As I said in a previous post, I’m taking an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) class. The first session was last night.

I’m very familiar with the structure of the program. I’ve read Jon Kabat-Zinn’s classic, Full Catastrophe Living.  I’ve based the mindfulness cognitive therapy groups I run on the MBSR model. But participating in a group is different from leading one. So I’m trying to approach it as a novice, using the concept of “beginner’s mind” for my framework.

Much easier said than done. Using beginner’s mind means seeing each moment with fresh eyes, without judgments or preconceptions. I found myself doing a lot of anticipating (“He’s coming around to put something in our hand. I’ll bet it’s going to be a raisin.”), comparing (“Oh, he’s having us do the raisin meditation with eyes closed. I usually do it with eyes open.”), and judging (“It’s better to do it with eyes closed.”) Those kinds of thoughts came up frequently as I struggled to stay focused on my reactions to the exercises.

That’s mindfulness in a nutshell: paying attention to what you’re experiencing moment to moment, cultivating awareness. Jon Kabat-Zinn says it best. “It’s simple, but it’s not easy.”

That’s for sure.