This moment-by-moment awareness of how we are gives us a good "heads up" in challenging situations, wherever we are. It allows us the opportunity to pause and to move to a steadier place where we can decide upon a skilful response when we face difficulty, rather than, rushing in with a response that we may later regret.
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Present moment awareness also includes being receptive to sounds, smells and sights and the inclusion of these other senses in the meditation are taught in each course. Being more present enables us to notice and engage with the small moments of joy and pleasure that are available to us each and every day as we go about our lives.
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"Between the stimulus and the response there is a space and in that space lies our power and our freedom"
- Viktor E Frankl - |
...this moment...the only moment that we have in which to live, grow, feel and change...
- Jon Kabat Zinn - |
In fact, as important as the posture that you adopt, is the attitude that you bring to the meditation. It's helpful to form an "intention" to be wakeful and alert and receptive to all that arises (the flow of bodily sensations, thoughts and moods; the sounds, smells and sights in the room) during the time that you are meditating.
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Learning to "be" with the difficult also links in to another dimension of the definition of mindfulness offered earlier - that of paying attention to "things as they are". There is no agenda within the meditation itself for trying to change anything for the better. Although, paradoxically, it is this very process of learning to be with "what is", that seems to effect positive change.
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