Mindfulness meditation is a useful practice that, with consistency over time, can bring a number of benefits including more openness to experience, greater peace, and enhanced wellbeing. Although the practice is simple in concept, it can be challenging in execution due to a number of habits and human tendencies that can create obstacles for us. Over the years, … Continue reading Obstacles to Mindfulness
A retreat I recently attended offered a great reminder that we are ultimately responsible for curating our own state of mind. Most of us are fortunate to posses the ability to select, organize, and look after the contents of mind we wish to attend to for the benefit of ourselves and others - however this … Continue reading Curating a State of Mind
Aversion involves the desire to turn away from or avoid something unwanted. Most often experienced as annoyance, disliking, disgust, or even hatred, aversion obscures reality by turning attention away from what is present, preventing us from truly understanding our experience. By learning to face aversion, we can gather important information that can help us respond to life situations with greater ease and wisdom.
In this modern age we have an unending array of amazing tools to ease or make possible all manner of tasks. Mindfulness also has its tools - in fact, in some ways it is a tool. We all understand that certain tools are useful in certain situations and not so helpful, or even a hinderance, … Continue reading Attachment: Don’t Carry Your Boat
Generosity is a fundamental attitude of mindfulness that has been added to Jon Kabat-Zinn’s original seven listed in his book, Full Catastrophe Living. This virtue is getting increased attention in the science arena due to its impact on happiness and health. The Science of Generosity Initiative at the University of Notre Dame has funded a number of studies which have demonstrated a relationship between generosity and well-being. They … Continue reading Generosity: What’s Mine is Ours
