The notion that the mind and body are actually different sides of the same coin goes all the way back to the origins of medicine. For most of its history, the practice was not separated from other aspects of human activity. Jon Kabat-Zinn More Quotes by Jon Kabat-Zinn More Quotes From Jon Kabat-Zinn In any given moment we are either practicing mindfulness, or defacto, we are practicing mindlessness. Jon Kabat-Zinn given moments mindfulness Breathing is central to every aspect of meditation training. It's a wonderful place to focus in training the mind to be calm and concentrated. Jon Kabat-Zinn breathing focus meditation Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Tibetan, or other historical traditions, are all different streams in the same river, different currents in the same ocean. With the long view, we can trust that the seeds that we're planting are transforming the world. Jon Kabat-Zinn ocean historical long Science is now documenting that it's not the objects of meditation that are important, it's the process of paying attention to them - the attending - that actually influences the organism in a whole range of different ways. The brain changes significantly enough to impact thought, emotion, and other biological functions. Today, people recognize that they're not going to find well-being from the outside, or from a pill; they're going to find it by looking inside. All the suffering, stress, and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for. Jon Kabat-Zinn addiction stress people You might be tempted to avoid the messiness of daily living for the tranquility of stillness and peacefulness. This of course would be an attachment to stillness, and like any strong attachment, it leads to delusion. It arrests development and short-circuits the cultivation of wisdom. Jon Kabat-Zinn attachment strong life Initiate giving. Don't wait for someone to ask. See what happens - especially to you. You may find that you gain a greater clarity about yourself and about your relationships, as well as more energy rather than less. You may find that, rather than exhausting yourself or your resources, you will replenish them. Such is the power of mindful, selfless generosity. At the deepest level, there is no giver, no gift, and no recipient . . . only the universe rearranging itself. Jon Kabat-Zinn generosity waiting giving We call the effort to cultivate our ability to be in the present moment ‘practice’ or ‘meditation practice.’ Jon Kabat-Zinn meditation-practice effort moments The real meditation practice is how we live our lives from moment to moment to moment. Jon Kabat-Zinn meditation-practice moments real Practice moment to moment non-judgemental awareness. Jon Kabat-Zinn judgemental moments practice Mindful parenting is the hardest job on the planet, but it's also one that has the potential for the deepest kinds of satisfactions over the life span, and the greatest feelings of interconnectedness and community and belonging. Jon Kabat-Zinn hardest-job mom jobs So, in meditation practice, the best way to get somewhere is to let go of trying to get anywhere at all. Jon Kabat-Zinn meditation-practice letting-go trying This is something called "walking meditation." The goal is to learn to be aware of each and every movement and feeling. I know it seems ridiculous, but it does change the way you experience walking. Jon Kabat-Zinn meditation goal feelings I thought it was a stroke of genius that Hans Selye used the word stress, because it's true that if you don't know how to be in wise relationship to life, certain health consequences are bound to happen. If you stand up 12 hours a day on an assembly line, or constantly tell yourself life is not worth living, the body will respond in certain somewhat predictable ways. Jon Kabat-Zinn stress genius wise Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that. All ethics and morality, and a sense of interconnectedness, come out of the act of paying attention. Jon Kabat-Zinn loving-life compassion giving Any really good scientist is as much an artist as a scientist. All the interesting stuff is found on the edge between knowing and not knowing. I know that sounds like a meditation teacher speaking, but when you're in the laboratory, or you're theorizing about physics, you need to know what you know, but if you can't get out from under that, you won't be able to make that insightful, first-time connection that nobody else has seen before. Jon Kabat-Zinn artist teacher interesting Meditation is not about feeling a certain way. It's about feeling the way you feel. Jon Kabat-Zinn meditation feelings way The importance of the development of the emotional body is hardly recognized today. We are pretty much left to our own devices to come to full adulthood, whether man or woman. Our elders may have become so denatured themselves from a lack of such nurturance that there is no longer a collective knowledge of how to guide the awakening emotional vitality and authenticity of our young people, our children. Mindfulness may contribute to a reawakening of this ancient wisdom in ourselves and in others. Jon Kabat-Zinn emotional men children Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing. Jon Kabat-Zinn knowing mindfulness mean How we see and hold the full range of our experiences in our minds and in our hearts makes an enormous difference in the quality of this journey we are on and what it means to us. It can influence where we go, what happens, what we learn, and how we feel along the way. Jon Kabat-Zinn journey heart mean You make problem, you have problem Jon Kabat-Zinn problem life
