Originally Posted by fmichael

I can also give personal references for a couple of great MBSR teachers in the LA area (Santa Monica and Studio City). Their 8-week classes for new students will begin in the fall.

The program consists of a 2 & 1/2 class once a week, an hour or so of daily practice with the assistance of guided meditation, mental "body scans" and yoga on CDs the teacher will prepare for the class, culminating in a day-long "retreat" at the end.

I've been studying meditation with Shinzen Young (and others) for nine years at this point, and am starting to help other people learn to use meditative techniques in dealing with chronic pain. It's fabulous in terms of learning to live a life much more at ease with pain. Or as it is said, pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. And here's the funny part about life with CRPS, I've found that dealing with the physical pain is not so hard. That can be learned in a short period of time, but working with the emotional pain of life not going according to "plan," that is the heart of practice.

Then too, the momentum of my daily sitting practice has never been stronger than when I finished my MBSR class, a year and a half into this thing, and a while back.