Quotes on Mindfulness

[Daniel E.]

Exposure therapy - Wikipedia

A 2015 review pointed out parallels between exposure therapy and mindfulness, stating that mindful meditation "resembles an exposure situation because [mindfulness] practitioners 'turn towards their emotional experience', bring acceptance to bodily and affective responses, and refrain from engaging in internal reactivity towards it." Imaging studies have shown that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and the amygdala are all affected by exposure therapy; imaging studies have shown similar activity in these regions with mindfulness training.

 

[Daniel E.]

When you “need” things, they tend to be elusive; when you no longer “need” the universe, the universe will come to you.

~ David Burns

 

[Daniel E.]

"Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go."

“What you search is not necessarily the same as what you find. When you let go of the searching, you start finding.”

"If time is not real, then the dividing line between this world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion."

"The truth is lived, not taught."

"As a body everyone is single, as a soul never."

~ Hermann Hesse

 

[Daniel E.]

The normal human state is to suffer from a psychological disorder, which I call ‘humania’. The two main elements of this condition are ‘cognitive discord’ — the restlessness of our minds, with their constant (and often negatively-tinged) thought-chatter — and ‘ego-separateness’, our sense of being an ‘I’ inside our own mental space, in separateness to other people and the world ‘out there.’

~ Steve Taylor

 

[Daniel E.]

"People are more resilient than they believe they are. We underestimate what we can deal with. I think it is the fear of what we think it would be like if it happened, than it actually happening."

~ Stephanie, an anonymous therapist in a research study on trauma

 

[Daniel E.]

"Contrary to popular belief, mental health and mental illness are not opposites. The (consequential) fact is that they exist on separate axes. You can be high (or low) on both."

~ Noam Shpancer, Ph.D.

 

[Daniel E.]

“Funny how you have to picture losing a thing before you think you might value it after all.”

― Anne Tyler, Vinegar Girl

 

[Daniel E.]

"Life is an adventure, it's not a package tour."

~ Eckhart Tolle

 

[Daniel E.]

"What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit."

~ John Updike

 

[Daniel E.]

"Our practice is not about transcendence. It's about getting to know all the parts of ourselves, especially those we have ignored or abandoned."

"It is possible to chart a path through pain and ignorance. It is possible to transform misery into gold. It is possible. Alchemy happens. But the process of transformation is not easy or effortless. It demands a whole-bodied, wholehearted engagement. No part left out.”

~ Pamela Weiss, A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism

 

[Daniel E.]

"We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions."

- Brene Brown

 

[Daniel E.]

“The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.”

– Glenn Gould, late pianist

 

[Daniel E.]

“To me, science is just formalized curiosity.”

– Chris Hadfield, astronaut

 

[Daniel E.]

"Once you're dealing on a nonverbal level, ambiguity is unavoidable. But it's the ambiguity of all art, of a fine piece of music or a painting--you don't need written instructions by the composer or painter accompanying such works to "explain" them...Reactions to art are always different because they are always deeply personal."

~ Stanley Kubrick (1969 interview)

 

[Daniel E.]

“Every act has both good and evil results. Every act in life yields pairs of opposites in its results. The best we can do is lean toward the [good].”

~ Joseph Campbell

 

[Daniel E.]

"A little more cowbell."

~ Saturday Night Live

 

[Daniel E.]

"Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities."

~ Mark Twain

 

[Daniel E.]

"I have come to feel that the essence of life is not what it so often seems to be -- working to have, working to get, working to possess. It's about becoming. It's about what's happening inside us."

― Mary Ellen Edmunds

 

[Daniel E.]

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”

― Confucious

 

[Daniel E.]

"What we do see depends mainly on what we look for. ... In the same field the farmer will notice the crop, the geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the colouring, sportmen the cover for the game. Though we may all look at the same things, it does not all follow that we should see them."

― John Lubbock, The Beauties of Nature and the Wonders of the World We Live In