Phenomenology of Body Awareness in Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
Phenomenology & Practice November 30, 2025 Ingeborg van den Bold, Marjolein De Boer, Jenny Slatman
Body awareness is central to mindfulness-based interventions, but little attention has been paid to how the body and body awareness figure in the teaching and learning process. This participant observation study of an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training uses a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach to analyze what enhancing body awareness entails and how participants experience their bodies. Four modes of bodily appearance are identified: intermittently present, fragmented, while 'feeling good', and while 'not feeling good'. These are interpreted through Leder's concepts of disappearance and dys-appearance, Zeiler's eu-appearance, and Van Manen's phenomenological distinctions. The findings suggest new perspectives on the mindfulness tenet of non-judgmental present-moment awareness.