Applying mindfulness to challenges – Part 2
A second mindfulness strategy, which may be a new coping mechanism, is to open up and turn towards challenges in a healthy way.
Creating joy
‘Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.’ Thich Nhat Hanh
Feeding the wolf of love
Mindfulness is about stopping and asking ourselves – what is really going on right now?
Revisiting the gentle half smile
The gentle half smile is a way of bringing positive energy into our day, of lifting our spirits without necessarily trying to radically change our underlying feeling state.
Enjoyment
One of the pleasures of spending time with young children is their seemingly boundless ability to revel in enjoyment.
Working with aversion
One of the challenges we face in our often busy lives is that many of our habitual patterns and coping strategies are happening below the level of our conscious awareness.
Aversion
The second hindrance is aversion, and in both Buddhism and mindfulness, learning a new and different approach to our aversions is considered both fundamental and also very therapeutic
Urge surfing
The benefit of a sitting meditation is that it teaches us to remain still and centered in the midst of our countless different thoughts, emotions, body sensations and desires.
Wanting what we have – Part 2
‘We can eventually stop using practice in the service of a curative fantasy of being made out of stone, immune to the pain of the world.’
Wanting what we have
‘Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.’