Admit it, living in Hong Kong can get pretty crazy. Bombarded by constant advertising and entrenched in a round-the-clock work culture, it seems like this city’s in a collective mindless trance to work harder, play harder, and consume more. If you feel like you have been burning both ends of the candle, you might want to try bringing some mindfulness in your life.
From studies that prove its ability to lower stress and relieve depression to brain scans that show how mindfulness boosts empathy and improves learning, the benefits of mindfulness meditation seem to go on and on. And it’s not just practiced in yoga class anymore—according to international news media, it’s now used to prevent doctor burnout, help Google employees slow down, and treat PTSD in veterans.
In case you’ve been living in a cave for the last couple of years and have never heard of it, mindfulness means to purposefully pay attention to the present moment, totally without judgment—a wonderful definition by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It’s a quality of self-awareness and connection to our lives that, sadly, living in Hong Kong can quickly rob you of. Now if you think meditation means sitting in the lotus position and forcing your concentration on your breath until you turn purple in the face, rest assured—it’s not. Mindfulness meditation is something you can do pretty much anytime and anywhere. Check out some of these great community resources to help you get started.
The Mindfulness Based Stress-Reduction (MBSR) program, developed by Jon Kabat Zinn, a doctorate and scientist, is an internationally renowned eight-week program to help people reduce stress and anxiety using mindfulness techniques. Evaluated to be effective by research and now widely incorporated in hospitals and health centers, the MBSR is a gentle approach that combines mindful movement, guided meditation, and awareness exercises to help relieve psychological distress. In Hong Kong, this course is coached by Dr. Peta McAuley, a psychologist who has taught mindfulness courses for a decade. For course dates and registration, click here.
If taking a course is too much of a time commitment (and aren’t we all busy), you can head out to the Integrated Medical Institute (IMI) in Central, which hosts weekly meditation practice every Monday, the Mindfulness in Daily Life Practice Group. Beginner groups are held by Carole Bradshaw from 6:15 to 7:15pm, and gives you guidance and techniques to help you develop a simple mindfulness practice. If you’ve already taken the MBSR course or have some meditation practice, you can opt for the advance group with Leonie Stekelenburg from 7:30-9:30pm. Check here for more details.
Plum Village, the spiritual community founded by Vietnamese monk and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, is another center for mindfulness-based practice. The community organises weekly Sunday all-day Mindfulness at Lotus Pond Monastery in Lantau and Friday night meditation practice groups in Central, both led by monks, so they have a slightly more religious flavor.
If you have tried and found mindfulness techniques helpful in your life, be brave and try a 10-day retreat offered at regular residential courses at the Vipassana Meditation Center. “Vipassana” means mindfulness in Pali, and a meditation retreat is an excellent opportunity to practice continuous meditation, from day to night. Meditation retreats help to refresh the mind and recharge your batteries, and though a retreat will probably be one of the hardest things you will ever do, it is also one of the most rewarding.
Finally, if you have completed all the beginners course and retreats and have become a true guru, you can look to the Hong Kong Insight Meditation Society to support your practice, though they welcome beginners as well. With regular Sunday sittings and retreats that bring well-known teachers from abroad to their Lantau monastery, HKIMS is a warm, welcoming community with truly seasoned practitioners who can answer all your questions about enlightenment and the end of all suffering.
Photo: RelaxingMusic, Flickr
