Mindfulness and MBSR Q&A: 10 Ways to Reduce Stress During Your Day

I’m a pretty high-strung, caffeinated person. I get impatient during yoga class. My mind wanders, I try to “acknowledge this and come back to the present” like the teacher says, and it wanders again. And again. I sometimes feel like I don’t have time to be mindful, even though I have time to play games on my phone.

But even I have to admit that mindfulness works. I function better in the afternoons when I go outside, away from my desk at lunch. I feel less anxious when I take slow, deep breaths and let go of things I can’t control.

What Is Mindfulness and How Can It Help Me?

But is there more to mindfulness than deep breaths? And does it really help people with illnesses like cancer? I went to John Schorling, MD, director of the UVA Mindfulness Center, with my questions.

What is mindfulness? 

Schorling: There are lots of definitions of mindfulness. The one we use is “intentional present moment awareness without judgment and with kindness.” Our natural tendency is to be caught up in thoughts and not paying attention to what is going on right now, so we have to remember to do this. 

Mindfulness is paying attention to what is going on right now, in the present moment. Again, due to the tendency for our minds to wander, we often don’t pay attention to the present. There are several consequences of this:

• The things we think about are often stressful, and our thinking is not productive. It’s focused on worrying and not on what’s actually happening. Recognizing the worrying, letting it go, and focusing on the present can be very helpful in reducing stress.
• We miss out on parts of our lives as they are happening. 

“Without judgment” refers to our tendency to judge our experience and want more of things that are pleasant and less of things that are unpleasant. Then we base our happiness on our circumstances. At times, we pursue pleasure at the expense of our well-being, perhaps by eating or drinking too much or having too much screen time. 

With mindfulness, we learn to focus on accepting things as they are, without judgment. If we’re feeling unhappy and we notice the urge to eat something, we can pause to recognize the feeling without judging it. Feeling unhappy isn’t good or bad. It’s just the way we are feeling right now.

Often, noticing this changes our relationship to the feeling. We don’t feel like we have to do something to make it go away as quickly as possible. We can just be with it, and often it changes on its own. 

Finally, mindfulness brings kindness to our own experience. Rather than judging ourselves for being unhappy, we can respond to our situation with kindness, the way a good friend would if we told them how we were feeling.

What is mindfulness-based stress reduction, and how did it start?

Schorling: 25 years ago, Maria Tussi Kluge and Allie Rudolph established the UVA Mindfulness Center as one of the country’s first such centers in an academic institution. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) courses are our core offerings.

MBSR was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and first taught in the University of Massachusetts Stress Management Clinic in 1979. It applied age-old practices of meditation and mindfulness to healthcare.

The benefits for patients quickly became apparent and led to several formal research studies. These studies confirmed that participants’ stress levels decreased and well-being increased.

Jon, with help from Saki Santorelli, began offering courses to teach others how to teach MBSR. They taught Maria and Allie, who were pioneers in pursuing this training. Since Jon, Saki, and their colleagues taught all approved MBSR teachers, there was a high level of consistency in offerings.

Funding agencies were willing to support research studies since MBSR was a well-documented intervention that could be replicated outside research settings. Foundations provided much of the initial funding. With time, this expanded to include federal funding from:

• National Institutes of Health
• Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
• Department of Defense

The research showed that MBSR and other related interventions worked. Interest in mindfulness grew and moved from healthcare into education, teaching, business, law and beyond.

In 2005, we published our first UVA research study on MBSR, showing its positive impact among patients with chronic pain. At the time, there were 129 mindfulness references in the research database PubMed. Now there are over 8,000, and the benefits of MBSR have been well established. 

MBSR teachers all use the same curriculum, meeting for 2 to 2 ½ hours a week for 8 weeks, with an all-day silent retreat after the sixth class.

Can MBSR help with severe stress, such as in cases of traumatic events?

Schorling: Yes, MBSR can help with severe stress. In studies, the VA found it effective for treating PTSD.

Having said this, mindfulness practices can also trigger symptoms related to trauma. Individuals with a history of trauma should discuss whether taking a class is appropriate with their care provider and MBSR teacher.

Mindfulness experts now recommend teaching MBSR in a trauma-informed way, as we do at the Mindfulness Center. Most of us have suffered some form of trauma in our lives.

If someone has a medical condition, does mindfulness benefit their physical health? Or is it more of a tool to deal with pain and other side effects?

Schorling: Evidence shows that mindfulness can improve well-being and pain as well as physical health. MBSR decreases stress, anxiety, and depression and improves quality of life for individuals with and without physical illnesses.

We did a study at UVA of individuals with heart palpitations. They didn’t have serious heart problems, but the palpitations were severe enough to interfere with daily activities. Those who we randomly selected for an MBSR course showed significant decreases in palpitation frequency and improvements in quality of life.