Mindfulness in Motion
It happened again.
About once a month, the brilliant (and free!) mindfulness meditation app HealthyMinds asks me how I’m doing with my practice (they offer self-guided ‘learning’ and ‘practice’ modules on Awareness, Connection, Insight, and Purpose).
A year in, I’m feeling improvement across most of their survey metrics (Guiding sense of purpose? Almost always. Confidence that most people are doing the best they can? Again, often, etc.) But there’s one benchmark that I honestly cannot budge: “In the past month, how often did you feel overwhelmed by your responsibilities, so that you felt you could never meet them all?”
Answer: Often. (More like, nearly always.)
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Welcoming the Unwelcome
I set my book down on the table when my friend walked into the kitchen. “’Welcoming the Unwelcome,’” she said, taking in the title on the splayed cover. “Why would you want to read a book like that?” She was smiling, but I could tell she wanted an answer. “Who would ever want to welcome the unwelcome?”
It’s a fair question, if somewhat of a trick. No one wants to get stranded in the barrow pit with a flat, be the last person chosen, stranded on the island of loneliness in an unhappy career or relationship. You don’t welcome a bad diagnosis or the crushing weight of bullies. Not even the most enlightened among us would welcome these reminders that we can be reduced to ash at any moment. That we are small.
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You Can't Force the Breath (Just Like You Can't Force Life)
I always thought I was in charge of my mind, but have recently discovered it might be the other way around. A common phrase used in the mindfulness world, Control your breath, I believe to be misleading. Mindfulness isn't about control—it is about realization and awareness. The concept of realization is unique to each individual. The way to get there is by being observant, not manipulative.
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