Jon Kabat-Zinn - Mindfulness and Optimal Health: The Challenge of a Lifetime and the Adventure of Living Our Lives as if it Really Mattered

Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, is internationally known for his work as a scientist, writer, and meditation teacher engaged in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine and society. He is the Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, & Society at the University of Massachusetts.

Jon Kabat-Zinn recruited chronically ill patients not responding well to traditional treatments to participate in his newly formed eight-week stress-reduction program, which we now call Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Since then, substantial research has mounted demonstrating how mindfulness-based interventions improve mental and physical health—comparably so to other psychological interventions. The MBSR technique has spread to over 720 medical centers, hospitals and clinics around the world.

He is professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and author of numerous books, including Full Catastrophe Living, Arriving at Your Own Door, and Coming to Our Senses.