The Art of Mindfulness

We believe that our abilities are limited and this fills our mind with anger, greed, jealousy, cruelty, spite, fear, anxiety and turmoil.

We hurtle through our lives grasping at whatever we think will soothe our existential angst while batting away whatever hurts us or pushes our ego buttons. And as we do this we cause a lot of trouble for ourselves and for those around us. The truth is daily stressors and the situations which cause you stress may never go away but you can change your relationship with those stressors.

By changing how you relate to them you can not only manage them better but with time you can cut off the source of the stress and anxiety altogether. For instance, a demanding job: we have to deal with it; that’s reality. We have to accept that reality. And reality is that we can only do as best as we can; we have to accept the hours that go with it; we have to accept the problems and try solve these problems constructively. If we accept that reality, it helps us to stop projecting onto our job that this is a horrible situation, and onto ourselves that “I’m not good enough”; “I deserve more free time”; I want the problem to go away”.

This sounds good in theory but how can this theory really change your stress? Relief is possible if you let the practice of mindfulness and the wisdom of calming your mind guide you and you must begin with believing in the power of your mind! Being able to bring calm to the mind, identifying harmful patterns of behavior and remembering to be present and patient you will begin to train your mind to create a constant positive state of mind. There is great power in strengthening the mind to stay focused!