"Mindfullness” is a common misspelling of the word “mindfulness.” An interesting misspelling because it implies a full mind. But the question is, “full of what?”...
When asked how to hold a sword correctly, the actor Errol Flynn replied, “In the same way you would hold a bird, not too tightly and not too loosely. If you hold too...
Slow, deliberate strokes, indicative of a writer with an enlightened, peaceful disposition, are the strokes of Thich Nhat Hanh. In addition to being a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, author, poet and peace activist, Nhat Hanh practices mindful calligraphy and has put on many exhibits dedicated to his particular form of the art...
Women recently diagnosed with breast cancer have higher survival rates than those diagnosed in previous decades, according to the American Cancer Society. However, survivors continue to face...
Music is universally valued across cultures. Any person you meet on the street can tell you how music has affected their lives in one way or another. Usually this effect is tied to the emotion that...
Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn developed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center for patients suffering from pain. MBSR teaches individuals the...
I have worked with this mindfulness training consciously and unconsciously long before I knew there was a Buddhist precept about it. But I did not have a good understanding about anger or violence...
I am not you / and you are not me / and I needn't go / through you / to find myself...
The first and most profound of Don Miguel’s “Four Agreements” is Be Impeccable with Your Word. While this seems fairly straightforward, it takes on many subtle...
Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher and writer, often speaks about the power of deep listening and the effect this can have on another person...
Dazzling hues of pink and orange light up the slowly drifting clouds. The setting sun illuminates the mountain in front of me, casting an orange glow on the...
Psychologist Abraham Maslow once said that, "Sickness might consist of not having symptoms when you should." To expand upon Maslow's...
Imagine a spinning top. Stillness is like a perfectly centered top, spinning so fast it appears motionless. It appears this way not because it isn’t ...
Dealing with suffering is like handling a poisonous snake. We have to learn about the snake, and we ourselves have to grow stronger and more stable in order to handle it without hurting...
A stray cow is walking toward me. I cross the street to give it space, careful to avoid stepping on a tail of one of the many sprawled out, potentially rabid, dogs that lay on the other side.
Voluntary simplicity is a way of life that puts personal, inner growth ahead of material, outer growth. Also known as simple living, it advocates living with less, not as a result of poverty, but as...
Most of us sit on the fence; one leg dangling shamefully in hindsight, the other swinging longingly towards a future that may redeem itself. Both parts of our disjointed selves miss what’s right in...
Paying close attention to life through mindfulness helps us discover a world that was always there, but with immense enrichment. Without it, we miss many of life’s pleasures, like recognition of the...
I cross the flight path of the snowflake. Thwack. Cold and wet meets warm and dry. The chemical reaction tingles my cheek, waking me up to the fresh, bright...
Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life Thich Nhat Hanh [Parallax Press, 134 pages] This primer presents...
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