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]

Sometimes it's is easy, sometimes not. But if I pay attention, easy or not,  I am operating moment to moment, one step at a time. It seems too trivial a truth to be expounding on, yet it's still so easy to forget.

[PartTimeBrewer]

I am enthused here this morning. My ability to edit and reply on this site has been returned. I am grateful.

[Aggie]

Me too.

[PartTimeBrewer]

"When your thoughts go wandering, just sit there and let them go, but don't go with them. Keep sitting."  ~  B. D. Schiers

[PartTimeBrewer]

"If you are better able to notice signs of stress in your body, then you can take action before it overwhelms you."  ~  Everyday Mindfulness

[PartTimeBrewer]

This one isn't intended to be an idyllic, inspirational but abstract platitude. This is getting down to the nitty gritty of how to make mindfulness work. The more I pay attention, as if an objective outsider, to my interactions with people and events and how I tend to react to them, the better I get at anticipating stress building blunders.

[PartTimeBrewer]

"Virtually every single problem exists in the past or the future."  ~  Everyday Mindfulness

[PartTimeBrewer]

Today is one of those days when I'm going to argue with myself. The above quote presents a message that I have been preaching all along. It is a message that has been immensely useful to me in the past, especially in the middle of the night when I needed to return to sleep. It is a reminder of the uselessness of ruminating over past letdowns and worrying over future calamities.

But...

Sometimes it is a form of escapism. Sometimes the problem is in the 'here and now' and that's when it needs to be addressed. Sometimes being fully mindful of moment means taking the hard path and dealing with life's misfortunes in real time instead of fleeing to some nature reverie of gentle breezes and birdsong. Remember the Serenity Prayer.

[PartTimeBrewer]

"The ego is a self-satisfying historian which seeks only that information that agrees with it, rewrites history when it needs to, and does not been see the evidence that threatens it."  ~  Anthony G. Greenwald

[Westerly_2]

Yes!

[PartTimeBrewer]

"The only difference between meditation and ordinary social interaction is that the friend you're gradually coming to know is yourself."  ~  Mingyur Rinpoche

[PartTimeBrewer]

OK, I'm not sure that it's the only difference, but it may well be the only important difference.