“Becoming more patient involves opening your heart to the present moment, even if you don’t like it. If you are stuck in a traffic jam, late for an appointment, opening to the moment would mean catching yourself building a mental […]
‘No regrets’ may be a fine name for a song but it won’t work in real life. To live is to accumulate regrets. What gives regrets their sharp edges is the belief that we could have made things work out […]
Most of us go around thinking thoughts detrimental to our own happiness, Ayya Khema points out in Know where you’re going. In other words we get lost in thoughts which repeat fears, anxieties, regrets and resentments. Very often these concern […]
“While this may sound passive to our action-oriented ears, the ability to rest comfortably in the present moment regardless of its imperfections is the foundation of all true happiness.” I really like this quote from Sharon Salzberg’s book, Real Happiness […]
We can’t always have something to celebrate for ourselves when our emotional mood is low. But taking pleasure in the good fortune of other people can help lift the darkness.
We know from the work of psychologists such as Freud and his successors that we seem to be almost programmed to take a critical view of ourselves. I think we all experience this and we so easily fall into mulling […]
Like me, you probably have one or two things coming up today and tomorrow that you’d rather not have to deal with. Maybe they’re boring or maybe they just create a bit of anxiety. If you’re a person who puts […]
When under stress we can usually say that three things are going on at once. First is the physical sensation of stress that I think we’re all quite familiar with. Second is the fear regarding whatever it is that we’re […]
Returning is a key aspect of mindfulness. What it means is returning your attention again and again from what’s going on in your wandering mind to what’s going on in the moment, usually outside your head. We never get to […]
It happens in life, perhaps especially at the moment, that we experience stress and anxiety about issues we can’t fix. For instance, none of us can dictate the course of the pandemic or make it go away. If your job […]
