TBD on Ning
Mindfulness
I am starting a new thread here mainly for purposes of my own catharsis. It is my intention, at least at this point, to make regular contributions. Of course, if anyone else has anything to add, they are more than welcome. If you have any input, please contribute.
Over a year ago I decided to deal head-on with my self-diagnosed adult attention disorder, (ADD). The inability to stay focused was becoming too stressful. I found myself sitting around watching the clock tick, yet I couldn’t keep “on task” with any project I started. Nothing was getting done and just starting something was becoming depressing.
The smart thing to do was probably to get professional help, so instead I decided to try to heal myself, at least as a first try. Cognitive therapy and pharmaceuticals (UGH) might be the approved way to go but I decided to try meditation first.
18 months and countless self-help books later, I still can’t bring myself to a regular, formal meditation program. But, along the way, I discovered informal mindfulness. Yes, I know it is the “Fad” right now. It is hard to navigate modern social trends without “tripping over” somebody extolling the benefits of mindfulness.
Let me add my voice to the chorus.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by PartTimeBrewer on
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I know, mindfulness advocates normally eschew both acknowledging the self and actively striving for happiness as well, but let's face it, we are all happier when we are happy and the idea of the self being composed of many different, changing facets can be a useful metaphor as well.
In this passage McRaney is trying to advocate a balance between the self that is entirely in the moment and fully aware of all sensory input and the self that is observing the first self but is also in touch with past memories and future plans. The former might be too impulsive and self-indulging while the latter too burdened with emotional baggage.
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""Do you find striving for perfection exhausting? Try acceptance instead." ~ Danny Penman
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"When we suffer, notice that our suffering is often made of thoughts. As our inner commentary ceases, notice that our suffering stops too." ~ Haemin Sunim
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Well realistically, sometimes our suffering is real pain beyond our thoughts, either physical or mental. And sometimes I can't just turn off the inner dialogue completely; I am just an amateur at this, not a Zen master. But the above advice is still helpfully even if I can't totally immerse myself in it because the relief is 'dose dependent'. That means even if I can only dismiss a small portion of the mental chatter put up by my 'monkey mind', I still can realize a modicum of relief. Try it. It helps.
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"There is a cost to being compassionate and open-minded but nothing like the costs of being selfish and narrow-minded." ~ Danny Penman
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"The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it." ~ Henry David Thoreau
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My first thought on this is to question how much of my life I relinquish to things like TV but then I realized that I almost never watch TV unless my wife has turned it on and chosen the programming. Spending time with her is a relationship investment and well worth the price. Going to endless craft shows also. The hard part is trying to justify the amount of my life given over to stressing about useless worries that I should just face and dismiss. Far too costly.
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"Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence." ~ Alan Watts
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And there it is, in a nutshell.
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"Most of us have an inner monologue running practically all of the time. It can imprison you." ~ Everyday Mindfulness
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"We can not be in the present moment and run our story lines at the same time." ~ Pema Chodron
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"You can not truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time." ~ M. Scott Peck
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