What Is "Mindfulness," and Why Is Everyone Talking About It? [Lifehacker]

What Is "Mindfulness," and Why Is Everyone Talking About It? [Lifehacker]

"Mindfulness is a hot topic these days, just like meditation. As you've noticed, it's getting more attention in the news as more studies come out showing the benefits of mindfulness. While it might sound like a New Age-y term (or maybe even psychobabble to some), there's real evidence that being more mindful can enhance just about every aspect of your life—and it doesn't take hours sitting in lotus position to get there. Here's what you need to know."

Lifehacker has collected a bevy of quality supporting articles, videos, and other important references to answer a reader's question on the meaning of mindfulness, and how it can be applied to daily life. I recommend reading each & every part of this excellent article.

Why We Lie to Ourselves and How It Creates Tension

Why We Lie to Ourselves and How It Creates Tension | Tiny Buddha

"But what if I should discover that the poorest of the beggars and the most impudent of offenders are all within me, and that I stand in need of the alms of my own kindness; that I myself am the enemy who must be loved?"

That used to be me. I remember well the years when I was a liar. The stress, strain, and anxiety I created within and without was atrocious. Burns and melts my heart that people lie to themselves and others, knowing they only need to make one quality positive decision to break out of that horrendously detrimental prison. 

"Mindfulness is harmony. When all of our parts are working together, life hums around us." 

That is truth. 

The Science of How Your Mind-Wandering Is Robbing You of Happiness

The Science of How Your Mind-Wandering Is Robbing You of Happiness (Brain Pickings)

Strikingly enough, that mind-wandering is a cause rather than a consequence of unhappiness is at once jarring and heartening — it suggests that by training our minds to be more fully present, we’d be honing our capacity for happiness, something Eastern philosophy has long maintained. But perhaps the most surprising and most commanding finding is that even when people’s minds wander off to pleasant things, they’re less happy than when they are fully present in the moment:

The Art of Observation and How to Master the Crucial Difference Between Observation and Intuition

The Art of Observation and How to Master the Crucial Difference Between Observation and Intuition (Brain Pickings)

Powers of observation can be developed by cultivating the habit of watching things with an active, enquiring mind. It is no exaggeration to say that well developed habits of observation are more important in research than large accumulations of academic learning.

Can ‘Mindfulness’ Help You Focus?

Can ‘Mindfulness’ Help You Focus? (Time)

“The present demonstration that mindfulness training improves cognitive function and minimizes mind wandering suggests that enhanced attentional focus may be key to unlocking skills that were, until recently, viewed as immutable.”

What's the Buzz about Mindfulness?

What's the Buzz about Mindfulness? (heretohelp)

Mindful awareness is about befriending the moment-to-moment experience of our thoughts, perceptions, feelings and body sensations with openness, curiosity and acceptance. We can develop understanding and insight from repeatedly observing our experience in this way.

3 Tips for Being Mindful at Work

3 Tips for Being Mindful at Work (PsychCentral)

Mindfulness trains us to stay in the present. “It trains us to become more aware of what’s going on in and around us, giving us the capacity to see things clearly and act from a wider perspective.”

Calm.com

Calm.com

Enjoy a guided relaxation, for 2, 10, or 20 minutes.

Friendship

“It is difficult to see the picture when you are inside of the frame." ~ Author Unknown

In Life, it is crucial to have a person other than yourself helping keep an eye on you. That is the very meaning of friendship.

Very often, more so than you may realize, you are much too close to your own problems to see them clearly, allowing your emotions and / or ego to control you, or perhaps you’re just too much in denial to face them. Having a friend, especially one who has overcome a multitude of similar and vastly different problems within themselves, can be one of the greatest things to ever happen to you.

This other person (or, better yet, persons) must be someone you trust, implicitly. Someone who will never lie to you, treat you hypocritically, never sugar-coat what they say and do for fear of ‘hurting your feelings’ (which they absolutely cannot do, anyway), who will tell you exactly what to do, and be willing to hold you accountable towards yourself and the better goal.

If you have such a friend as this, count yourself truly blessed and loved. If you don’t have such a friend as this, keep moving along your path to find one, or perhaps even become one. 

Present Awareness & the Conditioned Ego

Present Awareness & the Conditioned Ego (Lesism)

Human beings have been conditioned to become creatures of ego, through the manipulation of - amongst others - political, religious, corporate and media institutions.

Many of us learn valuable lessons from the episodes in our life that catalyse emotional pain (and remember that nobody can cause you emotional pain – that can only come from within, with your interpretation of their words and/or actions), but what most of us don’t seem to learn is that we need to let that pain go.

These are some of the most important lessons that were taught to me, and some of the most important lessons I strive to teach others. In the words of the immortal Morpheus: “Free your mind.” 

The Power of Judgement

The Power of Judgement (tricycle)

So if you really want to become skillful in your thoughts, words, and deeds, you need a trustworthy friend to point out your blind spots. And because those spots are blindest around your unskillful habits, the primary duty of a trustworthy friend is to point out your faults—for only when you see your faults can you correct them; only when you correct them are you benefiting from your friend’s compassion in pointing them out.

This is the friend I strive to be, trustworthy, and the friendship I aim to provide to the world and all people, including myself. Be extremely cautious about any and all 'friends' who are unwilling or unable to be trustworthy, for they will do much more harm than good.

The Helper Syndrome

The Helper Syndrome (tricycle)

Simply doing good deeds, or even being a devoted meditator, doesn’t mean anything without the painful honesty that’s required to look at what we’re doing. We must take our heads out of the ground and look at all of the ways we get in our own way—fooling ourselves and obstructing the possibility of living a more open and genuine life.

This excellent article is for people who are stuck in the habit and belief that simply ‘being good’ or ‘kind’ is enough, a belief that is usually connected to, and hidden by, a false pretense of ‘I’m just being me’.  

Today's Quote

You see, the past is past, and the future is yet to come. That means the future is in your hands—the future entirely depends on the present. That realization gives you a great responsibility. 

- H.H. the Dalai Lama, “The Experience of Change”

Today's Quote

When you are preoccupied with external, material objects, you blame them and other people for your problems. Projecting that deluded view onto external phenomena makes you miserable. When you begin to realize your wrong-conception view, you begin to realize the nature of your own mind and to put an end to your problems forever. 

- Lama Yeshe, “Your Mind is Your Religion”

Today's Quote

Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside,dreams; who looks inside, awakes. 

- Carl Jung

Today's Quote

Paying attention provides the gift of noticing, and the gift of connecting. It provides the gift of seeing a little bit of ourselves in others, and of realizing that we’re not so awfully alone. It allows us to let go of the burden of so much of what we habitually carry with us, and receive the gift of the present moment. 

- Sharon Salzberg, “A More Complete Attention"

Introduction to Emotional Filters IQ: Perceptual Filters

Introduction to Emotional Filters IQ: Perceptual Filters (EmotionalSkills.com)

Perceptual filters are one of the most common, and most troublesome, factors in the cause of a person's stress, strain, and anxiety with Life. It was one of mine, and boy, it was a huge problem. Overcoming the terrible effects it was having on me was not at all easy, and took many years. However, it was absolutely worth every ache and pain I endured. 

The topic has again been on my mind and heart lately, as I see others who are being controlled and manipulated by a warped perceptual filter, completely without their knowledge and (I hope) permission, so I aim to address it as best I currently can here soon.

Until then, please read this most excellent article linked to with an open mind (as always), and see if it speaks to you. It just might spark that paradigm shift that leads you to, or closer to, your own zenity.

Meditation

Today's Quote

Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles. Have no friends not equal to yourself. When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them. 

- Confucius

Today's Quote

This applies equally to your healthy thoughts and unhealthy thoughts, to every decision you make, including how much and how fast you eat, how hard you push your foot down on the gas pedal, to everything you ‘forget’ when there are pen & paper somewhere close by.