"This is it!" - some ideas from Jon Kabat-Zinn - Mindfulness

I've made a few notes below on ideas from Jon Kabat-Zinn[i] that we explored in our Gentle Yoga and Mindfulness Meditation classes, Feb-March 2016

1.      a) Remind ourselves from time to time that “This is it”.  This is about accepting the present moment and letting go of wanting something else to happen in this present moment.  It doesn’t mean resignation in the face of what is happening but it does mean paying attention so as to acknowledge that what is happening is happening.

b) Acceptance doesn’t tell us what to do.  What happens next, what we choose to do, that has to come out of our understanding of this moment.

2.      “You can’t stop the waves but you can learn to surf.” Think of the mind as the surface of an ocean.  There are always waves, some bigger, some smaller.  Mindfulness does not try to stop the waves, but can help us learn to surf them.  Another image is of thinking as the cascade of a waterfall. We can learn to go beyond or behind our thinking – as if stepping out of the waterfall, resting from the torrent of the “autopilot”.

3.      Patience is a quality that can be cultivated to help mindfulness.  TRY: looking into impatience and anger when they arise.  See if we can adopt a different perspective, one which sees things as unfolding in their own time.  This may help if we are feeling under pressure.

4.      Non-judging.  The judging type of thinking can really dominate the mind and weigh it down, “like carrying a suitcase full of rocks on your head.”  Mindfulness can give us a chance to step back from habitual judgemental thinking (unconscious patterns of liking and disliking), and pause and gain clarity before making a decision. (See 1b above)

5.      Voluntary simplicity – doing one thing and really paying attention to it.  Resisting (at least sometimes) the impulse to squeeze one more thing (task/phone call etc.) into the present moment.

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[i] From: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are, Piatkus, London, 2011, Section 1 of the book “The Bloom of the Present Moment”

 

Please email me, Sue, at sjyogaandphilosophy@gmail.com if you have any queries or would like further information.