Table 1.

Summary of the 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction intervention [47].

	Goals emphasized	Key session components	Practice and activity examples
Orientation	•Introduction to class	•Education on MBSR and practice commitment of 45 min daily.	N/A
Session 1	•Introduction to MBSR •Establishing learning contract	•Review theory of mind-body medicine •Introduction to self-regulation and how this can impact the body and health •Practice mindfulness awareness of thoughts, feelings, and sensations	Enhancing attention to physical sensations through guided body scan, abdominal breathing, practicing mindful attention to eating
Session 2	•Deepening MBSR practice •Learning the role of perception in stress reactions	•Understand connection between thoughts and stress reactions •Emphasize personal ability to change this through altering reactions to stress through mindfulness •Expand mindfulness practice with guidance from instructors	Guided meditations in class, guided standing yoga, sitting meditations, and learning the awareness of breath meditation
Session 3	•Introduction to formal MBSR practices •Increased awareness of body through formal practices	•In-session formal practices (90 min): yoga, sitting meditation, walking meditation •Discussion of practice, challenges and insights	Identifying pleasant moments in session, practicing formal (e.g. body scan, yoga, sitting meditation) and informal mindfulness (e.g. awareness of self during everyday activities)
Session 4	•Deepening engagement in formal mindfulness practice •Development of concentration •Expanding awareness •Recognizing conditioned behavior	•Review the physiological and psychological basis of stress reactivity •Recognizing ‘reactivity’ and enhancing ‘response’ •Applications of mindfulness to improve stress responding	Extended sitting meditation, body scans, lying down yoga, tracking thoughts-feelings-behaviors when reacting to stress, educational readings on stress response, group discussion of concepts
Session 5	•Emphasize our own capacity to adapt more effectively to everyday stress and challenges •Further developing coping capacities for stress •To use expanded awareness to interrupt habitual patterns of stress reactivity	•Guided reflection into the ‘half way’ mark of class, growth, challenges, etc. •Discussion of observation and application of mindfulness in everyday life •Education of conditioned stress reactivity and the fight/flight response •Distinguishing facts from the interpretation of experience through mindfulness	Continued formal and informal practices, adding in awareness of difficult communication and expanded mindfulness practices
Session 6	•Application of MBSR skills in relationships and communication •Stressful communications	•Practicing remaining mindful in communication when stress arises •Bringing awareness to relationship patterns and their connection to internal states •Communication exercises in-session	Continue formal and informal practice
Session 7	•Maintaining discipline and flexibility in MBSR practice •Integrating mindfulness into daily life •Examining and challenging lifestyle choices	•Perspective-shifting exercises •Building flexibility through choice - individualized yoga practices and self-guided meditations during class •Identification of lifestyle patterns that are nourishing and those that are destructive	Continue practices but do not use recordings, instead do self-guided practice
Session 8	•Keeping practices as a way of life •Reflecting upon course •All questions answered	•Guided reflection through topics of course •Setting short-term and long-term goals for meditation practice in the future •Group dialogue on practicing independently	Formal practices in session, completing post-assessment paperwork, in-class meditation, reviewing home practices

Abbreviations: MBSR = Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction.