About Jon Kabat-Zinn

Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, internationally known for his work as a scientist, writer, and mindfulness meditation teacher. Kabat-Zinn developed the formal mindfulness practices. Jon’s dedication has brought mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), into the mainstream of medicine and society.

A professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he was founding executive director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, and founder (in 1979).

The former director of its world-renowned Stress Reduction Clinic. Prominently featured in the Bill Moyers PBS special Healing and the Mind in 1993. The clinic and its research has continually demonstrated effective results. Most participants in its programs achieve long-lasting improvements in both physical and psychological symptoms.

Also major positive changes in health attitudes and behaviors. There are more than 200 medical institutions nationwide and abroad now use mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) to teach mindfulness meditation.

Degree

Jon Kabat-Zinn received his doctorate in molecular biology from MIT in 1971, with the Nobel Laureate in physiology and medicine, Salvador Luria.

Research

Jon Kabat-Zinn’s research between 1979 and 2002 focused on mind/body interactions for healing included:

  • Multicultural settings
  • Prison inmates and staff
  • Patients undergoing bone marrow transplant.
  • Workplace stress in various corporate settings and work environments.
  • Effects of MBSR on the brain and how it processes emotions, particularly under stress, and on the immune system.
  • Use and effects of MBSR and mindfulness meditation with women with breast cancer and men with prostate cancer.
  • Researching clinical applications of mindfulness meditation training for people with chronic pain and/or stress-related disorders.

Associations

Jon Kabat-Zinn is a Founding Fellow of the Fetzer Institute, a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. He is also the founding convener of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine. Which is a network of deans, chancellors, and faculty at major United States medical schools. They are engaged at the creative edges of mind/body and integrative medicine.

In addition Jon serves on the board of the Mind and Life Institute. A group that organizes dialogues between the Dalai Lama and Western scientists and scholars. As a result, promote deeper understanding, for beneficial purposes, different ways of knowing and probing the nature of the mind, emotions, and reality.

About Jon Kabat-Zinn

Jon Kabat-Zinn Video 1.2 Minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru87wojiBTo

“My working definition of mindfulness is the awareness that arises through paying attention on purpose in the present moment — non-judgmentally.”  -Jon Kabat-Zinn

Non-judging part is the kicker, we have ideas and opinions about virtually everything. Consciousness, colored by our likes and dislikes. All highly conditioned, habitual behaviors really comes down to this: do I like it or not, do I want more or do I want to less?

This is below the surface of awareness and it runs our lives. 

Mindfulness & Meditation Teacher

Jon Kabat-Zinn is considered the founding father of mindfulness-based stress reduction, as he created the practice in the 1970s. He took a modern, scientific-based perspective to traditional Buddhist principles of mindfulness and meditation and developed a flexible approach to reducing stress.

MBSR

MBSR was first put into practice in 1979 at the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Jon Kabat-Zinn was established as a professor of medicine with the U of Mass. At the time, the program Kabat-Zinn founded was called the Stress Reduction and Relaxation Program, which was later changed to mindfulness-based stress reduction. With the name change came a shift in perspective, from emphasizing the Buddhist foundations to making the program more secular and inviting to people from all systems of belief.

Jon’s View

Kabat-Zinn viewed mindfulness as a practice that every human has the capacity to engage in, and MBSR promotes this perspective by allowing for individualization. He sees that there are virtually no barriers to the practice of mindfulness or yoga. If you have a mind, you can practice mindfulness, and if you can breathe, you can practice yoga (connecting the mind to the body).

In conclusion, Jon’s creativity and dedication to developing the work of mindfulness training. Has contributed to both awareness and acceptance of the mind to body relationship for improved health benefits.