If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying?
If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?
Shantideva
Tag: wellbeing
The key to getting balance in our lives
Our task is to find a balance, to find a middle way, to learn not to overextend ourselves with extra activities and preoccupations, but to simplify our lives more and more. The key to finding a happy balance in modern life is simplicity
Sogyal Rimpoche, Glimpse after Glimpse
A simple truth…
….but like all the truths about mindfulness, it does not mean it is easy. However, it does help us to recall that meditation is a simple human capacity, not a strange esoteric exercise. It can be a useful reminder when we are busy or stressed. At times like that, the brain moves into survival mode, and increases its thinking about – and analysis of – the “problem” It becomes convinced that the best way to work with stress is to get busy and think a lot. When this happens, you can find yourself constantly replaying something in your mind or dwelling on the ins and outs of it all, even through the night. This active brain resists moments of inactivity, such as meditation, seeing it as being less useful. Ironically, it may be the most useful thing that can be done in these periods and taking the pressure off doing it, by seeing it as being as natural as breathing, can help.
Reduce the pressure of deadlines
Take a few minutes each day to step out of conventional clock time. Taking this break may lead to a breakthrough, since many of our best ideas arise when we let our minds relax and wander. By relaxing our focus, we can be open to creative impulses, surprising questions, and, at times, robust answers. Each day, for the next seven days, spend ten minutes on not focusing. Just let your mind wander; get up, move to a different space. Be aware of your breath, your body, your walking; notice your surroundings as though seeing things through fresh eyes. Bring a heightened sense of awareness to sensations of sight, sound, smell, and touch.
Marc Lesser
Always searching for something to be
A person knows they have found their vocation when they stop thinking about how to live, and begin to live.
Thomas Merton.
The arrogant mind never stops looking for identity and this identity always defines itself through attributes: “the beautiful one”, “the smart one”, “the creative one”, “the successful one”…
We are always searching for something to be.
Dzigar Kongtrul Light Comes Through
Try a different approach: Don’t move on
The core issue is that we are not comfortable with life as it is – changing, with indistinct boundaries, not meeting our unrealistic expectation. As children most of us learn, from parents, relatives, peers, and caregivers, to want something else, such as external approval, the security of things that don’t change, only pleasurable experiences, or the self-satisfaction of always being in the right.
We are like the drug addict looking for an unending high. We don’t find it with one drug, so we try another drug, then another and another. The variations are wonderfully creative and endless. Looking for the perfect partner, job, community, or profession, can be the drug. Looking for the perfect spiritual teacher can also be the drug. We might hop from one to another, exuberant for a while, and then disappointed. We move on.
When we walk the path of mindfulness, we are encouraged to try a radically different approach. We calm our minds, we focus on the present moment, and we embrace what we find.
Pema Chodron
Mindfulbalance 