📅 Thought for today:

‘Once you start making the effort to “wake yourself up” – that is, be more mindful of your daily activities – you suddenly start appreciating your life more.’

— Robert Biswas-Diener

#thoughtfortoday #mindful #present #nofuture #nopast #justnow

This is my 820th “thought for today” quotation, and just for once, I get to tag the person whose quote I am using (on LinkedIn if not on Facebook).

When I tell people I did mindfulness teaching training at Oxford MC, the most common questions are about meditation.

I often get a, “I can’t empty my mind to meditate”, sort of comment. The people saying this are not asking me to explain that this is not necessary, just sharing their understanding and experience.

I sometimes get a, “I don’t have the time to meditate”, and these people do not want me to talk about priorities, they are just explaining that they have higher priorities.

And then I get the, “I can’t be doing with all that nonsense”, which I take as meaning they do not want to hear another word about it.

Very rarely I might have a conversation about what it means to be mindful all the time.

Instead of setting aside 5, 20, or 60 minutes a day to meditate, we can learn to be more present. To be in the moment.

Somewhere on my travels, I have picked up the expression, “There is no past, or future, except in our imagination, the only reality is the one we experience in this moment.”

At this point my grammar corrector will tell me I should say “at this moment”, and I will dismiss its suggestion.

Being “in this moment”, paying attention to what is happening right now, and reducing the air time to thoughts of the past, or the future has helped me appreciate my own life more.