Coming to Our Senses: A Presentation by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Jon Kabat-Zinn is a pioneer in bringing Buddhist practices to the western world. Mindfulness practice is becoming more mainstream in the medical and mental health fields. In fact, I am currently being trained in his Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) techniques, finding I’ve already been using many of these techniques with clients for years and now have more to offer. This work is important. It is about awareness, “falling awake” as Kabat-Zinn would say. Be prepared for about an hour-long presentation, so get comfortable and enjoy!

Below is the poem he references in his presentation (at 20:34), which I absolutely adore!

Love After Love by Derek Walcott

The time will come

when, with elation

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror

and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored

for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,

peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life.