Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction - Final Home Practice Guidelines

1. Choose one or a combination of the formal meditation practices to focus on in the upcoming weeks: body scan, mindful movement, walking meditation, or seated meditation. Whichever ones you decide to practice, remember to notice each time your attention wanders, and without criticism or judgement, bring it back to the present moment, using your breath as an anchor. It does not matter which practices you decide to do, what matters is practicing kindness towards yourself and noticing what is present in each moment of your experience. Choose an amount of time that you can realistically do every day and preferably at the same time of day.

2. Choose an “informal” mindfulness practice to focus on in the upcoming weeks. You could bring mindfulness to a daily task, driving, conversations, walking, or anything you normally do on auto pilot. Continue to practice kindness when your thoughts wander away from the activity, and each time, gently bring your attention back to the present, using your breath as an anchor.

3. Notice the breath and sensations in the body at different times throughout the day as a way to re-connect to your intention to be present to yourself and the unfolding nature of your life. Maybe bring awareness to the breath and body sensations before getting out of bed in the morning, and again when getting into bed at night. Sometimes it is helpful to set an alarm on your phone for various times of the day, or put a sticky note reminder in places you will see throughout the day.

Although our class is ending, it is also a beginning, the start of developing your own meditation practice and taking mindfulness into your everyday life. Hopefully you have seen some of the benefits of a mindfulness practice: maybe a pause before responding in a stressful situation; the ability to slow down in the middle of a busy day to recognize the beauty that is present, or being more present to conversations with colleagues and loved ones. Mindfulness is a “practice” so I hope you continue to bring it into your life in some way. Not only do you benefit from your practice, but so do lives of those around you.

“The point of practice is to develop a mind so open that it can experience great pleasure and great pain with spaciousness and with compassion and with energy.” -Sharon Salzberg