In Asian languages, the word for mind and the word for heart are same. So if you’re not hearing mindfulness in some deep way as heartfulness, you’re not really understanding it. Compassion and kindness towards oneself are intrinsically woven into it. You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

change positive inspirational

When people say "Let it go," what they really mean is "Get over it," and that's not a helpful thing to say. It's not a matter of letting go - you would if you could. Instead of "Let it go," we should probably say "Let it be"; this recognizes that the mind won't let go and the problem may not go away, and it allows you to form a healthier relationship with what's bothering you.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

bothering-you letting-go mean

Mindfulness means moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness. It is cultivated by refining our capacity to pay attention, intentionally, in the present moment, and then sustaining that attention over time as best we can. In the process, we become more in touch with our life as it is unfolding.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

mindfulness attention mean

It is indeed a radical act of love just to sit down and be quiet for a time by yourself.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

acts-of-love down-and quiet

Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

mindfulness attention mean

Wherever you go, there you are. Whatever you wind up doing, that's what you've wound up doing. Whatever you are thinking right now, that's what's on your mind. Whatever has happened to you, it has already happened. The important question is, "how are you going to handle it?"

Jon Kabat-Zinn

mind wind thinking

The only time you ever have in which to learn anything or see anything or feel anything, or express any feeling or emotion, or respond to an event, or grow, or heal, is this moment, because this is the only moment any of us ever gets. You're only here now; you're only alive in this moment.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

events spiritual feelings

Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives. It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment. We also gain immediate access to our own powerful inner resources for insight, transformation, and healing.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

powerful mindfulness healing

The little things? The little moments? They aren't little.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

simplicity inspiring life

It is remarkable how liberating it feels to be able to see that your thoughts are just thoughts and that they are not 'you' or 'reality.' For instance, if you have the thought that you have to get a certain number of things done today and you don't recognize it as a thought but act as if it's the 'the truth,' then you have created a reality in that moment in which you really believe that those things must all be done today.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

life-changing believe reality

Patience is a form of wisdom. It demonstrates that we understand and accept the fact that sometimes things must unfold in their own time.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

patience sometimes facts

Healing is a coming to terms with things as they are, rather than struggling to force them to be as they once were, or as we would like them to be, to feel secure or to have what we sometimes think of as our own way.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

struggle healing thinking

As long as you are breathing, there is more right with you than there is wrong, no matter how ill or how hopeless you may feel. But if you hope to mobilize your inner capacities for growth and for healing and to take charge in your life on a new level, a certain kind of effort and energy on your part will be required.... It will take conscious effort on your part to move in a direction of healing and inner peace. This means learning to work with the very stress and pain that is causing you to suffer.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

stress pain moving

Note that this journey is uniquely yours, no one else's. So the path has to be your own. You cannot imitate somebody else's journey and still be true to yourself. Are you prepared to honor your uniqueness in this way?

Jon Kabat-Zinn

journey honor life

Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

meditation-practice trying life

We take care of the future best by taking care of the present now.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

take-care care

All the suffering, stress, and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

addiction stress suffering

If we are honest with ourselves, most of us will have to admit that we live out our lives in an ocean of fear.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

spiritual fear life

Just watch this moment, without trying to change it at all. What is happening? What do you feel? What do you see? What do you hear?

Jon Kabat-Zinn

trying watches life

Arriving someplace more desirable at some future time is an illusion. This is it.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

future-time arriving illusion