 Donna
has been trained in Mindfulness
Based Stress Reduction Under the
direction of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn in
1999. She has also taken numerous
meditation courses throughout the
years. The most recent in 2012,
through The Art Of Living
international organization in
Bangalore India. While in India she
also attended Pujas, Homas and
Navatri Celebrations led by
His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
It’s true that stress is one of the
most destructive elements in our
lives. However, the way we react to
the stress appears to be more
important than the stress itself.
We are capable of withstanding
immense stresses from the
environment, but if we push the
envelope too far, our stress
response turns inward and begins to
create mental breakdowns, physical
disease or burnout. At times when we
encounter stressful situations we
react by going round and round
reacting in circles that we can’t
control.
We may attempt to control our inner
stress by using alcohol, food,
working, smoking, projecting anger
at others, isolating, etc. If we
have a genetic predisposition to a
particular disease like cancer,
heart disease, depression, sooner or
later the weakest link goes in the
body and we become seriously ill.
In 1984 when I became a student of
meditation, more people were
beginning to learn the practice of
relaxation/meditation and making it
an integral part of their daily
lives. People were beginning to
understand that deep relaxation is
not a magic bullet, but a way of
living life in a healthier way.
Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, is the founder
and director of the nationally
acclaimed Stress Reduction Clinic at
the University of Massachusetts
Medical Center. Over the past 27
years he has worked with thousands
of people who were referred by their
doctors for a wide range of medical
problems (i.e. headaches, high blood
pressure, back pain, heart disease,
cancer, AIDS, etc.) Dr. Zinn teaches
“Mindfulness Based Stress
Reduction,” (MBSR) in his 8 week
classes which combines body-mind
relaxation techniques, including
mindfulness meditation practices.
I became interested in Dr. Zinn’s
program after reading his two best
selling books, Wherever You Go There
You Are and Full Catastrophe Living.
In 1999 I had the honor of receiving
MBSR training under the direction of
Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn. Through the MBSR
training I discovered that
practicing these techniques helped
me to experience deeper states of
relaxation and peacefulness. I then
understood how at times, the MBSR
had directly improved physical
symptoms of patients at the Stress
Reduction Medical Center and how Dr.
Zinn had taught people to have full,
satisfying lives. I learned how to
help people facing minor and serious
health problems. In serious cases
the Mindfulness Based Stress
Reduction methods works in concert
with high quality medical treatment,
not as an alternative to it.
“Mindfulness” meditation is a
Buddhist meditation that is
approximately 2,500 years old. When
I visited Tibet in 1999, I became
aware of the Tibetan people’s great
respect for their ancient, life
transforming spiritual practice of
meditation.
I teach Mindfulness Based Stress
Reduction relaxation techniques in
my private sessions and in my 8 week
MBSR classes. My programs include
teaching additional stress reduction
tools for centering and focusing as
well as various other ancient
meditations. I continue to create
experiential stress reduction and
guided imagery meditation audio
tapes which I use in my practice and
classes. People report they find the
recordings helpful for reducing
various stress related symptoms
(i.e. anxiety, insomnia, depression,
life transitions, etc.). |
