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Posts from the ‘Mindfulness’ Category

To Go Easy

“You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.” – Paulo Coelho

When I am Among the Trees
by Mary Oliver

“When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

Get outside.
Get outside yourself.
Then re-enter.
Refreshed.
Filled.
Renewed perspective.
Open heart and mind.
Light spirit.
Be good to yourself, to others.
Go easy, find ease.
Bow often.

“The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness.” – Sakyong Mipham

Mindful, Life Full

“These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb.” – Najwa Zebian

“You may be surprised to know that all of this ultimately comes down to one thing: your attention. If you’re feeling that you’re in a cognitive fog: depleted attention. If you’re feeling anxious, worried, or overwhelmed by your emotions: hijacked attention. If you can’t seem to focus so you can take action or dive into urgent work: fragmented attention. If you feel out of step and detached from others: disconnected attention.”― Amishi P. Jha, Peak Mind: Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention in Just 12 Minutes a Day

May you know the power you possess.
To redirect, to change, to transform.
Rooted in your mind, your thoughts spilling into your actions and inactions.
Pay attention to what you are paying attention to.
In stillness, clarity.
In pause, renewal.
In rest, cup refilled.
Mindful rather than mind full.
Daily practice.
Full presence, grateful heart.

“Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” – Hermann Hesse

To Kneel in the Present

“Attention is the beginning of devotion.”― John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

“Because what you give your attention to is the person you become. Put another way: the mind is the portal to the soul, and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character. In the end, your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to.” ― John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

Daily.
Depth.
Discipline.
Deliberate.
Practice.
Intention.
Focus.
Devotion.
To single-task.
To pause and look, longer.
To stay and stick.
To linger.
To be ever present.
Awake.
Aware.
Threshold to devotion.
Unforced rhythms of grace.
Portal to soul.
Be relentless, ruthless, radical to create space for being.
Gratitude, awe and wonder lives here.

“Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”― John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

Roots and Sky

“Maybe it’s impossible
for poets to hide
the abundance of moons inside
when their heart is carved
from the clouds of a sunrise.”― Carolyn Riker, My Dear, Love Hasn’t Forgotten You

“As humans, we roam the entire world. We even venture beyond it not space. The whole planet is ours, but the whole planet is not our home. Instead, home is the ground we measure with our own two feet. And home is the place that measures us. Home is the place that names us and the place we, in turn, name. It feeds us, body and soul, and if we are living well, we feed it too. Home is the place we cultivate with our love.”― Christie Purifoy, Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons

Beneath your feet.
Where you stand now.
In this very moment.
Life resides.
Awaiting your full participation and rapt attention.
Not in some far off land.
Not yesterday or tomorrow.
Today in this present moment.
If we can’t recognize it here, we certainly won’t recognize it in the fictional land of “someday when.”
You are home.
Let yourself in.
May you cultivate love, joy, delight this day.
Roots and sky.
Welcome home.

“To be loved and to love, takes courage. To be fully seen is incredibly rare and breathtaking. We lower our masks and see a celestial inner being. It is our full self — the supernova as well as the black holes. Our fears and doubts. Our anger and joy…This is love.”― Carolyn Riker, Blue Clouds: A Collection of Soul’s Creative Intelligence

Look Up, Look In

“The mind creates the abyss, the heart crosses it.”― Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness, inner energies wake up and work miracles
without any effort on your part.”― Nisargadatta Maharaj

Pull over.
Stop.
Put it in park.
Sit.
Look up.
Look in.
In this space.
Wide margins.
Unbound.
Quiet mind.
Soft heart.
Deep breath.
Fresh view.
Daily practice.
To master.
Become the author, the creator.
Not of circumstances out of your control.
Of your perspective and approach.
New outcomes require new inputs.
Experience the journey with joy and awe.
And a side of wonder.

“Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.”― Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

The Now Things

“We are, always, poets, exploring possibilities of meaning in a world which is also all the time exploring possibilities.”― Margaret J. Wheatley, A Simpler Way

“As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out the present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love – even the most simple action.”― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

In the now thing, not the next thing
In the now thing, not the last thing
In the now thing, steeped in presence and attention
Aware and awake
To see the wide expanse, deep beauty
Filled with awe, wonder and gorgeous delight
The now things, on the ground we stand

“Accept — then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life.”― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Gaze and Glance

“There’s always a sunrise and always a sunset and it’s up to you to choose to be there for it,’ said my mother. ‘Put yourself in the way of beauty.”― Cheryl Strayed, Wild

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” – Mary Oliver

To consider, ponder, pause
Chart the day
To what will I gaze, what will I glance
Embrace or release
Absorb or roll off like water off a duck’s back
Stop or bypass
Pick up or put down
Listen or ignore
On trail or cut new paths
Awareness throughout to stop and reframe
Check and rename
To breathe deep and reclaim
Weeds or sky
This day to paint anew
Create and savor
Allow and invite
To gaze at what matters
To glance at the rest

“How wild it was, to let it be.”― Cheryl Strayed, Wild

Reconsider

“Art feeds my soul. Great books battleproof my hope. Rich conversations magnify my creativity. Wonderful music uplifts my heart. Beautiful sights fortify my spirit.”― Robin Sharma

“Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.”― Robin Sharma

Reconsider.
Think again.
Overthink less.
Look twice times two.
Observe.
Be present.
To now, not someday or what was.
Shift.
Allow.
Move through.
Pass by.
Pause.
Shift energy, attention, effort.
To the good.
Circumstances may not change but choices expand.
Create. Build. Remodel. Your thoughts.
Discover joy, delight, beauty, a symphony, depth, richness, imperfection, laughter, gratitude right in the midst of everything else.
To anchor and set free.
Choose your thoughts well.
Reconsider.

“Every second you spend thinking about what you don’t want in your life is a second denying focus and energy from getting what you do want. Every minute you worry about what’s not working is a minute drawn away from creating what will work. And every hour spent reflecting on the disappointments of the past is an hour stolen from seeing the possibilities that your future holds.”― Robin Sharma

Prayer of Attention

“Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.”― Karl Barth

“I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?”
― Mary Oliver, House of Light

In spiral.
In staleness.
In routine.
Break the pattern.
Stillness.
Rest.
Wander.
Wonder.
Walk lightly.
Laugh, delight, play.
Reset.
Pay attention.
Be made new each day.

“there is a great choice that awaits us every day: whether we go around carving holes in others because we have been so painfully carved ourselves, or whether we let spirit play its song through our tender experience, enabling us to listen, as well, to the miraculous music coming through others.”― Mark Nepo, Finding Inner Courage

Fortunate Hours

“There are those fortunate hours when the world consents to be made into a poem.”― Mark Doty

“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”― Alan Wilson Watts, The Culture of Counter-Culture: Edited Transcripts

Moments of stillness.
Quiet symphony.
Awake to beauty.
Drawn to light.
Pause here.
To root, anchor, steep.
Ordinary days.
Fortunate hours.

“Hoping to live days of greater happiness, I forget that days of less happiness are passing by.”― Elizabeth Bishop