Mindfulness

Overview

Mindfulness is a meditation technique that increases one’s focus on the present by cultivating moment-to-moment awareness. This can lead to a sense of improved health and wellbeing.  

In the 1970s, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., founder of the Center for Mindfulness in Healthcare, Medicine, and Society at University of Massachusetts Medical School, brought a scientific focus to these practices. He developed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a secular mindfulness program which, over four decades of research, has been shown to help participants cope with stress, anxiety, pain and illness. Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as, “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”

When you bring this quality of attention to yourself and the world around you, you engage in evidence-based mindfulness practices that foster a sense of wellbeing.

meditation

Principles

Mindful meditation cultivates awareness of the present moment through formal practices (e.g., focus on the breath, body scan, gentle yoga, sitting meditation, and walking meditation), as well as informally applying these practices to daily activities (e.g., eating, working, communicating, etc.).

Throughout the teachings, participants are encouraged to develop the following attitudes: 

  • Non-judging: Observing your own experience as an impartial witness.
  • Patience: Allowing things to unfold in their own time, without rushing, by opening to the fullness of the moment.
  • Beginner’s mind: Seeing things as they really are, as if for the first time, free of expectations from past experience.
  • Trust: Developing a fundamental trust in yourself by honoring your thoughts, feelings and intuition.
  • Non-striving: Releasing your meditation goals (aside from being yourself) and adopting a “non-doing” attitude.
  • Acceptance: Developing a willingness to perceive things as they truly are in the present moment.
  • Letting go: Noticing the impulse to grasp at the pleasant and resist the unpleasant, and instead nurturing a stance of non-attachment.

Conditions

Studies have shown that practicing mindfulness can significantly reduce chronic pain, lower blood pressure, boost the immune system and enhance sleep. In addition, research supports a decrease in stress, anxiety and depression. Preliminary neuroimaging studies also suggest that regular mindfulness practice can enhance structures of the brain associated with focus, learning, memory, executive function and emotion regulation.

Services

Your Samueli Institute provider might recommend you attend a mindfulness training. You can also choose to enroll without a referral; community workshops are open to anyone who is interested. View current mindfulness workshops.

Mindful meditation is also introduced to participants as a component of many Samueli Institute group medical visits. These visits bring together a small group of individuals with a common medical interest – often related to a chronic condition – to meet with clinicians who share whole-person health options for care.

Why Choose Us?

Our mindfulness instructors are certified in various forms of mindful meditation. These professionals are affiliated with the only academic whole-person health center in the region and contribute to the most comprehensive multidisciplinary team of integrative health providers in the region.

Our Team

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jessica drew de paz
Jessica Drew de Paz, PsyD
Director of Mindfulness Programs
Clinical Psychologist

Price

Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute accepts a variety of insurance plans or private pay. Your visit may be subject to copay and deductible. Please contact us at 949.824.7000 for more information.

Research

Davidson, RJ; Kabat-Zinn, J; Schumacher, J; Rosenkranz, M; Muller, D,  Santorelli, S; Urbanowski, F; Harrington, A; Bonus, K; Sheridan, J. Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation, psychosomatic medicine: July 2003 – Volume 65 – Issue 4 – p 564-570 doi: 10.1097/01.PSY.0000077505.67574.E3

Kabat-Zinn, J (2013). Full catastrophe living: using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness. Rev. and updated edition, Bantam Books trade paperback edition. New York:  Bantam Books.

Kabat-Zinn J, Lipworth L, Burney R. The clinical use of mindfulness meditation for the self-regulation of chronic pain. J Behav Med. 1985 Jun;8(2):163-90.

Killingsworth MA, Gilbert DT. A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science. 2010 Nov 12;330(6006):932.

Neff, KD (2012). The science of self-compassion.

In C. K. Germer & R. D. Siegel (Eds.), Wisdom and compassion in psychotherapy: Deepening mindfulness in clinical practice. (p. 79–92). The Guilford Press.

MacLean KA, Ferrer E, Aichele SR, et al. Intensive meditation training improves perceptual discrimination and sustained attention. Psychol Sci. 2010;21(6):829-839. doi:10.1177/0956797610371339