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Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Course

Our Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Course is a self-guided programme that will not only help you to deal with stress more effectively it will also help you to gain more enjoyment from all the potentially pleasurable aspects of life.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course

This program is for you if who want to learn how to deal more effectively with stress, the difficult reactions it evokes within us, and the unproductive behaviour we often engage in. This course is designed as a self-guided program that includes 8 modules to be engaged with over a period of at least eight weeks.

This program includes the following resources for each of the 8 modules:

  • Videos.
  • Meditation Recordings.
  • Comprehensive course notes.
  • Opportunities for offering and receiving support from group members.

I have been on medication for many years for anxiety attacks… This is the first life skill I have found to help me cope without medication.
— Course participant with panic disorder

The following topics will be covered (1 topic per module):

Week 1

Course Overview and Introduction to Mindfulness

This session provides you with an overview of the course and establishes the learning context for the rest of your experience. You will learn the theory and evidence of mind-body medicine and how to apply it in your life. You’ll be experientially introduced to mindful eating, mindful breathing, and the body-scan method, with a special emphasis on what it means to be fully engaged in the present moment.

Week 2

Mindfulness of Perception/s

This session provides you with an understanding of how and why perception is key in mindfulness—how you see things (or don’t see them) will determine to a large extent how you respond. This week’s session and practices will ask you to examine your perceptions, assumptions, and the way you view the world. You will learn to use the body-scan practice to cultivate a greater degree of awareness of how you react to stressful situations. Changing the way you perceive and respond to difficulties and challenges will impact the short- and long-term effects of stress on your mind and body.

Week 3

Learning to be Present

In this session, you’ll practice several distinct yet interrelated mindfulness practices—mindful yoga, sitting meditation, and walking meditation. You will discover that there is both pleasure and power in being present—you’ll directly attend to and investigate how your experiences create such reactions as pleasure or discomfort in the mind and body.

Week 4

Dealing with the Stress Response

This session aims to provide you with a sense of how practicing mindfulness enables us to cultivate curiosity and openness to the full range of our experience, and through this process our ability to pay attention becomes more flexible. This week, your practice will focus on the development of your ability to concentrate and systematically expand your field of awareness. You’ll learn about the physiological and psychological bases of stress reactivity, and experience mindful strategies for responding in positive, proactive ways to stressful situations.

Week 5

Building Awareness of Unhealthy Habits and Reactions

At the halfway point in this course, you should now be familiar with the foundations of mindfulness and able to focus on applying it more rapidly and effectively to specific challenges and stressors in your life. This week you will begin to pay attention to the places where you might be stuck in repeating, unhealthy patterns that you can disarm through mindful awareness. You will also learn how to apply mindfulness at the critical moment when you experience a physical sensation, intense emotion, or condition, with special attention to exploring the effect of reactivity in health and illness.

Week 6

Resilience and Interpersonal Relationships

This session provides you with an understanding of the term “resilience” or “stress hardiness” – the ability to return to equilibrium after stressful situations. This week, you will focus on transformational coping strategies to broaden your inner resources and enhance your resilience through mindfulness practice. You’ll also learn the fundamentals of interpersonal mindfulness—applying awareness and presence at times when communication becomes difficult or fraught with strong emotions. You’ll gain direct experience of a variety of styles for more effective and creative interpersonal communication.

Week 7

Integrating Mindfulness into One’s Life

This session explores the many ways that you can integrate mindfulness more fully and personally into your life. While having a dedicated regular practice for mindfulness meditation is important and beneficial, it is just as important to bring a broader sense of awareness and presence to every moment in your life, and to use non-judgmental mindfulness in your self-reflection and decision-making processes. You’ll learn how to maintain the discipline and flexibility of daily practice as circumstances change over the course of your life. Mindfulness is most effective when it is a lifetime commitment.

Week 8

Course Review

This session provides a complete review of everything you’ve learned over the course, with an emphasis on carrying the momentum you’ve built forward into the coming months and years. You’ll learn about resources available to you to pursue mindfulness in new directions as your life and practice evolve, as well as the support systems that exist to help you continue to integrate, learn, and grow. The final lesson creates a satisfying closure by honoring both the end of this program and the beginning of the rest of your life.

This training is based on over 40 years of international research into the benefits of mindfulness and other similar practices. You will learn how to pay attention to your experiences in a focused yet counter-intuitive manner. In particular, you will learn how to focus attention on your inner experiences of difficult body sensations, thoughts and feelings in a way that significantly reduces their intensity… so that you no longer react in an automatic way and cause yourself to feel stressed and/or negative about life.

Before this training, challenging events will often provoke quick reactions. After this training, you will be able to pause and create space between an event and your reaction. This transforms automatic or knee-jerk reactions into thoughtful responses.

Before this training, a thought may lead to anxious feelings and behaviours. After this training, you will be far more skilled at halting an anxious response in its tracks.

Being able to pay focused attention to one’s inner experience (i.e. practicing mindfulness) is a skill which anyone can sharpen with practice. It’s a skill which scientific research shows improves calmness, impulse control, patience, empathy, executive function and attention span. It’s a skill we can give ourselves to not only connect more deeply with others around us but to really nurture a sense of self-respect and self-compassion.

If you are interested in participating in this training or would like to discuss options to suit the needs and resources of your organisation/group, please fill in the form and/or contact us via email: info@optimumhealth.co.za or by phone, on (++27) 79 472 5309.

FEE:
For clients residing in South Africa: R1 470
For clients residing outside of South Africa: $ 97

I have benefited so much more than I could ever have imagined or dreamt of. I have better interactions… and also my relationships have improved with all my family members.
— Course participant

What Will I Learn On This Mindfulness Course?
Can I Do This Programme Online At Any Time That I Choose?
Do You Offer Mindfulness Consultations On An Ad Hoc Basis?
How Long Does It Take To Experience Less Stress?
Will My Medical Aid Scheme Cover The Costs Of My Participation On This Course?
What Is Your Cancellation Policy For This Course?
What exactly is Mindfulness?
Where does mindfulness originate?
Is mindfulness only about meditating?
What does practicing mindfulness really mean?
Can mindfulness help one to manage chronic pain?
Does mindfulness work for anxiety?
Does mindfulness work for depression?
What is the purpose of mindfulness practices?
How does mindfulness change the brain?
What will I learn on a mindfulness course?