

Online Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Course - tomaskazemekas
http://palousemindfulness.com/selfguidedMBSR.html

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wordbank
I'm using [https://www.headspace.com/](https://www.headspace.com/) for two
years and it had a huge impact on my life.

Being mindful is a cognition pattern of introspection and self-awareness. More
invested hours lead to a higher "skill" like in playing music or programming.

So you should train your brain on a regular basis to make this behavior more
dominant in your thinking processes.

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khorwitz
Mindfulness for your work: [http://focusr.co/](http://focusr.co/) (i.e.,
instead of being mindful to your breath or some aspect of your environment,
you can practice mindfulness by bringing your attention back to your current
task).

~~~
jonsen
That's Flow:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_\(psychology\))

~~~
wpietri
I think flow is the more the state achieved, whereas mindfulness is learning
to notice when flow is not achieved, or is achieved for the wrong thing.

For example, I can be in flow while coding, but if things get too frustrating
I may drop out of flow. Mindfulness for me is noticing quickly that I am
frustrated. If I don't, I may end up in flow while reading Hacker News; being
mindful helps me recognize that state rather than getting caught in it until
noprocrast boots me.

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evolve2k
Mindful in May is also happening this month and those that subscribe are taken
through a great course in mindfulness with daily emails.

[http://www.mindfulinmay.org](http://www.mindfulinmay.org)

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hans_mueller
> whether they live in Moscow, Idaho or Moscow, Russia

That's a funny way to put it.

I can say from personal experience that actively learning to be mindful -
meaning present and sensing - instead of constantly being obsessed with
thoughts and mental picturing of the future and the past - has a very positive
impact on my well-being and that of the people in my environment who I
communicate and interact with.

I am definitely going to give this course a try.

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rdudekul
I meditate daily. I use Passage Meditation and it has made my life a lot
better.

For those interested in exploring, here is a link to the free online course:
[http://www.easwaran.org/introductory-passage-meditation-
cour...](http://www.easwaran.org/introductory-passage-meditation-course-
introduction.html)

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tomaskazemekas
When I was looking for mindfulness resources on HN, one of the fundamental
books on the subject was referenced in one of the comments: "Full Catastrophe
Living" by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It is a fat book, more than 700 pages, and I
proceded to read some shorter books on the field. Eventually, I came back to
the book and now have almost finished it.

The linked course is based on the materials and the MBSR programe developed by
the author of the book, Jon Kabat-Zinn, but I see that the author of the
course has found and included some excellent additional audio and video
resources.

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tomjen3
These kind of things turn on all my bullshit/cult flags - does anybody here
have any experience with this particular course or better yet scientific
evidence that it works?

~~~
tehwalrus
It is used within the British NHS, which means that a standards body has
determined that it is evidence based.[1]

See also:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness#Clinical_applicatio...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness#Clinical_applications)

Personally, I've found it difficult to keep up the practise (meditating every
day), but when I do remember it does improve things. Even as a one-off
activity occasionally it is good for introspection, and identifying
subconscious sources of stress allowing you to act on them.

[1] NICE aren't perfect, but they do a reasonable job.

~~~
DanBC
> It is used within the British NHS, which means that a standards body has
> determined that it is evidence based

Hang on, that's not how it works. (For one thing health is devolved in
Scotland so you have seperate English, Scottish, and Welsh NHSs. (Not sure
what happens with NI.) More importantly:

[http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/homeopathy/Pages/Introduction.a...](http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/homeopathy/Pages/Introduction.aspx)

> Homeopathy is not available on the NHS in all areas of the country, but
> there are several NHS homeopathic hospitals and some GP practices also offer
> homeopathic treatment.

So, it's possible to get a stupid pointless "treatment" on the NHS. You might
want to write to your local clinical commissioning group if you want to stop
them spending money (about £4m per year) on homeopathy.

~~~
joewalker
To be fair on NICE, from the same page:

"NICE currently does not recommend that homeopathy should be used in the
treatment of any health condition"

"Some homeopathic remedies may contain substances that are not safe, or that
interfere with the action of other medicines"

"there is no evidence that homeopathy is effective as a treatment for any
health condition"

"Some people who use homeopathy may see an improvement in their health
condition due to a phenomenon known as the placebo effect"

I'm not sure what the phrase 'NHS homeopathic hospitals' means. Does it mean
more than what is implied by the paragraph following the one you quoted, that
some people that work for the NHS also work privately on alternative medicine
like homoeopathy.

I'd also be interested to know more about the £4m per year.

The page on mindfulness has a very different tone [1] to the one on
homeopathy.

[1]: [http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-
depression/pages...](http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-
depression/pages/mindfulness.aspx)

