The concept of Mindfulness as a philosophy of living and self-care has grown in popularity in the recent years. What follows is a collection of observations on mindfulness gleaned from review of a variety of sources (see references). It is my hope that this collection provides readers with a taste of these ideas and perhaps wets their appetite for further study.
Mindfulness: moment to moment awareness.
Being aware takes no extra time and enriches your experience of the present moment.
Look around a bit from time to time to be more in touch with what is happening right now.
Look, listen, feel - be present for yourself and others.
Mindfulness: knowing what you are doing, when you are doing it.
Ask yourself from time to time, "Am I awake now?"
"Only the day dawns to which we are awake."
Try paying attention to things you would ordinarily never give a moment's thought.
The blue sky, the white clouds, the green grass, the gaze of a child or an elderly passerby.
Beginners mind: to see everything as if it were the first time.
Think of yourself as an eternal witness. What is happening? What do you see? Hear? Feel?
When you pay attention to things, your relationship to these things changes.
Alert attention is the mother of intelligence.
To do: Set aside time each day for just being. Sit down and watch the moments unfold with no agenda other than to be present. Use your breath to anchor you to the present moment.
Recognize and honor the present moment.
Make some time early in the day for detecting the bloom and richness of the present.
Only this actual moment is life.
Dwell in the present, moment by moment, breath by breath.
It' all we really have to work with.
The only time you have....
Our ordinary waking state often resembles a scrambled dream-work of thoughts concerning the past and future.
We are thinking virtually all the time.
An incessant stream of thoughts....
While important but much of it is useless.
How much time each day are we focused on the past or future and not on the present?
"Every moment you are centered in the past or the future, you suffer a temporary loss of this life."
Let go of the past and future and wake up to what is happening right now.
Use everyday cues to remind yourself to stay centered in the present.
A stoplight, church bell, clock chime or a wait in a grocery line can remind us to return to ourselves, breathe, smile, and live fully in the present.
Carry out all acts in mindfulness by being present in what you are doing.
Whatever you are doing must be the most important thing in your life at that moment.
If performed mindfully, everything we do is an act of poetry.
Every action, when done with mindful awareness, is sacred.
Washing the dishes, preparing a meal.
Do not hurry to get the job done.
Why rush through some moments to get to other "better" ones?
Enjoy and be at one with your work.
Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else.
One task is no better than any other.
Nothing/one is more important than anything/one else.
All life is fascinating and of merit. No part of life, or any living thing is inherently more important than any other.
Throughout the day, pause and get in touch with your breathing.
Tuning into our breath brings us into the here and now.
An anchor line to the present moment.
You can practice mindful breathing anywhere - stoplight, grocery line, at the office.
Attend to your breath as it moves through various parts of your body - nostrils, throat, lungs, belly.
Be aware of your breath moving into your body and out of your body.
It takes no time at all, only a shift in attention.
Concentrating on our breathing can help center us and enable us to deal with difficult situations.
A means to stop mental dispersions.
Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath to take a hold of your mind again.
The simplicity of attending to your breathing untangles the mind of its complicated thoughts.
Say: "Breathing in I calm myself, breathing out I smile."
During the day periodically use your breathing to soften tense areas of your body - direct your breath into the tension and visualize it softening and dissolving as you relax and breathe it away.
Mindful eating: get in touch with your breathing, attend to your surroundings, look at and smile at everyone at the table.
Contemplate your food - its origins and preparation.
Slow down your eating so you can experience the entire eating process - observe the color, fragrance, texture, taste, and juices.
Eating mindfully allows for less consumption and more pleasure.
Less food, more taste.
By reading as I eat breakfast, I actually miss my breakfast.
Pay attention to how what you eat affects you later.
What am I putting into my body and why?
Feelings need to be acknowledged - at least to ourselves.
"In this moment I am feeling..."
Feelings pushed from awareness create inner tension.
Use mindful awareness of your feeling and your breathing to chaperone your fear.
Tune into your breathing and ground yourself in your stable inner core.
Your anxious feelings are only part of you.
Not "I am anxious," but "I am having anxious thoughts."
Witness these feelings instead of being carried away by them. Observe but do not get caught up in them. Then let them go.
Recognize, breathe, accept and let go.
When you sit still and don't react to your feelings, you quickly see that they arise and pass away.
They are not you - just impulses; and you do not have to be ruled by them.
As we watch our thoughts come and go, we cultivate the ability to dwell in stillness behind the stream of thought itself.
Meditation is like a cloudy glass of apple juice - you just sit still and the mind settles itself.
The "healing" of chronic pain involves relating differently to your condition.
It does not equal curing.
Healing always involves an attitude change, it sometimes involves physical improvement.
You may not be able to control the situation but you can control your attitude towards it.
It often is not the degree of pain but the way we react to it that determines how much we suffer.
Tips on working with chronic pain:
The body scan technique is often useful for chronic pain
If you hope to go anywhere you can only start from where you are.
We can't change but we can expand to more fully become who we are.
Self-acceptance: can you give this gift to yourself?
Peace is not something external to be sought after and attained, it must be developed within.
Nothing (no one) can bring you peace but yourself.
Can you treat yourself with the compassion you would direct towards a loved one who is in pain?
It is impossible to become like someone else, the best we can hope for is to become more fully ourselves.
Most important: be yourself.
Present your best self to the day.
Live as to cause as little suffering and harm as possible.
Focus on what is right with others without denying their faults.
Too often our lives cease working when we cease working at life.
When you awake each morning take a few moments to follow your breath and half-smile to affirm your intent to live this day mindfully.
Wearing a smile is a sign that you are master of yourself.
We might appreciate life and our relationships more if we realize that everything we are in contact with is only here on a temporary basis.
Ethics: an obedience to the unenforceable - doing the right thing when there is little external consequence of not doing so.
All systems of thought are guiding means, not absolute truths.
Do not force others - by any means - to adopt your views, but do help them renounce fanaticism and narrowness.
There is a price attached to the need to be right.
Don't be dominated by the distinction between good and evil - it's usually more complicated than that.
In a conflict, seek reconciliation, not victory - like a mother watching her two children fighting - she does not seek one to win but only their reconciliation.
Karma: everything has consequences - whether we know it or not; whether we see it sooner or later.
We reap that which we sow.
We are what we feel, perceive and think about; watch a bad TV show, we become that TV show.
Everything is connected to everything else.
Wholeness (our self) and connectedness (to others) are essential to our nature.
The fate of each person is linked to the fate of everyone else.
At the deepest level there is no giver, no gift and no recipient - only the universe rearranging itself.
If I had only...
Forgotten future greatness,
And looked around at the green things,
And the buildings,
And reached out to those around me,
And smelled the air,
And ignored the forms and self-styled obligations,
And heard the rain on the roof,
...and its not too late.
Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Full Catastrophe Living. 1990.
Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Wherever You Go, There You Are. 1994.
Nhat Hanh, Thich. The Miracle Of Mindfulness. 1975.
Nhat Hanh, Thich. Peace Is Every Step. 1991.