My name is Phil Startin, and I lead Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) courses for MS-UK. Living myself with PPMS for over 14 years, I’ve been practicing mindfulness meditation for over a decade now and have gone from being really quite sceptical of it (“hippy tree-hugging” was my view of meditation before I started), to being an essential part of my life and a really positive contribution to my health and well-being, which is why I started teaching mindfulness.
Mindfulness has also helped me deal with some of the symptoms of MS. I think, regardless of when you were diagnosed and where you are on your MS journey, typically those of us with MS need to deal with the unpredictability of the course of the condition in terms of disease activity and relapses, as well as progression. But we also have to deal with the wide-ranging uncertainty around future physical and cognitive levels, with the associated impact that these will have on many aspects of our life – coping with loss of function and the effect this has on our hobbies and careers, and how it affects our relationships with our partners and family, and our friends.
For this MS-UK MBSR course, we have made modifications to the standard MBSR course to make it even more relevant and helpful to those with MS, including a new session on lifestyle changes.