11. “Being Here Fully”: Autoethnographic Approaches to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction as an Embodied Group Interaction of an Authentic Self
Embodied Reception - South Asian Spiritualities in Contemporary Contexts - Henriette Hanky
Alan Schink [+]
Ulm University
Description
Alongside modern yoga, mindfulness meditation is considered to be a driving force for “revolutionizing” body–mind practices in Western societies. The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, developed in the late 1970s by the MIT-educated scientist Jon Kabat-Zinn, is of great importance here. MBSR positions itself predominantly within scientific and therapeutic discourses, while at the same time universalizing the method of mindfulness meditation. This chapter investigates what it means to be present in modern mindfulness and MBSR. Focus is laid upon the group setting and interaction in which mindfulness as an embodied practice of being present is enacted and cultivated. It is shown how discourses of authenticity are linked to embodied performances of “being here fully.” The chapter is based on (auto-)ethnographic accounts, produced by the author as a practitioner and trained teacher of MBSR/mindfulness and sociologist in one person.