The MBST Program
We are currently in the process of creating a program to further support individuals in developing these skills. Mindfulness means learning to pay attention intentionally and non-judgmentally, in the present moment. In MBST programs, participants meet together as a class (with a mindfulness teacher) two hours a week for eight weeks, plus one all day session on week 6. The main 'work' is done at home between classes.
There is a set of CDs to accompany the program, which you use to practice on your own at home once a day. In the classes, you will learn specific practices related to mindfulness and sex. In addition, there is an opportunity to talk about your experiences with the home practices, the obstacles that inevitably arise, and how to deal with them skillfully. Over the eight weeks of the program, the practices help you:
- to become familiar with the workings of your mind and the filters that guide it.
- to notice and acknowledge thoughts feelings and sensations related to your practices.
- to explore ways of releasing yourself from those old habits and, if you choose, enter a different way of being.
- to put you in touch with a different way of knowing yourself and the world.
- to notice small beauties and pleasures during your sexual experiences and the world around you instead of living in your head.
- to gently work with sexual challenges and road blocks.
- to be kind to yourself instead of wishing things were different all the time, instead of being stuck in your filters.
- to accept yourself as you are, rather than judging yourself all the time.
Can I practice without attending the class?
The MBST program has been developed to follow a structure which includes coming to a class once a week throughout the course, where you have the benefit of being able to discuss with the teacher how the meditation practice is going. It is this combination of class-led and home-based meditation practice that has been proven to be effective with the key ingredients to sexual enhancement. At the moment there are not many classes available online. It is possible to purchase the CDs that are used in our classes and work through them by yourself. We do recommend, however, that if you can join in with the full program then it would be more beneficial to do so. If you choose to use the CDs at home, it would be helpful to read the upcoming book Buddha in the Bedroom by Elisha Goldstein, PhD, and Bonnie Zylbergold, MA, as an accompanying guide
Can I learn mindfulness if I don't have any sexual challenges?
Yes. People can benefit from mindfulness whether they have a specific problem or not. We all have times in our lives when we experience difficulty, stress and struggle; and for some of us this is our daily experience.
Developing greater awareness can open us to seeing how the mind becomes entangled in and blinded by its own liking and disliking, pursuing and rejecting when we try to maximize our happiness.
Mindfulness helps us see with greater clarity how we may approach our moment-by-moment experience skillfully, taking more pleasure in the good things that often go unnoticed or unappreciated, and dealing more effectively with the difficulties we encounter, both real and imagined.