About: The Homework for MBSR and MBCT
Participants in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) (as well as the other mindfulness-based programs at KC Mindfulness) are asked to do some homework every day, while they are in the program. Some participants are surprised by this, and some find it difficult to imagine that they will "find the time" to do homework activities. And it can, indeed, be a challenge.
Why homework? The short answer is this: If you don't practice the skills that you are being taught in the program, then you won't learn the skills, and you won't be able to apply them in your life. It isn't enough just to learn the "theory behind" mindfulness, or to learn "about" mindfulness, or to "talk about" mindfulness in the class sessions. If you don't set aside time to actually practice mindfulness, then your brain will not learn the "how-to-do-it" aspect of bringing mindfulness into your daily life.
What is the homework? You will be asked to spend around 30 minutes per day, engaging in "formal" mindfulness practice, doing the activities that you are taught in class. These activities include: the body scan; sitting meditation; walking meditation; and mindful movement. You will also be asked to keep some (brief) written notes, or records, about what you do, how you are feeling, and circumstances you encounter.
What if I don't like meditation? That's OK! One of the things you will learn about mindfulness (meditation) practice is that it might or might not be pleasurable. Some participants find that they enjoy the practice; some find that they sometimes enjoy it; others find that they are uncomfortable with the practice (at first, it can seem really difficult just to sit still!). We ask all participants to do the assigned practice, and simply take ongoing notice of what they are feeling and thinking. This is truly the heart of the practice, and the heart of what we are teaching in MBSR: that is, to approach all of our lives (and not just the pleasant parts) with curiosity and compassion.
For more information about these questions, click here to see my page about: "Why Can't I Take a Shortcut?" Also, if you want to know about the most recent research into this question, see below:
Recent Research about “Homework”
One of the
relatively unexplored areas in mindfulness-based
interventions involves the issue of “homework” practice. The traditional
standard that arose out of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), as
created by Jon Kabat-Zinn, has been that participants are assigned to engage in
45 minutes of “formal mindfulness practice” daily, throughout the 8 weeks of the
MBSR program. So-called “informal” mindfulness practice (or “mindfulness in
everyday life” is also very much encouraged; however, most MBSR teachers, and
mindfulness teachers in general, believe that it is formal practice that
creates the mental capacity for everyday practice. In other words, you really
do need to set aside time for such practices as sitting meditation, the body
scan, and mindful movement (mindful yoga), in order to be able to reliably and
frequently bring your mindfulness capacities to the dynamic interactions of
ordinary life. Just learning “about” mindfulness, or making efforts to “be more
mindful” are probably not going to produce measurable benefits.
Nevertheless,
the questions as to how much formal practice is really necessary, and how
frequent must it be, remain to be answered. Many teachers, and many
participants in mindfulness-based intervention programs, believe that something
less than 45 minutes per day (and fewer than 6 or 7 days per week) might very
well provide an effective “dose” of formal practice. At the recent MBSR (2008)
research conference, two scientists presented their data on those very
questions.
1. Ruth
Baer, PhD (at the University of Kentucky): The Importance of Homework Practice in
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. Dr. Baer (who is a very prominent
researcher in the field of mindfulness) studied 174 adults who completed the
MBSR program at the University of Massachusetts. They closely monitored their
at-home, between-session mindfulness practice time. Overall, the participants
showed improvements on various symptoms, and on a measure of well-being; and,
significantly, the amount of time they
spent on “formal” mindfulness practices (sitting meditation, the body scan,
and mindful yoga) was “significantly
related to the extent of [their] improvement.” However, time spent on
“informal” mindfulness practice was not related to improvements on any of the
measures.
2.
Willoughby Britton, PhD (at Brown University): Issues of “dosage” in meditation
research: frequency, duration and intensity. Dr. Britton studied three
different groups (2 groups of adolescents, and one group of adults); her
outcome measures all involved variables related to sleep and sleep problems.
Her findings (as to the relationships between types and amounts of formal
practice, and changes in sleep variables) were mixed. Overall, subjects in all
groups showed improvements on the sleep measures. The adolescents (who were in
treatment for substance abuse problems) showed improvements in sleep variables
with as little as 5-10 minutes of
mindfulness meditation (formal practice), 2-3 times per week. The adults
(who had histories of depression) meditated an average of 40 minutes per day;
Dr. Britton found that those individuals who meditated more than 40 minutes per
day showed signs of “increased arousal” during sleep (e.g., more awakenings,
and EEG readings associated with wakefulness or higher levels of brain
arousal).
Summary: Some individuals may derive
measurable benefits (of some types, e.g., quality of sleep) with as little as
5-10 minutes of sitting meditation, 2-3 times per week; it is also possible
that there is an optimum period of routine formal practice, above which
benefits (of some types, e.g., quality of sleep) may stabilize or even decrease
(perhaps at around 40 minutes per day).
Implications: So-called “informal” mindfulness practice, by itself, is probably not sufficient
to cause the sorts of changes in attentional skills and mental habits that can
cause measurable improvements. On the other hand, teachers of
mindfulness-based interventions should be sure that participants in their
programs are not frightened away by what might seem to be overly daunting
homework requirements; also, one should not convey the idea that very long
periods of meditation will necessarily result in more measurable benefits
(depending, of course, on what sort of benefits one is seeking). Some
researchers and clinicians have found that an “invitational” approach to
homework is at least as effective as a more authoritarian “required homework”
approach in gaining and maintaining adherence to acceptable frequencies and
durations of formal mindfulness practice. [In the Mindfulness-Based Wellness
program conducted at my university in the Fall Semester of ‘07, we found that
an invitational approach resulted in excellent compliance (around 15-25 minutes
per day, most days every week) and very significant improvements for
participants in a large number of wellness-related variables.]
Comments