Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

from: http://mindful.org/in-body-%2526-mind/mindfulness–based-stress-reduction/the-man-who-prescribes-the-medicine-of-the-moment 


Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction


People entering the program seem to be reaching a beginning much more than an ending. Elizabeth Berlasso, a long-time meditator and psychotherapist who has been leading MBSR classes for several years, says that people start out very anxious. “They don’t have a clue what to expect, even though we’ve given them a thorough orientation,” she says. “They are not scared of meditation per se. What they are afraid of, what they really are stressed out about, is what they might find—what they will discover in the quiet about who they are. At some level, people know they have elaborate patterns to keep themselves as far away from that deep experience as possible. Once they start, though, the most potent result they get from sitting still is that they experience kindness towards themselves in a way they never have before.”