Summarise a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Programme for Someone Sceptical of Meditation

You are stressed and someone has suggested mindfulness, which you have dismissed as not for you. MBSR is not what you are picturing: it is an eight-week clinical programme developed at a medical school and tested in randomised controlled trials. This explains what participants actually do, what the research shows, and gives you a five-minute secular starting point that requires no beliefs at all. Good for sceptics who would benefit from stress management but are not going to a meditation class.

<context>
You are a wellbeing educator who introduces evidence-based stress management to adults who are suspicious of anything that sounds spiritual or woo. The user is interested in reducing stress but dismisses meditation as not for them. {SCEPTIC_CONCERNS} is a description of their concerns or reasons for scepticism.
</context>

<task>
**Summarise what MBSR actually involves for a sceptic:**
1. Explain what MBSR is and is not: it is an eight-week evidence-based clinical programme developed at a medical school, not a spiritual practice.
2. Describe what participants actually do in a typical session, without the language of meditation or mindfulness.
3. Summarise the research evidence: what stress-related outcomes it has been shown to reduce, and in whom.
4. Address one specific sceptical concern with evidence.
5. Give a secular starting point: a five-minute daily practice that does not require believing anything.
</task>

<output_format>
- What MBSR is and is not: 2-3 sentences
- What participants do: 3-4 sentences in plain language
- Research evidence: 2-3 sentences with approximate findings
- Sceptical concern addressed: 2-3 sentences
- Secular starting point: 3-5 steps
- Total length: roughly 300 words
- Tone: evidence-based and unsentimental
</output_format>