How mindfulness and meditation move beyond clinical care

Mindfulness and meditation entered western medicine in 1975, when Herbert Benson introduced them, and were integrated into health programs and psychotherapy in the 1970s and 1980s. The lessons answer how mindfulness can be understood beyond clinical self-help, including its relationship to personal distress and wider social conditions. They consider therapeutic uses, the limits of private coping, and varied approaches to meditation.

2 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 2 hr 21 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   mindfulness and meditation · Wikipedia · 60+ min read

   Critics describe the privatization of mindfulness as neglecting the societal and organizational causes of stress and discomfort and propagating adaptation to these circumstances. According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, "[A]bsent a sharp social critique, Buddhist practices could easily be used to justify and stabilize the status quo, becoming a reinforcement of consumer capitalism." Jon Kabat-Zinn, a key figure in developing and popularizing MBSR, founded the program at the University of Massachusetts in 1979 to treat the chronically ill. MBSR sparked the application of mindfulness ideas and practices in medicine to treat a variety of conditions in healthy and unhealthy people. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) holds that people with a history of depression may return to automatic cognitive processes when distressed, triggering a depressive episode. MBCT aims to interrupt those processes by teaching participants to observe incoming stimuli without judgment rather than react to them.

2. Read
   

   How to Choose a Type of Mindfulness Meditation · Greater Good Magazine · 3 min read

   Mindful breathing isn't the only place to start, and it's not the end of meditation, either.

3. Watch
   

   How mindfulness got weird | The Gray Area · YouTube · 44 min watch

   Jon Kabat-Zinn discusses what mindfulness is, why staying present can be difficult, and how meditation can become a tool for self-optimization.

4. Book
   

   The Miracle of Mindfulness · Bookshop.org

   The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh uses gentle anecdotes and practical exercises to teach mindfulness as being awake and fully aware.

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