Mindfulness doesn’t provide some kind of magical exemption from discomfort. Not at all. It's actually the opposite.
It means when practiced consistently — with or without meditation — we can sometimes change the degree to which we fight against some present discomfort.
Read More“Linguists say that language comes after music
and we sang nonsense syllables
before we invented a rational speech
to order our days.”
~ Jim Harrison
Read More"Holiness is reached not through effort or will, but by stopping; by an inward coming to rest; a place from which we can embody the spirit of all our holy days, a radical, inhabited simplicity, where we live in a kind of ongoing surprise and with some wonder and appreciation."
~ David Whyte
Read MoreAn attention exercise on the theme of rest barely disguised as a poem.
Read MoreThe human voice can sing a vowel to break your heart.
Read MoreWhen I first started practicing mindfulness, I saw internal words — aka verbal thoughts — as my opponents. Like most people, I thought the point was to not think. When verbal thoughts were present, I was obviously not. Start over. Try harder.
There's just one problem with this approach. It is normal for the mind to think in words.
Read More"In an age of acceleration, nothing can be more exhilarating than going slow. And in an age of distraction, nothing is so luxurious as paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is so urgent as sitting still."
~ Pico Iyer
Read MoreWhen you catch yourself absorbed by some immediate aspect of your environment, try to yield to the observation fully for a few seconds.
Read MoreI swoon and recoil at the tresses blowing
in an arbor without glow
or flame. These are reprieves. Respites
in the demands of sensation
and flow. Know this: you can you can
you can you can you can.
~ Margot Schilpp
Read More"There's a thing when we're children we experience. It usually exists in libraries and it's called the hush. Like this magic world called Hush. There's not many places now to find hush. Somethimes I really do think if every person would experience hush—even if they almost have to force it on themselves for a while—just the bird, just the wind, nothing else, hush—there would be less violence."
Read MoreLearn how to take breaks from your story and get some rest.
Read MoreWhether we are giving or receiving care, we come face-to-face with time’s elasticity – how it seems to speed up and slow down.
Read More"Take a few minutes now to just listen to and become aware of your surroundings."
~ Adyashanti
Read MoreOur attention is habitually drawn to problems. However, we can train ourselves to notice rest and relaxation hiding within our regular routine. Setting aside some time to get more acquainted with what rest feels like in the body can support this exploration.
Read MoreWhy is the sound of a mindfulness bell such a great warm up for any attentional fitness workout?
Read MoreOne good definition of suffering is the wish for our current circumstances to be different than they are, which means that most of us suffer a great deal of the time. The degree to which we suffer fluctuates based on the gulf between how things are and our idea of a more perfect set of circumstances. The resistance to accepting what is happening right now takes energy. No wonder why so many of us frequently report feeling exhausted.
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