developed by Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn in 1979.  Since then it has been offered at over 200 clinics around the world and has been researched in medical settings with over 40 peer-reviewed articles in scientific literature.  Hundreds of doctors refer their patients to this program when medicine is not able to meet all their needs in dealing with life issues such as chronic pain, stress related conditions and emotional turmoil.  It can be a compliment to modern medicine.

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This week will balance time between learning new skills, group discussions, and plenty of free time to relax and enjoy the natural setting here.

Side effects of a regular meditation practice include elevated self-esteem, self-confidence, better communication skills, better relationship dynamics, improved immune system functioning, lower blood pressure and at times walking around with a smile for no apparent reason.

Here’s the schedule for the week:

Sunday July 22nd
3-5 pm arrive and settle into your cabin
5:30 dinner
7 – 9 pm Introduction and course orientation

Monday – Wednesday July 23rd-25th
7:00 – 8:15 optional Yoga class
8:30 breakfast
9:30 – 11:30 am workshop
12:30 – Lunch
2:00 – 4:30 workshop
5:30 dinner

Thursday July 26th
8:30 Breakfast
10:00 – 4:00 workshop (lunch today is part of the workshop schedule)
5:30 dinner

Friday July 27th
7:00 – 8:15 optional Yoga class
8:30 breakfast
10:00 – 12:15 am workshop
12:30 Lunch
Stay as long as you wish and depart at your leisure