Don’t Forget Your Senses: The Importance of Awareness of the External World

Mindfulness practices often seem to turn our attention inward. We bring awareness to breathing, other body sensations, thoughts, emotions, and impulses. Sometimes we remember to notice the sights and sounds around us, but this seems to be less emphasised. This talk will explore new research about the importance of external sensory awareness and how it helps us to overcome unhelpful patterns and habits and find new ways of responding.

Prof Ruth Baer is a clinical psychologist and a mindfulness researcher, teacher, trainer, supervisor, and practitioner. Before moving to Oxford in 2019, she was a Professor of Psychology at the University of Kentucky, where she conducted research on mindfulness and taught and supervised several mindfulness-based programmes in a doctoral programme in clinical psychology. Her scholarly interests include conceptualization and assessment of mindfulness, effects of mindfulness-based programmes, mechanisms of change, and harm and adverse events in mindfulness practice. She is also very much interested in professional training and ethics in the mindfulness field.​​

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She is the Director of the Master of Studies in MBCT, a University of Oxford degree programme managed jointly by the Departments of Psychiatry and Continuing Education. She also contributes to the Oxford Mindfulness Foundation’s 12-month teacher training pathway by training cohorts and providing workshops. She teaches mindfulness courses, supervises mindfulness teachers, and collaborates on research papers with colleagues at the University.