Real Life Mindfulness

Meditations For a Calm and Quiet Mind

Mango Media, Inc.

Contents

Pay Attention to Everything — the Whole World and Yourself — with Love and Kindness Radiate boundless love toward the entire world.

— Buddha

Mindfulness is deliberately paying full attention to what is happening around you — in your body, heart, and mind. Mindfulness is awareness without criticism or judgment.

— Hab Chozen Bays

Mindfulness has helped me succeed in almost every dimension of my life. By stopping regularly to look inward and become aware of my mental state, I stay connected to the source of my actions and thoughts and can guide them with considerably moreintention.

— Dustin Moskovitz

Paying attention to and staying with finer and finer sensations within the body is one of the surest ways to steady the wanderingmind.

— Ravi Ravindra

Sati–sampajanna ("Mindfulness and clear comprehension") should be examined carefully from the point of view of the centipede who could not walk when she thought about how she moved her limbs. And from the point of view of absorption in, say artistic creation and detached observation of it. Absorption in piano playing or painting seems to be "successful" but detached observation or enjoyment of "my playing" ... seems to have the centipede effect.

— Nanamoli Thera

The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.

— Pema Chödrön

Learn as You Go: How Should I Sit When I Meditate?

When you meditate, you don't have to sit on the floor with your legs crossed in some amazingly flexible way. In fact, if you don't normally sit on the floor or cross your legs, you should avoid doing either of those things! Instead, you can sit on a chair in an easily maintainable position, your feet flat on the floor and your back straight, but not rigid. Meditation is supposed to help you, so it's important to set yourself up for success by sitting in a comfortable position.

Replace fear of your own inner experience with a curious, gentle, welcoming attitude — free of judgment, self-blame, and aversion.

— Melanie Greenberg

Mindfulness shows us what is happening in our bodies, our emotions, our minds, and in the world. Through mindfulness, we avoid harming ourselves and others.

— Thích Nhat Hanh

Whatever you did today is enough. Whatever you felt today is valid. Whatever you thought today isn't to be judged. Repeat the above each day.

— Brittany Burgunder

Mindful self-compassion can be learned by anyone. It's the practice of repeatedly evoking good will toward ourselves especially when we're suffering — cultivating the same desire that all living beings have to live happily and free from suffering.

— Christopher Germer

Mindfulness: Taking a balanced approach to negative emotions so that feelings are neither suppressed nor exaggerated. We cannot ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time. Mindfulness requires that we not "overidentify" with thoughts and feelings, so that we are caught up and swept away by negativity.

— Brené Brown

It's not that God, the environment, and other people cannot help us to be happy or find satisfaction. It's just that our happiness, satisfaction, and our understanding, even of God, will be no deeper than our capacity to know ourselves inwardly, to encounter the world from the deep comfort that comes from being at home in one's own skin, from an intimate familiarity with the ways of one's own mind and body.

— Jon Kabat-Zinn

Engage and Immerse: Breath-Focused Meditation (1–5 Minutes)

The breath-focused meditation is typically a short meditation intended to refocus you during your day. You can do this anytime, anywhere. I usually do it when I feel particularly stressed but don't have a lot of time to meditate.

Start by sitting in a comfortable position. Take a deep breath in and let it go, slowly, gently closing your eyes, then return to breathing normally. Take a few moments to notice how your body feels. Does it feel good? Are you sore anywhere? Once you've acknowledged these feelings, allow yourself to let them go. Softly pull your focus inward to your breaths. Notice how each intake of air is different from the last. If you find yourself straying to other thoughts, gently let go of them, allow them to pass you by, and bring yourself back to the breath. Allow your breath to lead your mind instead of the other way around. Continue this for a few moments. When you're ready, slowly, gently open your eyes and continue your day.

Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else.

— Thích Nhat Hanh

In a true you-and-I relationship, we are present mindfully, nonintrusively, the way we are present with things in nature. We do not tell a birch tree it should be more like an elm. We face it with no agenda, only an appreciation that becomes participation: "I love looking at this birch" becomes "I am this birch" and then "I and this birch are opening to a mystery that transcends and holds us both."

— David Richo

It takes a little bit of mindfulness and a little bit of attention to others to be a good listener, which helps cultivate emotional nurturing and engagement.

— Deepak Chopra

With silence comes mindfulness, and thus we become better at choosing our words with kind intent before we express them.

— Alaric Hutchinson When you open your mind, you open new doors to new possibilities for yourself and new opportunities to help others.

— Roy Bennett

Respond; don't react.

Listen; don't talk.

Think; don't assume.

— Raji Lukkoor

When you practice mindfulness, you bloom like a flower.

— Debasish Mridha

You Have What You Need, Now Accept It

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change.

— Buddha

By learning to allow different types of discomfort to simply stay in the room with you, without your scrambling for a button to push (real or metaphorical), you make discomfort matter less.

The pool of things you're afraid of shrinks. It becomes a lot less important to control circumstances, because you know you can handle moments of uncertainty or awkwardness or disappointment without an escape plan.

— David Cain

By identifying impermanence as a fundamental characteristic of existence itself, rather than a problem to be solved, the Buddhists are encouraging us to let go our hold on illusory solidity and learn to swim freely in the sea of change.

— Andrew Olendzki

Engage and Immerse: Quiet Observation Meditation (5–15 minutes)

The quiet observation meditation is intended to bring you back to where you are and what you have already, all round you. I use it when I want to remind myself just how much life has given me, to appreciate it in a new and greater way.

Sit or stand in a maintainable, comfortable position. Begin by taking a deep breath in, and as you breathe out, slowly close your eyes. Take a few regular breaths and focus on your breathing, how your body moves with each intake, how your muscles soften each time you exhale. When you are ready, gently let go of that focus. Take a few moments to listen. What do you hear? Is there a faint buzzing from machinery? Can you hear the wind outside? Are people talking nearby? Be careful to observe your surroundings without judgment. When you are ready, open your eyes and slowly examine what you can see. Notice the details of every object around you. Acknowledge the existence of each and every thing that you can see and hear. When you have finished, let go of that observational focus and mindfully resume your day.

If you meditate in perfect peace and then flash someone an irritable look because they make noise or their child cries, you are entirely missing the point.

— Khandro Rinpoche

It stands to reason that anyone who learns to live well will die well. The skills are the same: being present in the moment, and humble, and brave, and keeping a sense of humor.

— Victoria Moran

You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.

— Jon Kabat-Zinn

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.

— C. G. Jung

You might be tempted to avoid the messiness of daily living for the tranquility of stillness and peacefulness. This of course would be an attachment to stillness, and like any strong attachment, it leads to delusion. It arrests development and short-circuits the cultivation of wisdom.

— Jon Kabat-Zinn

If you live the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion.

— Linji Yixuan

Live in the Moment as If It Were the Last Moment You Had

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

— Buddha

Start living right here, in each present moment. When we stop dwelling on the past or worrying about the future, we're open to rich sources of information we've been missing out on — information that can keep us out of the downward spiral and poised for a richer life.

— Mark Williams

What is the date? What is the time? ... Great, that's what Now is. And every second, your "Now" changes. Because all we have is Now. We are continuously living in the Now. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but Now. Today. The present. And I need you to live in it. To truly appreciate it. To breathe and feel yourself breathing.

— S.R. Crawford

It goes against the grain to stay present. These are the times when only gentleness and a sense of humor can give us the strength to settle down ... so whenever we wander off, we gently encourage ourselves to "stay" and settle down. Are we experiencing restlessness? Stay! Are fear and loathing out of control? Stay! Aching knees and throbbing back? Stay! What's for lunch? Stay! I can't stand this another minute! Stay!

— Pema Chödrön

We have only now, only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us, day and night.

— Jack Kornfield

If you are doing mindfulness meditation, you are doing it with your ability to attend to the moment.

— Daniel Goleman

Learn as You Go: How Long Should I Meditate For?

You may have noticed that each Engage and Immerse meditation has a suggested amount of time in parentheses next to the title. These are merely suggestions, to give you an idea of how long each meditation may take when you start. That being said, you can meditate for as long or as little as you want. Do you only have two minutes to meditate on your break? Meditate for two minutes. Do you want to meditate for an hour before or after work? Meditate for an hour. Meditation is ultimately for your well-being, so you get to decide how long you do it for.

If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.

— Amit Ray

Do not encumber your mind with useless thoughts. What good does it do to brood on the past or anticipate the future? Remain in the simplicity of the present moment.

— Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

If you aren't in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret.

— Jim Carrey

The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That's all there ever is.

— Eckhart Tolle

Few of us ever live in the present. We are forever anticipating what is to come or remembering what has gone.

— Louis L'Amour

The present moment is the only time over which we havedominion.

— Thích Nhat Hanh

You have to remember one life, one death–this one! To enter fully the day, the hour, the moment whether it appears as life or death, whether we catch it on the inbreath or outbreath, requires only a moment, this moment. And along with it all the mindfulness we can muster, and each stage of our ongoing birth, and the confident joy of our inherent luminosity.

— Stephen Levine

Engage and Immerse: Mindful Eating Meditation (10–20 minutes)

The mindful eating meditation is intended to help you to become mindful in your day-today activities and tasks. I especially like to do this meditation when I've had a day full of planning or worrying about the future because it grounds me back into the present

This meditation can be done during a meal or a snack, which should be prepared before you start. Begin by taking a deep breath in and letting it out, drawing your mind to the present moment and each individual action you take during it. Then you may start to eat your meal. As you eat, focus on exactly what you're doing while you're doing it. If you have to open a container, acknowledge the container, pay attention to the action of opening it. If you are using utensils, notice the feel of the utensils in your hands, the weight and motion of rising and falling when you bring food from the dish to your mouth. With each bite, savor the flavors and textures of the food. Allow them to be what they are without judging them. It does not matter whether you like or dislike what you are eating — either way, the food will sustain you. Continue this meditation until you have finished eating.

We speculate, dream, strategize, and plan for these "conditions of happiness" we want to have in the future; and we continually chase after that future, even while we sleep. We may have fears about the future because we don't know how it's going to turn out, and these worries and anxieties keep us from enjoying being herenow.

— Thích Nhat Hanh

Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretense.

— Marcus Aurelius

Throughout this life, you can never be certain of living long enough to take another breath.

— Huang Po

It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth — and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up — that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.

— Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of yourlife.

— Marcus Aurelius

Most people treat the present moment as if it were an obstacle that they need to overcome. Since the present moment is life itself, it is an insane way to live.

— Eckhart Tolle

See the Beauty That Is Already Present in the Little Things All Around You

Every experience, no matter how bad it seems, holds within it a blessing of some kind. The goal is to find it.

— Buddha

Each step along the Buddha's path to happiness requires practicing mindfulness until it becomes part of your daily life.

— Henepola Gunaratana

Our culture encourages us to plan every moment and fill our schedules with one activity and obligation after the next, with no time to just be. But the human body and mind require downtime to rejuvenate. I have found my greatest moments of joy and peace just sitting in silence, and then I take that joy and peace with me out into the world.

— Holly Mosier

Be happy in the moment, that's enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.

— Mother Teresa

This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.

— Alan Watts

Learn as You Go: When and Where Should I Meditate?

As you may already know, meditation can be done anytime and anywhere. That being said, if you want to build a lasting habit, you should try to meditate at approximately the same time and place each day. This way, your brain will start to associate that time and place with meditating and will be prepared when you get there.

To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread.

— James Baldwin

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.

— Thích Nhat Hanh

The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle.

— Tara Brach

The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are moments when we touch one another.

— Jack Kornfield