COP 3: Research- Jon Kabat-Zinn

Jon Kabat-Zinn is the creator of the research-backed stress-reduction program Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and he explains how mindfulness lights up parts of our brains that aren’t normally activated when we’re mindlessly running on autopilot.

He teaches mindfulness, which he says can help people cope with stress, anxiety, pain, and illness. The stress reduction program created, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), is offered by medical centers, hospitals, and health maintenance organisations. 

Video notes:

- His definition of mindfulness is that its the awareness that amidst paying attention on purpose in the present moment non-judgementally.

- Service of self-understanding and wisdom, we all take ourselves too seriously because we believe there is someone to take seriously when its only ever ourselves.

- 'Selfing'- mindfulness MBSR has been shown to light up other areas of the brain.

- Way of connecting with your life, something that doesn't involve a lot of energy but involves a kind of cultivating attention in a particular way, so they way I define it is it's paying attention on purpose in the present moment non-judgementally.
- Attention is the faculty that allows us to navigate our lives and to know what is happening.
- Allows us to be in a wiser relationship with things that are going on in our lives
- We spend a huge amount of time planning and worrying about the future and a huge amount of time reminiscing about the past.
- The present moment the only time that were ever alive and the only time we could learn anything, express any kind of love or emotion, the only time we could be in our own body, it all gets pushed away by our preoccupation of the past or future.