Becoming an MBSR teacher

Another question I got before leaving for the retreat in Brunnsvik was about the basic qualifications needed to become an MBSR teacher. Again, motivated by his concern to protect the "dharma" Jon Kabat-Zinn and his team set forward some very strict conditions to become a certified MBSR teacher. The details can be found on the website www.umassmed.edu/cfm
It used to be that you needed a qualification in psychology, education or medicine. This is not a strict "go or nt go" condition, although Jon admitts to have a slight preference for these backgrounds. More important however is an intellectual understanding of the scientific, medical and educational roots of MBSR. Every program that emphasizes an understandig of the mind and body, and includes service as a component, may be acceptable.
One of the things that struck me very strongly during the retreat is Jon's continuous concern for the wellbeing of the patient. As an MBSR teacher you often work with vulnerable people, so you have to be able to cope with these strong emotions.

mindfulness and the buddha?

One of the questions I received before leaving on the retreat in Brunnsvik was about a remark made by dr. Edel Maex at the first mindfulness conference in Ghent last June. Edel said he was almost fed up with the word "mindfulness", because it seems to be applied to all all possible problems (eg lose weight, quit smoking, etc). Furthermore he wondered what would have happened if Jon Kabat-Zinn would have called it differently (eg compassion based stress reduction) in stead of focusing on the "mind". Finally he wondered if it was a good idea of Jon to exclude all explicit links with buddhism in the MBSR classes.

During the 7-days retreat Jon stressed at several occasions that for him every mindfulness teacher should know and respect in his deepest heart that his practice has to be grounded in the dharma ( i.e. the teachings of the buddha on how to deal with duka or suffering). Still he prefers not to talk about Buddhism to the patients (or students) because this may confuse them. Those that are really touched by it, will spontaneously look further and deeper. Even the word mindfulness is not important: it is not about labels and congnitve "knowing", it is about the practice and the state of being.

But since we live in a world of labels, trade marks and brands (and lawyers) , Jon recently decided to register MBSR as an international trade mark, not because he wants to "own" it, but because he wants to protect people from abusing it by not respecting this link it to the dharma.

the people must be crazy

Today was the first day of my 7 days retreat with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli in Brunnsvik (Sweden). The participants are mostly all mindfulness professionals (doctors, researchers, psychiatrists, psychologists, and a few lost business people like me). Jon started out by reminding that it is very challenging to ask people to be mindful. Since mindfulness is contra-intuitive: it is about not getting anywhere, not doing anything and not expecting anything, which is completely the opposite of the way we behave in our western world.

If somebody would walk into the room while we are meditating, he or she would probably say: did these people travel all that far and pay all that good money just to sit here in silence and do nothing? They must be crazy.

Well, I can tell you from my own experience: it is very relaxing and very healing to be crazy.

the power of being silent together

Since we behave more like human "doings" than like human beings, we tend to have problems with silence and with non-doing.
We underestimate the power of silence and we don't recognise relaxation as a powerfull emotion.
What would happen if we start our meetings by just coming into silence together for 5 minutes? During these 5 minutes we could do a Body Intelligence Scan by observing how our body feels (what is our gut feeling,), how our heart feels (what are our hopes, desires, inhibitions, irritations) and how our thinking mind behaves (why are we here, what do we want to achieve?)

I am sure many people would feel awkard and uneasy at the beginning, but the question would than be: where do these feelings come from?

Any experience with such an approach? Please share it wit us.

Top down approach?

If we want to introduce mindfulness in our companies, we will need to be able to demonstrate what the benefits can be, both for the employees and for the company.
Here are some of the advantages I see:
- stronger personal leadership of eacvh individual
- more empathic relationships among collegues
- better customer focus
- more open mind
- more flexible & creative
- less absenteism through stress related problems
- higher employee satisfaction
My guess is that we will need a top down approach. Meaning: we first will have to reach the management.
what are your ideas about the potential benefits & the best approach?

the stress multiplicator

This afternoon I experienced a nice example of what I call the "stress mulitiplictor." I took a taxi at the trainstation in Antwerp. After I told the driver my destination, he started the car and pulled out of the taxi stand without looking if the road was safe. To his surprise an upcoming driver hooted to warn him. The taxidriver was so upset, opened his door an shouted: "I am fed up with all this agression in traffic", he slammed the door and drove on. ( who is the agressor?) After 20 meters he was forced to stop before a traffic light. The light turned green but the car in front hesitated a few seconds: the taxdriver started hooting! (who is the agressor?) When we continued our road he started complaining how everybody in Antwerp was unpolite and spoiled. "What we need is a good war, to bring them back to reality." (who is the agressor?) I tried to change the subject by saying it was rather cold for the time of the year. To which he replied "yeah, i'm sure we will get a lousy summer as well." (so he even is able to predict the future)

I watched the whole spectacle with a mindful attitude, as if I was watching a reality show on tv. But I do feel sorry for the taxi-driver. I think I will print some business cards with at the one side a smiley and at the other an inspirational quote.
I will hand out these cards next time I experiece a similar situation.What quote do you suggest to put on this card?

Traveling in 3 dimensions

The nice thing about traveling is that you can do it in 3 dimensions. The first dimension is the preparation. This is the Kingdom of the Expectations: planning the road and the places to visit, the stops, reading travel guides, etc. The second dimension is the actual journey: this is the Kingdom of the Experiences: being on te road, seeing places, meeting people. Sometimes there is a certain disappointment when the kingdom of the Experiences does not match with the kingdom of the Expectations. These two dimensions are finite. The last dimension is infinite: it lasts forever: this is the Kingdom of the Memories, when we lingering back about the past experiences.

Brain science has found that the impressions of the here and now, as well as the reconstruction
of the past and the creation of the future takes place in the same area in our brain: the hypocampus.

For the journey to Brunnsvik, which I am now preparing, I live in the Kingdom of the Expectations as well as in the Kingdom of the Memories. i have made a similar journey 3 years ago, in the summer of 2007. Then it was a 5 days retreat in Brunnsvik, followed by a 4 days practicum for Mindfulness Trainers in Jarno. Our teachers then were Melissa Blacker and Florence Melo-Meyers. On my desk I still have a souvenir from this retreat: a wooden airplane with a propeller with solar cells: as soon as the sun starts shining the little propeller starts spinning, like the windmills of my mind. on the wings are the autographs of Melissa and Florence. They gave me wings.