MBSR Mindfulness Training Curriculum
MBSR Mindfulness Curriculum – Online Training
Welcome to the MBSR Mindfulness Curriculum. This page offers a clear overview of the full
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training journey, including the main themes,
practices, and home assignments for each lesson.
MBSR was developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical School by
Jon Kabat-Zinn. It is a practical and compassionate approach to working with stress,
anxiety, pain, difficult emotions, and the changing conditions of everyday life.
This training includes 8 core modules plus an important self-retreat experience.
Each lesson builds gently on the one before it.
On This Page
Self-Paced Learning
This program does not have to be completed in 8 weeks. You are encouraged to go at a steady,
realistic, and kind pace. The heart of this training is not rushing through information. It is
learning, practicing, noticing, and beginning again.
“My working definition of mindfulness is the awareness that arises through paying attention on purpose in the present moment, non-judgmentally.” — Jon Kabat-Zinn
The non-judging part is often the deepest part of the work. Many of us live with constant habits
of liking and disliking, wanting and resisting, comparing and reacting. Mindfulness helps us see
these patterns more clearly, with less struggle and more understanding.
Helpful related pages:
What Is MBSR? |
Free MBSR Program |
MBSR FAQ
Curriculum Overview
- Module 1: Difficulties are workable
- Module 2: The role of self-responsibility
- Module 3: Bringing mindfulness into everyday life
- Module 4: Developing focus and concentration
- Module 5: Adapting more skillfully to everyday challenges
- Module 6: Applying mindfulness in communication and relationships
- Module 6R: The self-retreat experience
- Module 7: Creating your own blend of mindfulness practices
- Module 8: The end of the course and the beginning of the rest of your life
Mindfulness Training 1
There Is More Right With You Than Wrong With You
“There is more right with you than there is wrong with you.”
Introduction and Theme
This opening 3-hour lesson introduces the spirit and structure of MBSR. Participants are
introduced to mindful eating, mindfulness of breathing, and the body scan. The main home practice
for the week is the guided 45-minute body scan.
The central encouragement is simple: difficulties are workable. Mindful awareness means
paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, with less judgment. Since the present moment is
the only place we can learn, grow, or change, it becomes the foundation of the whole course.
Class Elements
- Opening meditation: becoming aware of body sensations, emotions, and thoughts
- Guidelines for participation: self-care, confidentiality, and communication
- Guided reflection on intention, expectations, and what brought you here
- Introduction to standing yoga, including Mountain Pose
- Raisin-eating exercise and direct sensory observation
- Abdominal breathing and beginner’s mind
- Introduction to comfortable postures for sitting and lying down
- Guided body scan
Home Practice
- Listen to the 45-minute Body Scan recording 6 days this week
- Practice the 9 Dots exercise in the manual
- Eat one meal mindfully
- Optional reading: Upstream/Downstream by Donald Ardell
Closing practice: Stopping and Dropping
Suggested internal links:
Body Scan |
Mindful Eating |
Mindful Breathing
Mindfulness Training 2
The Pivotal Role of Self-Responsibility
Introduction and Theme
This 2.5-hour lesson continues skill-building through body scan, reflection, yoga, and breath
awareness. A key theme is the role of self-responsibility in healing, learning, and wise action.
Perception matters. How we see things shapes how we respond to them. This includes how we see pain,
stress, anxiety, and our own commitment to practice.
Reflections
- What was your experience with the body scan?
- What helped you make time for practice?
- What obstacles arose, such as sleepiness or boredom?
- What are you learning about yourself?
The busy mind is universal. Mind wandering is not failure. Gently coming back is part of the practice.
“The best way to get somewhere in meditation is not to try to get anywhere… rather just let go.”
Home Practice
- Body Scan recording 6 times this week
- Sitting meditation with awareness of breathing: 10–15 minutes each day
- Pleasant Events Calendar: one entry per day
- Bring mindfulness into routine activities such as brushing teeth, washing dishes, showering, shopping, or eating
Closing practice: Stopping and Dropping
Mindfulness Training 3
There Is Pleasure and Power in Being Present
Introduction and Theme
This session includes lying yoga, sitting meditation, and walking meditation. A longer period of
formal practice is followed by reflection and inquiry into direct experience.
The theme is that there is both pleasure and power in being present. Yoga is practiced as mindfulness,
with gentleness, curiosity, and respect for the body’s present limits.
Explorations
- Pleasant and unpleasant experiences
- The tendency to grasp or push away
- The role of conditioning
- The effect of beliefs and self-narratives
- The possibility of pleasant moments even during pain or difficulty
Home Practice
- Alternate Body Scan and Lying-Down Yoga, every other day, 6 days this week
- Sitting meditation with awareness of breathing: 10–15 minutes each day
- Unpleasant Events Calendar: one entry per day
Suggested internal links:
Walking Meditation |
Mindful Yoga
Mindfulness Training 4
Learning to Strengthen the Mind
Introduction and Theme
This session combines body scan, yoga, and sitting meditation, while placing more emphasis on
concentration and expanding the field of awareness.
Mindfulness helps us see how conditioning and perception shape our experience. Through practice, we
begin to respond to stress with greater steadiness and clarity.
Key Areas of Inquiry
- Body sensations, including painful sensations
- Unpleasant Events Calendar review
- Mind-body patterns connected with stress
- Stress reactivity in daily life
- Blocking, numbing, or shutting down
Home Practice
- Alternate Body Scan and Yoga, 6 days this week
- Sitting meditation: 20–30 minutes each day
- Notice stress reactions during the week without trying to force change
- Notice moments of feeling stuck, blocked, numb, or shut down
Mindfulness Training 5
Responsive Thinking and the Midway Assessment
Introduction and Theme
This halfway session focuses on emotional coping, recovery from stress, and the growing ability to
respond rather than react.
Theme One: Reactive Thinking vs. Responsive Thinking
We examine habitual thought patterns and how they shape our lives. Some coping strategies may once
have helped us survive, yet may no longer serve us in the same way.
Theme Two: Choiceless Awareness
Participants practice observing body sensations, sounds, emotions, and thoughts as events in awareness.
This creates more space for wise response.
Mid-Course Reflection
- How has the course been going so far?
- How is it showing up in your life?
- Are you willing to recommit for the second half?
- What have you noticed about reacting and responding?
Mindfulness growth is often non-linear. Every moment can be a new beginning.
Home Practice
- Use the new Sitting Meditation recording
- Alternate with Body Scan or Lying-Down Yoga
- Fill out the Difficult Communications Calendar
- Bring awareness to moments of reacting and explore more spacious responses
Mindfulness Training 6
Interpersonal Communication Patterns
Introduction and Theme
This session explores stress in communication and relationships. Mindfulness is applied more clearly
to speaking, listening, assumptions, emotional expression, and staying grounded with others.
The focus is on resilience, flexibility, and balance during difficult interpersonal moments.
Themes
- Knowing and expressing feelings accurately
- Awareness of communication habits and barriers
- Staying balanced in relationships
- Learning to remain grounded under stress
Possible Communication Exercises
- Mindful speaking and mindful listening
- Exploring passive, aggressive, and assertive patterns
- Recognizing assumptions and mind-reading
- Aikido-inspired awareness exercises around contact, grounding, and response
The purpose of these exercises is not performance. It is awareness.
Daily Practice
- Alternate Sitting Meditation with Body Scan and Standing or Lying-Down Yoga
Mindfulness Training 6R
A Special Time to Go Within
This self-retreat, often called the Day of Mindfulness, offers a deeper period of silence, formal
practice, and inward turning. It invites participants to step back from ordinary activity and rest
more fully in direct experience.
Suggested internal link:
Day of Mindfulness
Mindfulness Training 7
Daily Mindfulness
Introduction and Theme
This session encourages participants to make the practice their own. Greater freedom is given in
choosing the balance of daily formal practices. The emphasis is on maintaining a 45-minute daily
practice without relying on recordings.
The deeper invitation is to integrate mindfulness personally and practically into daily life.
Possible Class Elements
- Yoga
- Body Scan
- Loving-Kindness
- Difficult Emotions / R.A.I.N.
- The Science of Mindfulness
- Seeing from a different perspective
Reflection
Participants reflect on the retreat day, home practice, what they noticed, and how to carry
mindfulness more naturally into ordinary living.
Home Practice
- No recordings this week
- Practice 45 minutes daily using your own blend of sitting, yoga, walking, and body scan
- Practice informally by being as aware and awake as possible throughout the day
Mindfulness Training 8
The Rest of Our Lives
Introduction and Theme
This closing session offers continued formal practice, time for questions, and reflection on the
journey through the course. It honors both the ending of the program and the beginning of the rest
of one’s life.
The emphasis is on maintaining momentum, deepening personal practice, and carrying mindfulness
forward in a sustainable way.
Class Elements
- Body Scan
- Yoga stretching
- Mostly silent Sitting Meditation
- Reflection on what participants want to remember
- Optional short-term and long-term goal setting
- Review of course highlights, obstacles, insights, and next steps
Questions for Reflection
- Why did you come?
- Why did you stay?
- What did you learn?
- What obstacles did you encounter?
- What helped you continue?
- How will you carry this practice forward?
Continuing Practice
- Return to the recordings if helpful
- Keep practicing in a way that feels alive and realistic
- Make the practice your own
Suggested internal links:
MBSR Certificate |
Contact
Closing Words
Thank you for your interest in the MBSR Mindfulness Curriculum. May this training support steadiness,
clarity, self-kindness, and a wiser relationship with the changing conditions of life.
Respectfully,
Heidi & Ross