- new ABC - Attention, Balance, Compassion.
- Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, and the "mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR).
- Jack Kornfield, writer.
- Start the day tip: take 3 deep breaths before you leave the house.
- Mindfulness, motivation, goals, purpose -- the goals are laudable, but they also attach a purpose to the practice. "There is no purpose in mediation. As soon as you assign a purpose to meditation, you've made it just another activity to try to get someplace or reach some goal." -- Dr. K-Zinn.
- Five Whys (of motivation) -- (meditation teacher Ken McLeod) -- ask 5 whys. The aim is for the person being asked the question to discover the answer himself.
- Understanding motivation is the first step in mindfulness training.
- To continue the practice, don't "feel like doing it" ... intention, ardency, and perseverance.
- Meditation and distraction coexist. The object is not to rid your environment of distraction but to recognize them and resist engaging.
- Teach only what you know from direct experience.
- From early age, we live in a world that values achievement, glorifying results at the expense of process. Later, we find that there's something missing. With each accomplishment, the bar is set higher. We'd like to jump off the merry-go-round.
- Send friendly wishes.
- Rocking a stuffed animal to sleep with your breathing. Putting animal on your belly and breathing.
- Hello game. Your eyes look blue.
- Jack Zimmerman from Ojai Foundation, and the Council program. Council format and its four intentions -- speak from the heart, listen from the heart, be lean in your speech, and be spontaneous.
- Sufi teaching called the Three Gates: ask three questions before speaking: 1. Is it true? 2. Is it necessary? Is it kind?
- View life from perspective of impermanence. Nothing lasts forever. Whatever happens -- good, bad or neutral -- things are not likely to stay that way for very long.
- Carve out some time to be kind to yourself. Picture your own safe place. No place you have to go. Nothing you need to do. No one to please. Don't need anything other than what you have right now. There's no one else you have to be. All we're doing is resting. Nothing more and nothing less.
- Right now we're going to be as kind, and caring, and supportive of ourselves as we are of our friends. You are complete and whole just as you are. End by sending friendly wishes to ourselves.
- Tough to be happy when we don't recognize the beauty of our true nature.
- from Dear Patrick, by Dr. J. Schwartz: If you can observe it and describe it, it's not you -- not the core you, the real you ...
- The stance of the friendly observer discourages youth from overidentifying with their thoughts and emotions ... instead of "I am angry", it's "I have an angry feeling."
- "Watching the Wheels", John Lennon song. Fame and fortune can be enslaving.
- Antidote to auto behavior. Pause and 1. reflect on your motivation (friendly or unfriendly?); 2. Actions likely to spring from that motivation make me happy or not?: 3. If not, shift gears toward a different action.
- String around your finger: a friendly awareness of your daily routine. To pause and take in what's happening in your mind and body.
- Bad emotions. They are visitors, and will not stay forever. By personifying emotions as visitors.
- The Way of the Council, by Jack Zimmerman.
- Mindfulness practice to soothe sadness: When something bad happens, acknowledge it right away, and then quickly give thanks for three things.
- Reverse Follow the Leader Game. Follow the child. They are always the leader. The plan is for the parents to become completely and totally tuned into their children's rhythm, interests, and activities. Role reversal. What it actually feels like to be them. Practice floor time.
- So when you meet someone whom you find difficult, think of him or her as having been your mother or father in another lifetime. Compassion and love can naturally emerge from that visualization. When working with kids who are being difficult, it is also helpful to imagine that they are your own children.
- Decorate a rock. Focus rock. Meditation rock.
- Dr. Paul Cummins: I don't think you teach character development intellectually, but it has to be more emotional, and experiential. Why community service is so important. That's what education is all about, not SAT scores and what college you get into. Action is the primary antidote to depression and alienation.
- T.S. Eliot in his Four Quartets:
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
- from the fable of the kind and gentle princess: she taught that everything, absolutely everything is bigger than you think. Everything is so big you can never truly see the whole picture. But we can see the seems, where things connect. Community service is important. The secret to happiness is being kind to other people and to yourself.
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