It is a hard message to swallow at first blush because it brings into question everything that we think we are, which for the most part seems to come from what we identify with, our bodies, our thoughts, our feelings, our relationships, our values, our work, our expectations of what is “supposed” to happen and how things are “supposed” to work out for me in order for me to be happy, our stories of where we came from and where we are going and of who we are.
If we are unaware of what we are doing a good deal of the time, and we don’t particularly like the way things turn out in our lives, perhaps it’s time to pay closer attention, to be more in touch, to observe the choices we make and their consequences down the road.
Engel’s biopsychosocial model proposed that psychological and social factors could either protect a person from illness or increase his or her susceptibility to it. Such factors include a person’s beliefs and attitudes, how supported and loved a person feels by family and friends, the psychological and environmental stresses to which one is exposed, and personal health behaviors.
On the radio, I heard someone define ethics as “obedience to the unenforceable.
One world is aware, and by far the largest to me, and that is myself, And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years, I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness, I can wait. WALT WHITMAN, Leaves of Grass.
There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hand.
Everything is related to everything else and, in a way, simultaneously contains everything else and is contained by everything else. What is more, everything is in flux.
When we spend some time each day in non-doing, resting in awareness, observing the flow of the breath and the activity of our mind and body without getting caught up in that activity, we are cultivating calmness and mindfulness hand in hand.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God? He is the breath inside the breath. KABIR.
Maybe we have an exaggerated belief that we have to stay in bed just to get through the day or that we can’t go out of the house and do things. Views like these lead readily to what is sometimes referred to as “illness behavior.” We begin to build our psychological life around our preoccupations with our illness, injury, or disability, while the rest of our life is on hold and unfortunately atrophying along with the body.
Just because you decide to still your body and observe your breath from moment to moment doesn’t mean that your thinking mind is going to cooperate.
What does happen as we intentionally pay attention to our breathing is that we realize pretty quickly that we are.
In order to build continuity and momentum in the meditation practice, you will need to keep reminding yourself to come back to the breath over and over again, no matter what the mind is up to from one moment to the next.
Socrates was famous in Athens for saying, “Know thyself.” It is said that one of his students said to him: “Socrates, you go around saying ‘Know thyself,’ but do you know yourself?” Socrates was said to have replied, “No, but I understand something about this not knowing.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, This is the best season of your life. WU-MEN.
It helps to have a focus for your attention, an anchor line to tether you to the present moment and to guide you back when the mind wanders. The breath serves this purpose exceedingly well. It can be a true ally. Bringing awareness to our breathing, we remind ourselves that we are here now, so we might as well be fully awake for whatever is already happening.
Remember, now is the only time you have for anything. You have to accept yourself as you are before you can really change. Your choosing to do so becomes an act of self-compassion and intelligence. When.
Be a light unto yourself.
Even the tiniest manifestation of mindfulness in any moment might give rise to an intuition or insight that could be hugely transforming.
It’s not a matter of letting go – you would if you could. Instead of “Let it go,” we should probably say “Let it be.