Our Best Chance is Mindfulness
Is mindfulness the best hope for humanity? If we were truly aware, the vast majority of us would likely be relating to ourselves and the world with greater compassion and wisdom. But, it’s easier to to stay asleep…
Entries by OPS
Radical Self-Acceptance
The cultivation of mindfulness is just one crucial step in our journey toward greater balance. Radical self-acceptance allows us to bring our whole selves to our experience so that we can respond skillfully to what is here. It encourages us to face facts, have an honest and direct relationship with ourselves and our lives, and ultimately become the lamp that guides us along the path to greater peace and freedom.
Mindfulness of Self-Conscious Emotions: Embarrassment
We have all felt the harsh, burning glare of embarrassment pinning us like a bug to a specimen board for close inspection. Mindfulness can help us meet this painful self-conscious emotion with greater wisdom and equanimity.
Mindfulness of Self-Conscious Emotions: Envy
Envy is a self-conscious emotion that can cause us much pain. Through the cultivation of mindfulness, we can learn to see through the illusion of “I, me and mine” and engage in value-congruent behavior that supports our intentions for happiness and wellbeing.
Mindfulness of Self-Conscious Emotions: Pride
Though we are often encouraged to take pride in our accomplishments or the groups we associate ourselves with, this self-conscious emotion can become an obstacle and lead to suffering. Mindfulness can help us cultivate more skillful states of mind that have a greater likelihood of leading to lasting happiness.
Mindfulness of Self-Conscious Emotions
Can mindfulness help free us from the discomfort of self-consciousness? When we cultivate mindfulness and self-compassion, we can liberate ourselves from the tyranny of “I, me and mine”, making space to live with greater authenticity.
Self-Care or Self-Flagellation?
Are you holding yourself in servitude to shoulds, oughts, and musts? Instead, make an active commit to non-self-harming. Mindful self-care is part of a practice of non-violence toward oneself, embracing attitudes and actions that are self-respecting and life affirming.
Embodying What We Teach
While there is great value in the transmission of knowledge from teacher to student, no teacher is as potent an instructor as lived experience. In mindfulness training, knowledge arises out of the direct experience of the teacher’s own mindfulness practice and is transmitted through one’s embodiment of these attitudes and practices. The teacher isn’t an expert per se, but a fellow traveler on a shared journey.
The Bottom Line is Mindfulness
Mass mindlessness causes great suffering for ourselves and other living beings. Maintaining a personal mindfulness practice may be one of the most important things we can do to liberate ourselves and the world from the tyranny of our own unexamined minds.
Becoming Disillusioned
Being mindful of the many illusions humans are susceptible to can preventing us from being caught up in delusion.
The Power of Intention
Intention is the driver behind action and our ethics inform our intentions. Together these concepts are important because they orient us and point us in a certain direction. Aligning our mindfulness practice with our highest values helps us step out of the cycle of suffering and live with greater purpose.
Self-Care as Responsibility
Self-care is something we must prioritize and attend to, not only for our own wellbeing, but also for the benefit of those we love. When we practice mindful self-care, we build the patience, trust and confidence needed to sustain compassion for self and others over the long term so we can truly make a difference.
The Mindfulness Spiral
When we are operating on autopilot, we are vulnerable to being caught up in a self-perpetuating downward spiral of reactivity that, for some people, can lead to depression and anxiety. Training in mindfulness can help disrupt this painful pattern. A self-perpetuating upward spiral gains momentum, cultivating greater equanimity and wellbeing.
Foundations of Mindfulness
There are four foundational elements of mindfulness – key areas for focusing careful attention in meditation practice. Through exploration of body sensations, feeling tones, mental states, and the nature of experience, we can gain insight and decrease suffering in ourselves and others.
Neither Praise Nor Blame
If we begin to observe ourselves and our reactions to experience, we may notice how impacted we are by our perception of others’ approval or validation on the one hand, and their criticism, disapproval or rejection on the other. This can make for quite a rollercoaster ride when we care deeply, but are not fully present to the subtle workings of the mind. Mindfulness can help us have greater equanimity in the face of praise or blame.
Causes & Conditions
There is an unending interplay of complex circumstances behind any given situation and we may never be able to work out completely the confluence of factors that allow certain events to germinate. A mindfulness practice helps us understand and remember this, which in turn allows us to remain open to experience. We see things more clearly and make time for consideration of a skillful response rather than being caught up in strong emotions arising from interpretations and expectations.
Mindfulness: Am I Doing it Right?
Mindfulness practices can be incredibly healing and liberating. Many people who are new to mindfulness don’t realize that the attitudes and intentions behind our practice are even more important than the practices themselves. Here we discuss some problematic views that can cause us to feel stuck.
Near Enemies of Mindfulness
True enemies may be easy to spot, but what about “near enemies”? If near enemies were people, we might call them “frenemies”. A near enemy is a subtle quality that we may miss or confuse as useful or helpful when, in fact, it can become an obstacle to our mindfulness practice that is hidden from us or in disguise.