PROGRAMS

• Complete the MBSR Commitment Form (for your own use)
  
• Complete Day to Day Experiences (for your own reference)
  
• Body Scan (30-minute Body Scan) daily
  
• Focused Attention Practice (for your use in exploring different anchors)
• 9 Dots Exercise
  
• Eat one (or a portion of a) meal mindfully each day
  
• Read "Mindful Eatings Suggestions" (in PM)
  
• Optional reading: The Shorter Your Sleep, the Shorter Your Life
  

• Body Scan (30-minute Body Scan) daily
• Complete Pleasant Events Calendar, recording one event per day
• Sitting Meditation: Awareness of Breath, 10-15 minutes per day (15-minute Guided Sitting Meditation)
• Read "Working with Resistance" (in PM)
• Practice informal mindfulness in routine activities: washing dishes, shopping, eating, brushing teeth, etc.

• Alternate Body Scan (30-minute Body Scan or 15-minute Body Scan) with Mindful Movement (Sitting or Standing Yoga, or Ten Mindful Movements of Plum Village) daily
• Sitting Meditation: Awareness of Breath (AOB), 10-15 minutes per day (15-minute Guided Sitting Meditation)
• Walking Meditation
• Complete Unpleasant Events Calendar, recording one event per day
  
• Mindfulness of going on "automatic pilot" and under what circumstances it occurs

3

Supplement

(2/17)

Pick two days during week 3 and replace the assigned 15-minute AOB Sitting Meditation with these two short teachings and practices on Awareness of Thoughts and Emotions:

First Day:

• Introduction to Mindfulness of Thoughts (10 minutes)
  
• Sitting Meditation: Awareness of Thinking (15 minutes)

• Sitting Meditation: Awareness of Emotions (15 minutes)

Stop often during the day and ask yourself, "How is my mind?" Notice quality of thinking and emotional state

• Alternate Body Scan with Mindful Movements (Yoga or Ten Movements or Walking Meditation) daily
• Sitting Meditation: Awareness of Breath and Other Physical Sensations, 20 minutes per day (20-minute Guided Sitting Meditation)
• Become aware of feeling stuck, blocking, numbing, shutting off to the moment when it happens
• Review "Stress and Stressors" and "The Stress Reactivity Cycle" (in PM)

• Alternate Sitting Meditation (Open Awareness) with either Mindful Movements or Body Scan daily
• Complete Difficult Communications Calendar, recording one event daily. Begin to bring mindfulness into communications with others
• Bring awareness to moments of reacting and explore options for responding with mindfulness, spaciousness and creativity, in formal meditation practice and in everyday life. Begin to slow down and make more conscious choices
• Read "A Mindful Turn from Reaction to Response," "Mind Traps," in PM
• Optional reading: The Relaxation Response
• Complete Midway Assessment and bring to class 6.

• Alternate Sitting Meditation (Open Awareness) with either Mindful Movements or Body Scan
• Become aware of the relationship between eating and mindfulness and complete the Mindful Consumption Log
• Practice with Reflections for Cultivating Openness
• Prepare for all-day silent retreat (bring a vegetarian sack lunch)

•  Continue Week 6 practices
  

• Work without the guided audio this week, practicing formal sitting, movements, walking and/or body scan on your own daily for 45 minutes
• Concentrate on integrating informal mindfulness practice.
  

• Complete Day to Day Experiences
• Make the practice your own in whatever form it might take