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Your mind is a powerful critic. It loves to assess everything. In fact, we need those snap judgments to help us make choices, sometimes for our very survival. The trouble comes when the constant critic runs our lives on automatic pilot. So we practice mindfulness and meditation to foster non-judgment. This does not imply that there is suddenly an empty, spacious lack of judgment. Instead, by observing our own mind, we learn to recognize the cacophony of preference, patterns, desires, and aversions without getting caught up in them. This capacity for non-judgmental awareness ultimately leads to wiser judgment. In mindful presence, Lori Furbush Non-judgment is allowing ourselves to experience something without classifying it in our own brains as a threat or not. It means that we remove the lens of our own perspective (the judgment) and experience situations without feeling threatened by them or their potential consequences.
―Dawn Perez Here in the northern hemisphere, the days are getting shorter and the sun lower in the sky. We are just a month away from the winter solstice, marking the annual gradual return of the light. Perhaps now it can be helpful to rekindle the pilot light within, resting and giving it space to glow and brighten. In mindful presence, Lori Furbush If everything around you seems dark, look again. You may be the light.
―Rumi At first glance, practicing presence seems like a passive approach to life. If we are sitting in presence and observing everything passing through, how are we to ever get anything done? Actually, practicing presence can help us take swifter, wiser, and more decisive action. We practice stillness, observing the movement of all things, in order to learn how to attend to all the experiences—good, bad, or indifferent—of the present moment. From this clarity, we can better see what action, if any, is needed now to lay the groundwork for the future. Now is the only moment in which you can breathe, be, and take action. In mindful presence, Lori Furbush We take care of the future best by taking care of the present now.
―Jon Kabat-Zinn Actuality can be defined as the bare bones actual experience, as opposed to an experience colored by our perceptions and filters. We have an entire life history stored away in the brain, body, and nervous system. This makes it difficult to parse out the true experience from our own stories. Time spent cultivating an observing mind can help us access the raw details of an experience, turning down the volume of liking and disliking, wanting and not wanting. This helps us make clearer choices in how to meet and navigate any moment. In mindful presence, Lori Furbush Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience.
―Sharon Salzberg |
AuthorLori Furbush teaches Qigong, Yin Yoga, & Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). She weaves MINDFULNESS & RELAXATION into every moment. Archives
November 2023
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