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29
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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.


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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

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Download MP4 – Standard Def, 640×240 (Right click to save)

Download Mark Williams interview transcript

Download PDF (488kb)

 

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1165 Responses

  3. Therese G.

    Logging in from Omaha Nebraska – loved the first day lecture. I wish I had found this a year ago – as a mother of a 24 year son who completed suicide (2 Nov 2015 – Active duty Military) , I need something to help me move forward , to live the life he couldn’t or wouldn’t . Thank you for opening this path to me .

  5. Lesley Rojahn

    Hello everyone, I thought this was a great start and I am feeling truly blessed to have found the summit. I love seeing that people are tuning in from all over the world. Listening in from the Memphis, TN area.

  9. Kat

    Really enjoyed this interview. I have always been passionate about helping others having had depression myself and mindfulness looks like the way to go.
    If we can help to change the future so the children of now grow up to be more kind, compasionate and considerate for others then that is not a bd thing at all

  11. Christine Hoffman

    Thank you for a lovely start to my morning. I waited with much anticipation for the summit to commence and am eager to participate daily. From San Diego with attention.

  17. Monika

    Hi Mark, thank you for your teachings! As a yoga instructor I’m humbled by your words and so happy to be part of a collective positive group learning together. Much love from Miami

  26. Jo-Anna Roberts

    Thank you! 🙂 Listening in North Wales, UK. What a beautiful, insightful, gentle, practical start to the summit. Wishing everyone well on this journey together.

  27. Kinga Malachowska

    Hi! I’m listening from Sweden. Thank you so much for this summit! I really love Mark Willams voice and how he explains what mindfulness is and what’s important to know when you practice it! Looking forward to the next 30 days 🙂 Take care <3

  30. Shameen Naidu

    Hi – joining from South Africa….Thanks for arranging such an awesome summit, and for a great day 1! Loved the concept of habit releasers!
    Looking forward to the rest of it

  32. Ellie Lloyd

    Really interesting. I have done several things with mindfulness before but never been able to employ it on a long term basis. I struggle with chronic depression and a number of other things and found it very interesting when Mark was talking about the enthusiasm not really having an impact but the practice itself. Hardly surprising really, however, I find myself saying ‘I can see how this would be helpful and agree with its principles but struggle to get round to the practice.’ One of the reasons I have registered with the summit – is to encourage myself to practice and hopefully be able to see benefits.
    At the risk of going into a rant about the NHS cuts and difficulties surrounding the mental health sector in particular at the moment I think it was a very good point made, that mindfulness, whilst is something that can be done by anyone, shouldn’t be expected to work to fix all problems. I have found that with limited resources the mental health teams are in danger of expecting general mindfulness to fix all problems. I agree with Mark that specific problems require targeted mindfulness and this I believe is something that really needs to be highlighted within the health sector.
    I think this mindfulness summit is a fantastic idea and does indeed give people, without the funding or resources to go to a retreat centre, access the concept of mindfulness and the chance to include it in their everyday lives.

    I have a general question – whilst watching the interviews and participating in the practices within them is something I will hopefully be able to continue with, I found on the website there was a 20 minute or 6 minute meditation download. Is doing both throughout the month suggested or are they just an additional that you can add in occasionally? I want to be realistic in what I am able to do in my practice.

    Thanks for this first opportunity and looking forward to the rest of the months sessions.
    Ellie – watching from the UK

    1. mark williams

      Dear Ellie
      Thanks for this.
      I think it is lovely to experiment with different practices and do not worry too much about how long it is. The sense of having the intention to look after yourself for a few minutes a day is enough for now
      Warm wishes
      Mark

  33. Suzanne Fitzgerald

    Hello fellow mindful citizens of the world 🙂 I’m tuning in from Dublin 🙂 I enjoyed that session and I enjoyed listening to both Melli and Prof. Williams, thank you to you both for an uplifting chat and practice. Melli your interaction with Prof. Williams, for me, were spot on. I found you to be gracious, interested and interesting. When I meditate I have at times noticed that I scowl at my disruptive thoughts, I will practice being kinder to myself, I will show compassion to my mind. I like that a lot. Namste. 🙂

  39. Lotta Dann

    Hi – listening from Wellington, New Zealand. Loved this first interview – thanks so much Melli for all the work you’ve done in pulling this together. I know others were bothered by your ums and ahs but I didn’t mind them.. it takes a lot for interviewers to learn to listen quietly and I think your approach is very honest and accessible. I just adore Mark Williams having read his book and followed his 8-week course to the letter (!) and have the accompanying audios downloaded onto my phone to listen to when I need it. Often I drive to school to pick up my kids 15 minutes early and sit in the car doing one of his guided meditations.. a way that I have found to fit in meditation in my busy day. Anyway.. really looking forward to the rest of the summit and thanks again for all your work pulling it together. Cheers, Lotta

  40. aditya kulkarni

    Greetings!from Mumbai,India..A great start by Prof Mark….I do believe in the hidden power of our mind…most of our lives are led on autopilot and we fear change….our hearts seek this change bcoz we all are wanderers at the end of the day….but our mind is a wagabond…hard to tame …hard to get its attention!mindfullness has a limitless potential…looking forward for the rest of the sessions seeking awareness!

  43. Petra

    Thanks for that great video. Well done and the 2 meditations were super. Committing to not only being excited about mindfulness but practicing it … the evidence of the benefit was clear from the video. thank you!

    1. mark williams

      Thanks Erin
      Yes…..we had actually thought that enthusiasm might be one of the critical effective ingredients and although it is lovely to see it, we were surprised to see that practice came out so strongly
      Mark

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