Picture the mind like a waterfall, they said: the water is the torrent of thoughts and emotions; mindfulness is the space behind the waterfall. Again, elegant theory – but, easier said than done.
Perhaps the most powerful Tollean insight into the ego was that it is obsessed with the past and the future, at the expense of the present. We live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation,...
Notwithstanding Ted’s foibles, he’d helped me become utterly at ease around people who said God bless you when I hadn’t sneezed. Increasingly, I even now found myself in the position of defending evan...
Mindfulness provides space between impulse and action, so you're not a slave to whatever neurotic obsession pops into your head.
I’d always assumed that the voice in my head was me: my ghostly internal anchorman, hosting the coverage of my life, engaged in an unsolicited stream of insensitive questions and obnoxious color comme...
It’s not me telling you, she said. 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 was the longest, most exquisite high of my life, but the hangover came first.
In his books, Tolle repeatedly denigrated the habit of worrying, which he characterized as a useless process of projecting fearfully into an imaginary future. There is no way that you can cope with su...
I was always hurtling headlong through the day, checking things off my to-do list, constantly picturing completion instead of calmly and carefully enjoying the process.
Many people live habitually as if the present moment were an obstacle that they need to overcome in order to get to the next moment.
Just radiated curiosity and enthusiasm. Toward the end of our interview, he said, The most important thing to me is probably, like, being kind and also trying to do something awesome.
You can do your best and then, if things don't go your way, still become unconstructively upset, in a way that hinders your ability to bounce back. Dropping the attachment is the real trick.
What mindfulness does is create some space in your head so you can, as the Buddhists say, respond rather than simply react. In
We now know that happiness, resilience, and compassion are skills, susceptible to training. You don't have to resign yourself to your current level of well-being, or wait for your life circumstances t...
They had a suggestion for me: I should go on a retreat. Recognizing the look of dread on my face, they acknowledged it could be a little tough, but assured me it would be worth it. They knew an amazin...
The fact that you exist is a highly statistically improbable event, and if you are not perpetually surprised by the fact that you exist you don’t deserve to be here.
The Buddhists had a helpful analogy here. Picture the mind like a waterfall, they said: the water is the torrent of thoughts and emotions; mindfulness is the space behind the waterfall. Again, elegant...
On meditation Real Happiness, Sharon Salzberg Insight Meditation, Joseph Goldstein On Buddhism and mindfulness in general Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart, Dr. Mark Epstein Buddhism Without Belie...
May you be happy. May you be safe and protected from harm. May you be healthy and strong. May you live with ease.
Focusing on the breath as a way to temporarily stop the thinking was like using a broom to sweep a floor crawling with cockroaches. You could clear the space briefly, but then the bugs came marauding...