What is mindfulness?
Last updated on 3rd November 2011
Modo liceat vivere, est spes. While there's life, there's hope.
- Terence
Yesterday we had the twelfth & final session of this "Life skills" evening class. There was scheduled to have been a bit less than a three month gap since the last - eleventh - session. However the heavy winter snow we'd experienced had resulted in this last session being postponed.
One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
- Walter Bagehot
People think angels fly because they have wings. Angels fly because they take themselves lightly.
- Anonymous
I wrote yesterday about the first part of this tenth "Life skills" evening. I particularly discussed development of Goodwill practice - very much in the "Nourishing positive states" section of the "Four aspects" diagram (below). In the second half of the evening we moved on to the "Exploring & processing" section of the diagram with the introduction particularly of various forms of therapeutic writing.
The "real world" is a construct, and some peculiarities of scientific thought become more intelligible when this fact is recognized ... Einstein himself in 1926 told Heisenberg it was nonsense to found a theory on observable facts alone, saying "In reality the very opposite happens. It is theory which decides what we can observe." - D. O. Hebb
If you want others to be happy, practise compassion. If you want to be happy, practise compassion. Dalai Lama
Happiness is a kind of gratitude; it is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy what we have that really counts. - E. Edwards
Yesterday was the ninth evening of this "Life skills" training. I wrote about the eighth session last week. The sequence of regular weekly classes now moves on to increasing gaps between sessions - so it's three weeks until the tenth, a further five weeks until the eleventh, and then an additional eleven weeks until the final twelfth session. My hope is that we will be able to arrange occasional follow-up meetings even after that.
When you were born, everyone was smiling but you were crying. Live such a life that when you depart, everyone is weeping but you are smiling. - Sa'di of Shiraz
The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.
- Carl Rogers
The secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient. - Francis Peabody
Yesterday we had the sixth session of this twelve evening "Life skills" course. I wrote last week about the fifth session. A dozen slides covering material we explored are viewable/downloadable at slides 1-6, Powerpoint or slides 1-6, PDF and slides 7-12, Powerpoint or slides 7-12, PDF.