Awakening Health

This month, I am featuring a letter written by one of my prior students. Written to a dear friend, she shares her impressions of the 8-week MBSR class and describes her experiences in a way that I never could. I hope you will enjoy her letter, and that it inspires you take the class. The next session begins Thursday, January 21 in Rochester.

Dear Sue-
How's everything with you? I am looking forward to seeing you again soon and want to tell you about something I have been doing that you may be interested in.

I have one week to go in my "Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction" class I'm taking in Rochester, and I keep thinking you would enjoy it as much and find it as beneficial as I have. It will be offered again in the New Year, and I thought maybe we could take it together. I would find it helpful to go through it again.

Here is the scoop. It's an 8-week class from 6:30 to about 8:30 pm one night a week. Our class has been on Mondays, but I don't know about the next one. We do mindfulness based practices including body scan meditation, seated meditation, walking meditation and yoga. One Saturday during those 8 weeks there is a "retreat" from 9 am to 3 pm that is silent (except for the instructors directions) and includes all of the forms of meditation. The retreat was amazing - I don't remember when I've felt so relaxed and at peace. The cost is $300 for those 8 weeks and the retreat, and it's well worth it.

I've found the classes and retreat relaxing, but it takes time to quiet the mind enough to meditate. The instructor is Linda Bowers, a former GM manager who decided to leave the hectic corporate life after she became acquainted with mindfulness. She was on the fast track at GM and left to raise her kids and change her life. She's studied at the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness, founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn who has written many books and is the guru of mindfulness based stress reduction and pain relief. I was attracted to this class because I watched a television special many years ago called "Healing and the Mind" with Bill Moyers that featured Jon Kabat-Zinn. When I saw that Linda trained with him, I figured it would be pretty cool.

There's some interpersonal communication training, assertiveness training, and mind-body connection info related to health and diet, too. All in all, I've found it to be so good for me, expecially after the difficult summer I've had. It's kind of amazing that I was drawn to the class at just the right time.

Anyway, here's Linda's website : http://www.awakeninghealth.net/

Let me know if you are interested in attending the next 8-week session with me. We are alike in many ways, and I think you would "get" what's going on in these sessions. I would love to share it with you.

Love,
Sarah