That’s fantastic! Building on the standardized format from Lesson-1, here is your mini-course for Lesson-2, focused on the theme of presence and gentle awareness.
This mini-course, The Pleasure and Power of Being Present, is designed to be warm, clear, and easy to follow, making a total of about one hour of practice spread out over five days.
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# FREE MBSR Mini-Course 2 of 8: The Power of Presence
Welcome back! In this lesson-2, we are diving deeper into the simple truth that **”There is pleasure and power in being present.”** We often spend our lives rushing to the next thing, but this week, we’re learning to pause and truly be here, right now, with curiosity and kindness.
## Introduction & Theme (5 Minutes)
In our first week, we practiced **seeing clearly**—that is, noticing how our perceptions shape our reality. Now, we are shifting our focus to the **present moment** itself.
* **The Power:** When you are fully present, you are not lost in worry about the future or regrets about the past. This gives you a clear and powerful ability to handle life as it happens.
* **The Pleasure:** Even when things are tough, there are often small, pleasant moments you miss when your mind is racing. This week, we are going to look for those moments.
Our theme is **Presence & Investigation**: Attending to and gently investigating the way things are in your body and mind *right now* through the simple practices of movement and quiet sitting.
—
## The Mindfulness Principle: Noticing Pleasant & Unpleasant (5 Minutes)
The key principle for this week is **Noticing the Mind’s Habits**.
Our minds have a strong tendency:
1. **Grasping:** We grab onto things we label as **pleasant** (a good cup of coffee, a compliment) and wish they would last forever.
2. **Pushing Away:** We push away what we label as **unpleasant** (a headache, a boring task, an uncomfortable feeling).
* **Your Practice:** This week, your responsibility is to simply **notice** this push-and-pull without judging yourself for it. Can you notice a pleasant feeling without clinging to it? Can you notice a discomfort without immediately trying to escape it?
* **The Insight:** You can have a pleasant moment (like a good laugh) even when you’re going through a crisis. You can also have an unpleasant feeling (like restlessness) even in a situation that is supposed to be fun. It all comes down to what you are paying attention to!
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## Daily Practice Schedule (Total: ~60 Minutes Over 5 Days)
You can do this practice all at once or spread it out over the week. If you choose the 5-Day route, aim for about **12 minutes per day**.
| Day | Practice | Time | Focus/Instructions |
| :— | :— | :— | :— |
| **1** | **Mindful Sitting (Part 1)** | 12 min | **Posture and Breath.** Sit in a chair or on a cushion—find an upright, stable, and comfortable posture. Notice the parts of your body touching the seat and the floor (your **grounding**). Gently follow your **breath** for the full time. **Practice: Finding Stillness.** |
| **2** | **Lying Down Yoga (Part 1)** | 12 min | **Gentle Warm-up.** Lie on your back on the floor. Start with **gentle knee-to-chest** stretches, one leg at a time. Move slowly. **The Focus:** Practice **gentleness and non-judgment**. Stop well before pain. Only move as far as feels right for your body *today*. |
| **3** | **Mindful Walking** | 12 min | **The Feet and Pace.** Find a short, safe path (inside or outside). Walk **very slowly**. Bring all your attention to the sensations in your feet: lifting, moving through the air, and placing down. If your mind wanders, gently bring it back to the soles of your feet. **Practice: Mindfulness in Motion.** |
| **4** | **Lying Down Yoga (Part 2)** | 12 min | **Twists and Lengthening.** Continue on the floor. Do a simple, gentle **supine twist** (knees to one side). Focus on the sensation of the stretch and the breath moving into your sides and belly. **Emphasis:** **Curiosity** about your body’s limits, not striving to push them. |
| **5** | **Mindful Sitting (Part 2)** | 12 min | **The Whole Body.** Sit comfortably. Start with the breath, then expand your attention to the **entire body** as one whole, breathing presence. Feel the contact with the chair, the air on your skin, and the posture. **Reflection:** What did you notice about the mind’s habits this week? |
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## Weekly Takeaway & Gentle Reminders
### The Power of Gentleness in Movement
When we practice the simple yoga stretches, the goal isn’t to be flexible or to look a certain way. The goal is to be fully **aware** of the movements and sensations in your body.
* **Be Gentle:** Approach your current limits with gentleness, curiosity, and respect.
* **Be Wise:** If any posture causes pain, **stop immediately** or adjust it. This is a moment of self-care and wisdom. Your body is teaching you something.
### Homework Assignment
**The Goal:** To investigate the full range of your experience.
1. **Formal Practice:** **Alternate** your practice. Do the **Lying Down Yoga** one day, and the **Body Scan** (from Week 1) the next. Aim for at least **six days** of formal practice this week.
2. **Unpleasant Events Calendar:** For your home practice journal, simply make a note of **one event each day** that you labeled as “unpleasant” or difficult. You don’t have to write a novel—just a note, like “Traffic jam on the way to work” or “Woke up with a headache.” **The key is just to acknowledge it.** We will explore this more next week!
**Closing Thought:** Every time you practice, you are building a quiet, strong place inside yourself. Take a moment to acknowledge the effort you’ve made this week. You are present, and that is powerful.
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FREE, MBSR Mini-Courses 1-8: Free – Please, create a week one mini-course from the content
below. 1. there will 8 more in the future. 2. Provide a simple standardize
format. 3. Include Introduction, a Mindfulness Principal, Body scan, Yoga
stretching, etc. for total of 1-hour done at once or spread out over 5-days. 4.
the following is a full MBSR 1-week outline, which is too much for a MBSR
mini-course. 5. Goal a simple format in grade-8 warm wording for women 25-65. –
“FREE MINDFULNESS TRAINING-3, MINDFULNESS TRAINING-3
“There is pleasure and power in being present”
MBSR Mindfulness Curriculum-3
Introduction & Theme
Welcome, in this 2.5-hour session, we will practice several distinct yet interrelated formal mindfulness practices:
Lying Yoga
Sitting Meditation
Walking Meditation
This 90 minutes extended formal practice period is followed by an inquiry into and exploration of our experiences with in-class and assigned home practices. In the MBSR Mindfulness Curriculum topics include challenges and insights encountered in formal practice and in integrating mindfulness into everyday life.
Mindfulness Training Theme:
There is pleasure and power in being present. Attending to and investigating the way things are in the body and mind in the present moment through the practices of yoga and meditation.
Yoga is a practice of mindfulness, with an emphasis on gentleness and non-judgment, curiosity, respect for current physical limits, and non-striving.
Pleasant & Unpleasant:
Noticing the tendency of the mind to label events as pleasant or unpleasant, the way we push away what is unpleasant and grasp what we perceive to be pleasant, and the role of conditioning.
Questioning of our relationship to self-narratives and beliefs and fixed opinions about the nature of reality as personally experienced.
Recognition that we can have pleasant moments in spite of being in a crisis or in pain, and unpleasant moments in situations that would normally be perceived as pleasurable. (Note: this theme continues into Class 4.)
Typical Class Sequence:
Practice:
Sitting meditation with awareness of breathing. Specific guidance related to establishing a stable, upright, and balanced sitting posture.
Reflection:
Reflecting on sitting meditation, body scan, and mindfulness in routine activities. The importance of being embodied through the sharing of our direct experience of feeling fully embodied or ungrounded.
Practice:
Walking Meditation.
Practice:
Mindful yoga, slowly going through the sequence of postures on the Lying-down Yoga recording, with comments interspersed as required. Emphasis is on mindfulness and approaching one’s current limits with gentleness. We are encouraged to avoid any postures we feel would cause injury or a setback, or to experiment with caution and care when in doubt. Particular attention is paid to chronic problems with the lower back, neck, and chronic pain in general.
Reflecting on the experience of practicing the yoga postures.
Pleasant Events Calendar considers leading a short guided reflection that asks us to select one pleasant event, focusing on physical sensations, emotions and thoughts as they arise as memory and then as they arise in the present moment.
Review the Pleasant Events Calendar, being particularly attentive to exploring the ordinariness of experiencing a moment as pleasant. With an emphasis on mind/body connections, patterns, what we observed/learned about ourselves.
Wondering together if there were any pleasant moments experienced during the body scan in the past week. Investigating what qualities in all of these pleasant moments or events caused them to be labeled as pleasant? What qualities do these distinct pleasant moments or events have in common?
Assign homework, alternating yoga with the body scan. Emphasize the importance of getting down on the floor and working mindfully with your body every day, if only for a few minutes.
Finish class with short sitting meditation, Awareness of Breathing, expanding attention to the whole body.
Weeks Practice Assignment:
Alternate Body Scan recording with Lying-down Yoga recording, every other day ~ 6 days per week
Sitting meditation with Awareness of Breathing -10 -15 min per day
Home Practice Manual:
Unpleasant Events Calendar for the week, one entry per day.”