Tag: Mindfulness

Bad Habit of Overthinking

But looking at it from another angle, if we’re able to control our mind, maybe we’ll be able to stop the continuous thinking that goes on in our head, dictating how we behave. The problem here is that the mind has a habit of looking for stronger stimulation and can get out of control if we let it. Because negative thoughts have a much stronger impact on our brain than a mild, gentle sense of happiness, it’s hard to prevent that from happening.

The Practice of Not Thinking: A Guide to Mindful Living
Ryunosuke Koike

Be Comfortable Being Uncomfortable / Buy Some Popcorn and Watch the Show

‘Be comfortable being uncomfortable.’

It is a phrase that’s sometimes tossed around flippantly, but if put into practice, it can have a powerful impact.

Pain and unpleasantries make up an important part of the human experience, yet given our conditioning to lean towards safety and away from risk, accepting them is very unnatural.

“Humans seem to have developed a host of coping mechanisms to distract or dissociate ourselves from unpleasant or negative feelings,” Dr Muireann Irish, Senior Research Officer at Neuroscience Research Australia, told The Huffington Post Australia.

…
Consider the physical sensations that arise when your body feels stressed or anxious. Instead of resisting them, try to sit with them.

“Mindfulness builds on the premise of maintaining a focus on experiencing the present, even if that means attending to the experience of negative sensations,” Irish said.

Emma Brancatisano
HuffingtonPost

Buy some popcorn and watch the show. – Phrase I’ve recently heard to describe the policy of sitting in discomfort.

Dan Harris Interview – Fresh Air

Having this self-awareness — otherwise known as mindfulness — which is what’s developed through the process of seeing your distractions and then beginning again (gently over and over and over again), that is a game-changing skill. Because … this nonstop conversation … is a central feature of your life — whether you know it or not, we’re all walking around with this inner narrator that if we broadcast loud, you would be locked up. And when you’re unaware of this cacophony internally, it’s owning you all the time. And what we’re doing in meditation is dragging all of this nonsense out of the shadows and into the light.

Fresh Air