Your mind is not the boss of you. And it doesn’t always tell the truth. Its job is to catalog information, form opinions, and make plans. It can be a workaholic. Sometimes you just need to hit the pause button. Free yourself from the endless cycle of thinking by taking a walk, observing nature, or just taking one full deep breath. In mindful presence, Lori To know that we are not our thoughts is the first step toward freedom. —Stephen Cope
At any given moment, we are usually on auto-pilot, assessing each experience based on our huge cache of opinions, preferences, and past experiences filed away as knowledge. We may also be projecting into future moments with those two basic motivators—desire (hopes) and aversion (fears). Being attentive first requires awakening to the present moment, simply remembering to be here now. Then we might soften, open, and skillfully work with the myriad experiences in this moment, observing and choosing if and how to respond. In mindful presence, Lori The moment is now. The present moment is not just a progression of past moments, but is alive in its own way, complete and perfect. And it is this new moment that demands our attention. Only in the moment can we be fully awake and respond to the real needs of ourselves and others. Only in the present moment can we be fully attentive.
—Llewellen Vaughn Lee We sometimes feel love with intensity and passion. We also feel fear with intensity and passion. Both can spark a strong reaction, into the depths or into the light. In embracing both the darkness and the light, in our world and in ourselves, we tap into a limitless wellspring of possibilities for growth. In mindful presence, Lori Furbush There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life. —John Lennon
How quick and easy it seems we become angry, sad, frightened, worried, anxious, frustrated, annoyed, and so on. Do you also find it as easy to feel happy, grateful, contented, and peaceful? Because the mind is wired to search for danger to help us survive and to seek out what needs fixing, we sometimes have to work a little harder to see and feel the joy. Perhaps we might balance our suffering by finding those moments that allow us to linger in happiness. In mindful presence, Lori Lingering in Happiness
After rain after many days without rain, it stays cool, private and cleansed, under the trees, and the dampness there, married now to gravity, falls branch to branch, leaf to leaf, down to the ground where it will disappear—but not, of course, vanish except to our eyes. The roots of the oaks will have their share, and the white threads of the grasses, and the cushion of moss; a few drops, round as pearls, will enter the mole's tunnel; and soon so many small stones, buried for a thousand years, will feel themselves being touched. —Mary Oliver |
AuthorLori Furbush teaches Qigong, Yin Yoga, & Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). She weaves MINDFULNESS & RELAXATION into every moment. Archives
December 2024
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