Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an evidence-based 8-week program created in 1979 by Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor of medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical Center, that is now offered throughout the world. The aim of MBSR is to explore the practice of mindfulness as a universal approach to meeting human suffering, including the suffering that results from losing touch with our innate capacity to be fully who we are with wisdom and good heart. The Fullness of Being retreat is offered in the tradition of Jon Kabat-Zinn’s MBSR program and will emphasize the direct experience of mind, body, and heart, while also honoring the contemplative roots of mindfulness meditation.

The leaders of this silent retreat, along with the community of retreatants will co-create a space of both structure and ease. To support our collective intention to show up in the world and be fully human and uniquely who we are, retreat leaders will offer meditation instruction and talks related to mindfulness, all held in a respectful container of noble silence.

Meeting ourselves and each other in retreat can be both challenging and rewarding. Prior mindfulness meditation experience can be helpful when engaging extended periods of meditation in retreat. However, The Fullness of Being retreat is also open to new mindfulness meditators willing to commit to the retreat’s program.

Led by Janet Solyntjes and Rebecca Eldridge—practitioners in the tradition of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and MBSR Teacher Trainers from the original UMass Medical School’s Center for Mindfulness (CFM). (see bios below)

The daily schedule will integrate periods of formal (such as sitting and moving) and informal practice (such as eating), all held within the container of noble silence. The retreat leaders will offer mindfulness meditation instruction and guidance, and talks to illuminate the foundational principles of mindfulness for cultivating a stable, clear and open sense of being.

Participants will have an opportunity to meet once with a retreat leader in a small group setting to discuss their retreat and practice experience, and there may also be a need to meet individually with a retreat leader.