Mindfulness Cards

When we're watching TV, at a movie, or using our devices, we tend to focus on what it is on the screen rather than the screen itself. Next time you're watching something on a screen, try including the screen itself as part of what you see. Notice what it feels like to include the screen in your viewing experience. This simple practice is a powerful metaphor for how our minds can get sucked into the content of our thoughts rather than taking a bigger view and looking at the nature of our awareness itself. 

Toad the Wet Sprocket, "Nightingale Song"

We sing the nightingale song alive
Streets never border further than my eyes
We sing the nightingale song alive
We might be different but our hearts won't lie
And little ever changes if anything at all
But the song rings loudly through these halls

Mindfulness Cards

On Kindness:

We can be really hard on ourselves. To balance feelings of self-criticism and unworthiness, it is really important to remember that fundamentally, we are actually on our own side. A good way to do this is to develop gratitude for yourself, recognizing that so much of what you do, you do for your own good -- even if it doesn't always work out in the way you expected. Take a few minutes today to close your eyes and thank yourself, because you're doing the best you can.

On Rest and Balance:

Doing nothing is a wonderful way to cultivate calm. And while it may sound paradoxical, doing nothing actually requires a fair bit of effort. Take 10 minutes today to step away from the usual hubbub of your life. Let yourself settle in to doing nothing, giving whatever energy and momentum is around you the space to run its course instead of engaging and giving it more fuel. By staying steady and letting everything run out of gas, you can start to notice what remains once the dust has settled. Rest with it.

On Insight and Awareness:

Cultivating insight is all about understanding the connections between things. But before you can understand connections, you have to see them. Whenever you see something interesting happening in your experience, practice looking for related connections. For example, if you're distracted by something while you're working, try recalling what emotion you felt just before the distraction. Or, when you feel a sensation in your body, notice what distinguished the sensation from all the sensations you don't normally notice. This practice of noticing will illuminate the connections between your mind, body, and experiences.

On Curiosity and Joy:

The connections and pathways in our brains change over the course of our lives based on how we think, what we do, and where we are (scientists call this neuroplasticity). In other words, our minds and our brains are constantly being trained. When you cultivate awareness, you can make a choice to have more control over what qualities you develop in yourself. Knowing this, what do you want to train your mind in right now?

Assistant coach and beloved player

 

"Mindfulness Cards: Simple Practices for Everyday Life"

As you deepen your mindfulness practice, the question of who and what it is that is aware of all this experience starts to become more and more prominent. If we are aware of our thoughts, then we can actually be our thoughts. Who knows? Spend 5 minutes siting with this question and pay attention to what comes up in your mind.

Elan and Baz

 

All I've managed to write today

I’m watching the stricken trees as the train pulls into Prague’s main train station. They are a copse of corpses, thin and blunted by the wind that doesn’t stop shrieking. I’ve picked quite the day to make the hourlong trip from Pardubice. You don’t fuck with an Eastern European winter. I learned this too late.