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 the hardest thing to do is simply to learn how to trust and let go a little, releasing the old so that something new can come in or take place.”

~ Josh Bulriss

[PartTimeBrewer]

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

[PartTimeBrewer]

"Mental and phisical health are without separation, but a manifestation of each other, and neither can operate well alone."
~ Poppy Jamie

[PartTimeBrewer]

"Whether, religious, atheist or secular, all people breathe, and the practice of observing the breath belongs to no religious or philosophical tradition, and therefore, people of all faiths can practice mindfulness. They can choose to do it as a spiritual practice or not."
~ Blaise Aguirre

[PartTimeBrewer]

“To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.”
– Thich Nhat Hạnh

[PartTimeBrewer]

"There is no agenda to the act of mindfulness other than being open to what is."
~ Blaise Aguirre

[PartTimeBrewer]

"A life without gratitude is a joyless life. If life is just a continuous complaint about the injustices and unfairness we have received and we don’t remember anything good ever done to us, we fall into depression." —Ajahn Sumedho

[PartTimeBrewer]

"Man is not worried about real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems."

~ Epictetus

[PartTimeBrewer]

"Mindfulness is the training you do off the field that makes you perform well during the game."
~ Rick Hanson

[PartTimeBrewer]

"Give yourself permission to feel good and see your life through the eyes of joy." - Amanda Gilbert

[PartTimeBrewer]

"In times of struggle, there is a unique ability within us, to derive joy from what may appear as trivial to others."

~ Laura Burges

[PartTimeBrewer]

"No one other than you owns your happiness." — Elaine Smookler