Event Title
Poster: The Languaging of MBSR’s Body Scan: Cultivating Self-as-Process
Location
Moakley Atrium
Start Time
13-5-2015 4:00 PM
End Time
13-5-2015 5:00 PM
Description
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teaches contemplative practices which foster present-moment, non-judgmental awareness. A core component is the Body Scan, a 45-minute, sequential inquiry into subtle physical sensations. Despite MBSR instructors’ careful use of language, discursive aspects of this practice have rarely been researched. Mindfulness instructions convey an implicit formulation of the practitioner’s self, requiring detailed explication of the language employed in teaching mindfulness practices. This analysis demonstrates how language is used to depict “self” as process. Kabat-Zinn’s recorded Body Scan was systematically analyzed for its discursive style. Analyses display a unique verbal style: grammatical patterns counter-act the typical construction of self as a fixed entity. Plural pronouns de-emphasize separation between speaker and listener, reducing reification of self. Present participles and articles replace second-person pronouns, de-emphasizing the experiencer. Physical sensations are simply observed impersonally, rather than possessed, encouraging de-identification with both self and body.
Poster: The Languaging of MBSR’s Body Scan: Cultivating Self-as-Process
Moakley Atrium
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teaches contemplative practices which foster present-moment, non-judgmental awareness. A core component is the Body Scan, a 45-minute, sequential inquiry into subtle physical sensations. Despite MBSR instructors’ careful use of language, discursive aspects of this practice have rarely been researched. Mindfulness instructions convey an implicit formulation of the practitioner’s self, requiring detailed explication of the language employed in teaching mindfulness practices. This analysis demonstrates how language is used to depict “self” as process. Kabat-Zinn’s recorded Body Scan was systematically analyzed for its discursive style. Analyses display a unique verbal style: grammatical patterns counter-act the typical construction of self as a fixed entity. Plural pronouns de-emphasize separation between speaker and listener, reducing reification of self. Present participles and articles replace second-person pronouns, de-emphasizing the experiencer. Physical sensations are simply observed impersonally, rather than possessed, encouraging de-identification with both self and body.