The Work and Mindfulness

Apart from my current job, I am taking a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Teacher Training program to become one of the very first MBSR teachers in Croatia. I feel great appreciation for the MBSR program and the work of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and was sad to find none of it is familiar in Croatia – almost no MBSR courses are available here and mindfulness practice in schools, hospitals, business, etc. is very modest, if there is any. I therefore decided to do the training on my own and bring MBSR and mindfulness practice in general to my country, to start speaking up for its benefits. According to the current dynamic of my training, I would start teaching MBSR courses in January 2018. I have the same sense of gratitude for The Work of Byron Katie. Benefits that I have personally experienced from doing The Work in this short period of time since I found out about it are enormous, but I find a lot of “work” is here to be done and find the School would be the most efficient way to do it. I believe the experience of attending the School for the Work would be a valuable addition to my MBSR courses, both for my personal role as a teacher and for my students as well. From what I am learning about The Work, I believe MBSR participants would deepen their experience enormously by getting in touch with how they can approach their thoughts once they have recognized them as thoughts. It is my heart’s desire that in my country as many people as possible will enroll with the MBSR courses and learn about The Work, and in that way, make their conscious steps towards living their lives free from mind’s conditioning and suffering that it causes. As I see it, every single person that “comes home” in such a way stops spreading reflections of his or her imprisonment to the outer world, stops projecting the suffering to his or her beloved ones and becomes an inspiration for other people who cross his or her path, which creates a better world in an instant. Granting me a scholarship to attend the School for the Work would enable me to pursue this approach thoroughly.

—I.G.