Professor Mark Williams – An Introduction to Mindfulness
Professor Mark Williams – An Introduction To Mindfulness
Professor Mark Williams is Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology at Oxford and was also the Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre until his retirement in 2013.
Professor Williams, along with colleagues John Teasdale (Cambridge) and Zindel Segal (Toronto), developed Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for prevention of relapse and recurrence in major depression. He is also co-author of the best selling book ‘Mindfulness: Finding Peace In A Frantic World.’
In this interview Mark elegantly answers the question ‘what is mindfulness?’ He also leads 2 simple introductory practices for beginners and talks about why mindfulness is so effective for the treatment of depression relapse.
In this interview you’ll also discover…
- The difference between mindlessness and mindfulness.
- Why mindlessness often gets us into so much trouble.
- The cutting edge research on mindfulness for depression (Mark is one of the world premiere researchers in this field).
- The ‘breathing space’ mindfulness practice, which is great to use in times of stress and difficult emotions
- How to use ‘habit releasers’ to bring more mindfulness into daily life.
- An experience of the ‘body scan’ mindfulness practice.
Listen to the audio version here
Show Notes
Join the The Mindfulness Summit Journey here
Come and join the community discussions at any time on our Facebook page
Check out Melli’s blog, events and retreats at MrsMindfulness.com
More about MBCT (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy)
Check out Marks books ‘Mindfulness: Finding peace in a frantic world’
More about the Oxford Mindfulness Centre
Audio
Video
Transcript
Download Mark Williams audio interview
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Download Mark Williams audio meditation
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Download Mark Williams breathing space meditation
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Download Mark Williams video interview
Download MP4 – High Def, 1280×480 (Right click to save)
Download MP4 – Standard Def, 640×240 (Right click to save)
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Hello from beautiful San Diego. This was exactly what I needed today and I am grateful to have chosen to take the time to watch the interview and the two other short videos. I already feel more hopeful and relaxed than I have in months. I look forward to the next 30 days of this practice, culminating on my birthday, October 31 🙂
Hi Angela! I am in San Diego too. I am excited to practice mindfulness in my daily life. We should chat every few days to check in with each other. It would be fun to have a local buddy to practice with!
Greetings from a glorious spring morning in NSW, Australia. What generosity Melli and Matt in putting this together for us all, deep gratitude. And thank you Mark Williams for an exceptional and rich start to the summit, knowledgable, wise, compassionate. It is thrilling to be connected to fellow seekers all over the world, blessings, Sue
Thank you for a great beginning.
Hello from Cancun, Mexico, thank you for this interesting day.
Thanks Melli and Matt,
Such an extraordinary undertaking and so much wisdom, generosity and compassion underpinning this. Thank you.
I’m hoping my clients, friends, family and colleagues will all tune in and benefit.
Melli- I thought your interview style was perfect and wouldn’t go changing any of it! You bring YOURSELF to this experience and I found your natural, spontaneous style really engaging and a PERFECT bridge.
All the best for the rest of the summit,
Trudy
Great interview :). Look forward to next 30 days
Greeting from Iceland 🙂
Excellent! Among many other things, I love what he said about drinking the tea, followed by larger applications to living one’s life on automatic pilot.
A wonderful first day! Thank you, Meli and Mark!
Hi everyone, greetings from Santa Rosa California! I am so excited to be part of this exciting 31 days and hope to get to know some of you better. Blessings to all on this journey!
I am on vacation in beautiful Clearwater Beach for the month and am looking forward to also enjoying this month of Mindfulness Perfect timing ????
Greetings from western New York state. This wonderful event is coming at a perfect time. Lots of stress at work and transitions ahead. Thank you!
Thank you for making this available, am joining in from Baylys Beach, Northland, New Zealand.
Learning to be more mindful !
How can I view the poetry ones for a second time? They disappear when they are finished?
I am thrilled to be taking part of this and love the format of being able to from the comfort of my own home and in my own time. Thank you so much. I hope it is #MoreThanFroth and today is a great day to start. Awespired <3
Thank you for a great first session. As an experienced teacher I’ve only recently started looking at mindfulness for my self and as something to be taught to students. In the little but of time I’ve experienced it my practice has improved ten fold and my students have become more conscious and better able to take up the opportunities offered to them. Hoping to continue to get a lot out of these sessions.
Thank you for this wonderful forum!
Profound stuff, thank you for sharing. Love and do what you will.
“Hokusai Says” is a beautiful and inspiring poem
Was finally able to complete lesson one. thank you. I’ve been told before that the “money mind” during meditation was normal but the explanation that it is actually the tool with which one practices mindfulness/meditation was a revelation to me.
Mark really has such s great way of explaining things elegantly doesn’t he? I’m so glad you had a revelation and hope you enjoy the journey ahead ????
Thank you for sharing with the world. your inspiration , knowledge and effort. Lesley , from Scotland xx
Hello from Portugal! Thank you so much for this opportunity of listening to Professor Mark Williams! I bought his book that describes the 8 weeks Mindfulness practice and I’ve already read it till the first week, but still trying to start the programme 🙂
I liked the interview a lot! Grateful!
Thanks so much for this great talk! I’m holding a workshop in Philadelphia, PA, USA – addressing how people can incorporate mindfulness techniques in the everyday. The habit release portion of the talk was very informative.
Terrific! Greetings from Atlanta, GA. Wondering if you’d recommend mindfulness resources that my children’s school could use with young children. Mine are 2 and 4. Thank you!
So much information to absorb in Portland Maine. Feeling grateful for today and the days ahead of October.
Listening from Queensland Australia. Great start and looking forward to the mindful month ahead.
I would like to hear more about Mark’s idea of “switching on a different mode of being” one that is more nourishing (I think that was the word he used) to us personally.
Thankyou for your innovation in bringing such aan extraordinary yet simple practical thought process to our attention. Much needed and so beneficial in our daily lives- looking forward to spreading the learning and experience!
Thank you for making this available…;)
Learning to be more mindful from Azores Islands -Portugal
A fantastic start to the summit! Thank you Mark and Melli for a fantastic introduction. I learned so much from this and can’t wait to learn more through out the month.
Hi to all,
The choice and the freedom to participate in the 30 day Mindfulness Summit is a gift.
What a wonderful experience we are having, we have just begun, making a difference starts with one.
Wishing you all well. looking forward to more…
Tess
Greetings from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. So excited to join this community on this journey!
Thank you for sharing your research on Mindfulness. This course came at such a good time in my life, and I so enjoyed this Introduction. I am so relaxed from the 8 minute meditation. Peace.
Listening from the Chicao area.
My husband and loved Mark’s guided mediations and the hope he imparted that compassion and kindness have the potential to make our world a better place.
Thank you
Very inspirational words, thoughts and actions – it does take practice to be ‘in the middle’.
Wow! Had to pause halfway through and comment on how much he is describing ME! I’m new to mindfulness and have been practicing meditation for about 4 weeks now and I was just describing to my therapist how my mind reacts to random thoughts while meditating. The first week or two it was “jerky”. I envisioned myself grabbing my mind and yanking it back to my breath. And it happened so frequently, that I felt like I was on a bumpy road. But the more I practice, the smoother it gets. Like a fluid motion. My mind drifts and then floats back. Apparently, I’m not the first to experience this! 🙂
SO HAPPY THAT I JOINED UP FOR THIS. AMAZING.
Delaware, east coast of United States checking in
Welcome Dianne!
So enjoyed this first session! What a wonderful evening in New Jersey
We are so happy you enjoyed the first interview! Look forward to hearing form you again. xxx
Amazing!!! thank you for this project and this effort I really appreciate it, a wonderful first session.
Greetings from México
Greetings from Vermont. Thank you for this! Alice
Hi Marite form Lima peru.
I loved day 1, the interview with Mark Williams and the practice…! thanks !
Loving this! Thank you so much for the opportunity to experience all this knowledge.
Very good. I really needed to hear the question “How can I nurture myself in the next hour or two”. Thank-you for that gift.
Janette, from Port Orchard, Wa.
It was Mark’s book that introduced me to my Mindfulness practice and I will be forever grateful. I thoroughly enjoyed this interview and am really looking forward to this month of learning. Thank you Melli xx
Thank you. <3
Hi from Playa del Carmen, Riviera Maya. Thank you for a beautiful experience, for the natural explanattions, so everybody can take this path and become a aware collegue of anybody else!
Hello from Toronto, ON Canada. Wonderful interview with Mark Williams. Thank you!
Thank you for this wonderful introduction to the series. Mark Williams’ presentation was excellent. I too had difficulty with the video – stopped about 30 min. in., so I went to audio. Sharing mindfulness with others from Westminster, Colorado, US
Thank you , I am so looking forward to the next 30 days!
Joining in from sunny Adelaide South Australia. Excellent start to my Mindfulness journey.
Let the journey begin! I”m also coming from sunny Adelaide South Australia! Hi Jennifer!! (waves)