Blog Post 77: The Benefits of MBSR for Type C People
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, or MBSR, offers Type C people a great way to modify the internalized rules we impose on ourselves as well as our responses to stress. MBSR is an 8-week program that offers intensive mindfulness training to assist people coping with stress, anxiety, depression, and pain. The program was developed in the late 1970s by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor emeritus of medicine and founder of The Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Kabat-Zinn was a student of Buddhism and brought many Buddhist meditation principles into the program, though it is non-spiritual in nature.
Research suggests that MBSR can help people struggling with cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, depression, and anxiety. This week’s podcast guest, MBSR teacher Elaine Retholtz, says on her website, “Research over the past 38 years indicates that a majority of the people who complete this program report a greater ability to cope more effectively with short and long term stressful situations; an increased ability to relax, lasting decreases in physical and psychological symptoms; reduction in pain levels, an enhanced ability to cope with chronic pain sand, most importantly, a greater energy and enthusiasm for life.”
MBSR can help Type C people learn to direct our attention to what is happening emotionally and physically within us. We typically have difficulty slowing down, we may have elevated levels of adrenaline and cortisol from current and past stresses, and many of us learned at an early age to suppress difficult emotions. If trauma was present, we may have disassociated from our bodies and we ignore aches and pains until they become severe enough that we must address them.
I (Anna) took Elaine’s MBSR class almost a decade ago, and I still use many of the strategies I learned. Probably the most important is the simple pause. Instead of reacting immediately to a situation or a statement by someone, we can learn to pause and consider our response. No harm will come from pausing and reflecting. This sounds outrageously simple and basic, but it does require some practice. We can pause to consider the rules that are driving our reaction and we can begin to realize that we actually have a choice in how we respond. In this way, it’s very similar to our Type C strategy of a delay tactic where we can stop to consider the costs of a reaction or decision. For Type C, always saying “yes” is a common reaction that carries many costs.
Another great exercise is to focus our attention on each of our senses when we perform everyday tasks like washing hands, washing dishes, cooking, or walking to work. Instead of thinking or worrying about whatever might be bothering us, we intentionally focus on the task at hand and how each of our five senses are interpreting that task. This strategy helps us to stay focused on what we are doing in the moment - and when we become better at being present, we can bring this to other aspects of our lives. Another technique that I learned in the MBSR course is called the body scan, where we start at the feet and notice any sensations in each of our body parts as we move up to the head. For Type C people who spend too much time in our heads, this exercise grounds us in our bodies and helps us be more present with what is happening with us physically.
If this program sounds interesting to you, please listen to our latest podcast with Elaine which can be found here.