The Buddha’s main thesis was that in a world where everything is constantly changing, we suffer because we cling to things that won’t last.
Research shows that firm but kind is the smarter play. People trained in self-compassion meditation are more likely to quit smoking and stick to a diet. They are better able to bounce back from misste...
We live so much of our lives pushed forward by these if only thoughts, and yet the itch remains. The pursuit of happiness becomes the source of our unhappiness. Joseph
Overall, compassionate people tended to be healthier, happier, more popular, and more successful at work. Most
Meditation suffers from a towering PR problem, largely because its most prominent proponents talk as if they have a perpetual pan flute accompaniment. If you can get past the cultural baggage, though,...
In fact, when you're mindful, you actually feel irritation more keenly. However, once you unburden yourself from the delusion that people are deliberately trying to screw you, it's easier to stop gett...
Once you unburden yourself from the delusion that people are deliberately trying to screw you, it’s easier to stop getting carried away.
Often it’s not the unknown that scares us, it’s that we think we know what’s going to happen—and that it’s going to be bad. But the truth is, we really don’t know. The smart play, she said, was to tur...
When you lurch from one thing to the next, constantly scheming, or reacting to incoming fire, the mind gets exhausted. You get sloppy and make bad decisions.
What he really meant was something like, Everything in the world is ultimately unsatisfying and unreliable because it won’t last.
The Sufi Muslims say, Praise Allah, but also tie your camel to the post. In other words, it's good to take a transcendent view of the world, but don't be a chump.
Seeing a problem clearly does not prevent you from taking action, he explained. Acceptance is not passivity. Sometimes we are justifiably displeased. What mindfulness does is create some space in your...
Marturano recommended something radical: do only one thing at a time. When you’re on the phone, be on the phone. When you’re in a meeting, be there. Set aside an hour to check your email, and then shu...
Mark had helped me see that the point of getting behind the waterfall wasn’t to magically solve all of your problems, only to handle them better, by creating space between stimulus and response. It wa...
It’s neuroscience that would say that our capacity to multitask is virtually nonexistent. Multitasking is a computer-derived term. We have one processor. We can’t do it.
In a nutshell, mindfulness is the ability to recognize what is happening in your mind right now—anger, jealousy, sadness, the pain of a stubbed toe, whatever—without getting carried away by it. Accord...
I was a frequent mental inventory taker, scanning my consciousness for objects of concern, kind of like pressing a bruise to see if it still hurts.
I had long assumed that ceaseless planning was the recipe for effectiveness, but Marturano's point was that too much mental churning was counterproductive. When you lurch from one thing to the next, c...
Everyone laughs. Another slogan says, ‘I don’t let anything stand in the way of my pleasure.’ The best one of all, he says, pausing for effect, in a wait-for-it kind of way, chuckling to himself as h...
Didn't need to waste so much time envisioning some vague horribleness awaiting me in my future.