Although it is not necessary to have a printed manual to benefit from the program, having printed materials makes it easier to see what’s been covered, provides a very good reference for later review, and allows you to highlight passages or make notes.

In the in-person classes I taught, the materials for each week (instructions, practice sheets, readings) were not given out until we got to that week, so the manual builds as the course progresses. You can build your own manual in the same way, adding to the manual a little bit each week by following the instructions below. Alternatively, at the bottom of this page are instructions for printing the entire manual at once. This is a good option if you want to have a print shop do the printing - you just direct them to this page and have them use the appropriate link in the note below.

Binder
We suggest using a 3-ring binder and one-inch rings, with clear pockets for the cover and spine (such as an "Avery Durable View Binder with 1-inch slant ring"). Here is the graphic for the cover and title for the spine that we use for our local MBSR class. We usually use white binders for the class since that blends best with the manual cover and spine graphic.

Dividers for each of the 8 weeks
Use an 8-tab divider set to give each week a separate section. You can simply write or print "Week 1", etc. on each tab.

First pages of the manual
Print the following pages for the very first section, before the divider for "Week 1":

     Table of Contents
     Introduction (printer-ready version of the "Introduction" page)
     Getting Started (printer-ready version of the "Getting Started" page)
     MBSR: An Introduction (this is the article by Roberta Lewis that is mentioned on the Intro page)
     MBSR Research Summary (also mentioned on the Intro webpage)

Contents for Weeks 1-8
The contents for each of the eight weeks can be added later, as you progress through the course. This is the way we do it in the live MBSR class - students get that week's materials at the beginning of each weekly class.

At the bottom of each week's page, you will see instructions for the printing for that week, including, at the very bottom, a link to a "printer-ready" version of that page, formatted for inclusion in the manual (for instance, see Week 1 and scroll down to the bottom of the page). Typically each week's printing will include:

NOTE: If you'd like to print the entire manual at once...
This can be done, but it requires a pretty hardy printer and a lot of paper. Everything above is included, including cover sheet, spine title, and the contents of all eight weeks.
If your printer can do double-sided printing, use manual-print-double.pdf (86 pages), otherwise, use manual-print-single.pdf (131 pages). Even better, just tell your local print-shop to go to this page and print directly from the double-sided link above! Your print-shop may require this Release to Print letter giving them permission to do this.