Mindfulness

[PartTimeBrewer]

              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.

[PartTimeBrewer]

“Your emotions are like waves in the ocean. Trying to change or escape them is like trying to stop the waves. It’s exhausting and, ultimately, futile.”

~Dr. Mary Kate Roohan

[PartTimeBrewer]

"What if the path to happiness is not bringing order to the mess of our lives, but instead relaxing amid the mess and rejoicing in its aliveness and beauty?"
~ Haemin Sunim

[PartTimeBrewer]

NOTE TO SELF: Many of the kindest gestures you will ever make, and the most important things you will ever do, will never be seen publicly. Do them anyway

~ Marc and Angel Chernoff

[PartTimeBrewer]

"To let go does not mean to get rid of. To let go means to let be. When we let be with compassion, things come and go on their own." —Jack Kornfield

[PartTimeBrewer]

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars."
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin

[PartTimeBrewer]

"There comes a time in our lives when we realize that everything we have can be taken away in the blink of an eye. Let us stay thankful and never take anything for granted."
~ Haemin Sunim

[PartTimeBrewer]

"The sage is not concerned with being good. This is very important. He or she does not give it a thought. It is not a goal. The goal is to respond humanely—as a human would—to whatever situation life gives."
~ John R. Mabry

[PartTimeBrewer]

"Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings."

—William Arthur Ward

[PartTimeBrewer]

“The noblest joy of the senses, the holiest peace of the heart, the most resplendent luster of all good works derives from this: That the creature put his or her heart wholly into what he or she does”
~ Mechtild of Magdeberg

[PartTimeBrewer]

“Once we are willing to be directly intimate with our life as it arises, joy emerges out of the simplest of life experiences.”

—Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara

[PartTimeBrewer]

"You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger."

~ Buddha Project

[PartTimeBrewer]

"Stress can come from doing, doing, and more doing. You can't use the same frantic approach for stress reduction. Stress reduction requires you to stop constantly doing - or to start non-doing."
~ Shamash Alidina