Quotes on Mindfulness

[David Baxter PhD]

10 Quotes for a Mindful Day
By Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D., PsychCentral
July 10, 2009

1. ?Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.? ~ Dalai Lama
2. ?If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.? ~ Dalai Lama
3. ?There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.? ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
4. ?If it isn?t good, let it die. If it doesn?t die, make it good.? ~ Ajahn Chah
5. ?If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.? - Pema Chodron
6. ?As soon as we wish to be happier, we are no longer happy.? ~ Walter Landor
7. ?Hatred never ceases by hatred; it only ceases by love.This is a timeless truth? ~ Joseph Goldstein
8. ?There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.? ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
9. ?Realize that this very body, with its aches and it pleasures? is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive.? ~ Pema Chodron
10. ?When we scratch the wound and give into our addictions we do not allow the wound to heal.? ~ Pema Chodron

 

[Daniel E.]

"Life is short, so we must move very slowly." ~ Thai Proverb

"Nothing determines who we will become so much as those things we choose to ignore." ~ Sandor McNab

"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." ~ Carl Jung

 

[David Baxter PhD]

"Mmmmm... floor pie." ~ Homer Simpson

When you consider that he utters those words while swinging by his feet after being caught in a trap set by Bart, I think you'll agree that it represents the very essence of staying in the present.

 

[Daniel E.]

BTW, he was also good at time management by using the unschedule method:

"It's not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a troubled child, but somehow I managed to fit in eight hours of TV a day." :homer:

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Homer is truly a model for us all. :homer:

 

[Mari]

I heard this recently from a new mother to a group of parents.

Babies do not come with a handbook but they do arrive all bundled up in guilt.

 

[Daniel E.]

"The essence of mindfulness in daily life is to make every moment you have your own." ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living

“I'm always on vacation.” ~ Gandhi

 

[David Baxter PhD]

"The essence of mindfulness in daily life is to make every moment you have your own." ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living

I've had a couple of clients recommend that book to me. I really must get a copy and read it one of these days.

 

[Daniel E.]

The irony is that I got the book because you (or an article you posted) mentioned it

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Well, it's been on my list for about 2 or 3 years I think...

Another one is a book on addictions called The Selfish Brain - that's been on my list even longer.

 

[Daniel E.]

"We have only moments to live." ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn & others

 

[David Baxter PhD]

 

[NicNak]

"Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box."
Italian Proverb

"As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to love it more and more."
Jules Renard

"We live longer than our forefathers; but we suffer more from a thousand artificial anxieties and cares. They fatigued only the muscles, we exhaust the finer strength of the nerves."
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want."
Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

"Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are."
Chinese Proverb

 

[Daniel E.]

My favorites of those:

"As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to love it more and more."
Jules Renard

"Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are."
Chinese Proverb

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Especially

"Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are."
Chinese Proverb

 

[Daniel E.]

“Whether or not thoughts come to us does not depend on our will. But whether or not we accept them – that depends on us” ~ Dostoyevsky

 

[Daniel E.]

"You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn

"Can you keep your heart open in hell?" ~ Zen saying

 

[Daniel E.]

"Just imagine how happy you'd be if you lost everything you have right now…and then got it all back." ~ Bertrand Russell

 

[forgetmenot]

"After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box."
Italian Proverb

If only that held true in real life terms unfortunately not

 

[Daniel E.]

10 (More) Quotes for a Mindful Day - Part 2
By Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D.

Four months ago I wrote a blog post titled 10 Quotes for a Mindful Day. Since then I began an increasingly popular tradition called Mondays Mindful Quote where every Monday I post a quote that I think has some relevance to Mindfulness and Psychotherapy and then explore the quote.

Here is a list of 10 (More) Quotes for a Mindful Day, with some having links back to blog posts where I have explored the quote. There is a lot under these links, so feel free to bookmark this page and come back to it over and again. Enjoy!

1. “You can hold back from suffering of the world,
   you have permission to do so,
   and it is in accordance with your nature,
   but perhaps this very holding back
   is the one suffering you could have avoided.” ~ Franz Kafka
2. “Don’t turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place. That’s where the light enters you.” ~ Rumi
3. “Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you’re right.” ~ Henry Ford
4. “The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis but rather the feeling of not belonging.” ~ Mother Teresa
5. “Nothing endures but change.” ~ Heraclitus
6. “To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfections.” ~ Dogen Zenji
7. “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
8. “Every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.” ~ Viktor Frankl
9. “When the resistance is gone, the demons are gone.” ~ Pema Chodron
10. “You lose your grip and then you slip, Into the masterpiece.” ~ Leonard Cohen

All of these quotes are reflected in the work done with mindfulness and psychotherapy for emotional healing.

As always, please share your own quotes, stories, thoughts, and questions below. Your interaction here truly does create a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.

Part 3

A while back I wrote the post 10 Quotes for a Mindful Day and followed up with 10 (More) Quotes for a Mindful Day. Since then I began an increasingly popular tradition called Mondays Mindful Quote where every Monday I post a quote that I think has some relevance to Mindfulness and Psychotherapy and then explore the quote.

Here is a new list I’m calling 10 Quotes for a Mindful Day Part III. I will write future posts that explore some of these quotes and how they are relevant to our daily lives. If you already have ideas on how they are relevant to you, please share your thoughts below (you can even do so anonymously if you like) as we can all learn from this living wisdom. Enjoy!

• “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
  ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
• “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 Ch?dr?n
• “Few of us ever live in the present. We are forever anticipating what is to come or remembering what has gone.”
  ~ Louis L’Amour
• “There is only one world, the world pressing against you at this minute. There is only one minute in which you are alive, this minute here and now. The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle.”
  ~ Storm Jameson
• “When we put down ideas of what life should be like, we are free to wholeheartedly say yes to our life as it is.”
  ~ Tara Brach
• “We have to face the pain we have been running from. In fact, we need to learn to rest in it and let its searing power transform us.”
  ~Charlotte Joko Beck
• “Life is this simple. We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable. This is true.”
  ~Thomas Merton.
• “There is sitting meditation. There is walking meditation. Why not listening and speaking meditation? Isn’t it sensible that one could practice mindfulness in relationship and so get better at it?”
  ~Gregroy Kramer
• “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.”
  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”
  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

What are some quotes that move you?

Please share your thoughts, stories, quotes, and questions below. Your interaction provides a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.

Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. is a Clinical Psychologist and conducts a private practice in West Los Angeles. He is co-author of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook (New Harbinger, February 2010). Check out Dr. Goldstein's acclaimed CD's on Mindful Solutions for Stress, Anxiety and Depression, Addiction and Relapse Prevention, and Success and Stress Reduction at Work.