Holiday Love Challenge #1: Give the Gift of Your Presence
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Posts tagged with “presence”
How to Find Joy in Every Day (Even the Hard Ones)
“Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It means you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.” ~Unknown
It’s the question we’re all trying to answer: What is happiness and how do we get it? We fill our lives with the busyness of searching for happiness in many things, yet it’s possible that the very pursuit is taking us further away from the goal.
I spent many years following society’s recipe for happiness.
I was settled with my partner, climbing the career ladder, dining out, buying clothes, and planning nice holidays, but I was so busy chasing happiness, I missed out …
The Power of Presence : A Few Simple Ways to Enjoy Life More Now
“All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.” ~Martha Graham
I am someone who is always focusing on the next step rather than the step I am currently taking. I am always longing for the next thing in life.
Looking forward to the future isn’t a bad thing, but when it consumes 90% of your daily thoughts, it becomes a bit exhausting.
My energy has always been restless. I get bored easily, crave change constantly, and yearn for immediate fulfillment. At …
A Simple Way to Be Present and Live Life to the Fullest
“As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out the present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love—even the most simple action.” ~Eckhart Tolle
People have always told me to stay in the present and make every moment count. I nod my head, manage to stay present for about an hour, and then alternate between living in the past and the future.
It can be a struggle to stay in the now, especially when life seems …
Engaging in the Moment Instead of Wanting to Be Somewhere Else
“Happiness is enjoying the moment for what it is, not what it could be or should be.” ~Unknown
Many of us have been there…
The alarm goes off. In anger, we strike the wretched machine in hopes of getting a few more precious minutes of beauty sleep.
It’s Monday again. The weekend is over and it will be another five days—120 hours, 7,200 minutes, 432,000 seconds—until we throw up our hands again in triumph and say, “Thank goodness it’s Friday!”
We’ve often committed ourselves to the lie that Monday must be terrible. In the U.S., the very idea of hating …
Improv(e) Your Life: Lessons on Risks, Gifts, and More
“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.” ~Eckhart Tolle
Improv comedy is something I’ve always enjoyed. I thought it would be fun to try, so I eventually took a class. Countless classes and many laughs later, I’ve learned that improv is a lot like life. In fact, applying what you learn in improv can actually improve your life.
Risky Business
Showing up at an improv class for the first time might prove intimidating or anxiety provoking for some. I felt some nerves when taking my first class, …
Slow Down and Fully Enjoy This Moment
“Don’t miss all the beautiful colors of the rainbow looking for that pot of gold.” ~Unknown
Have you noticed that time seems to go by faster as you get older? Holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries all come and go—and before we know it, here they come again.
One theory neuroscientists have is that when we are young we have more novel experiences. These novel experiences create more vivid memories. As we age, we have less “new” or “first time” experiences. There are no unique memories to stand out.
We can also look at it another way. When we’re doing something new, …
Embodied Presence: Find Freedom from Your Thoughts and Emotions
“To be alive is to totally and openly participate in the simplicity and elegance of here and now.” ~Donald Altman
Embodied presence probably sounds superfluous. How else would we be present but in the body? If we leave our bodies, then we are by definition deceased. No longer present.
The simplicity of this embodied presence idea belies its depth though. The issue isn’t that I’m ever literally disembodied, but that I’m often unaware of my body-mind connection to the point that I’m not sufficiently mindful of the moment.
I know I’m not unique for this. We all do this. …
Overcoming Anxiety: Moving from Fear to Presence
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” ~Nelson Mandela
When I was a trainee teacher at a Cambridge University, I attended one of the oldest, most sought-after colleges, where most of the other graduate students were astrophysicists and economists, and 90% male.
They also seemed to come from families that were in some way related to the Queen of England, whereas I was a young, pregnant, trainee high school teacher whose nearest connection to Queens was owning a Freddie Mercury single, and I was a little shy.
Formal college dinners were a …
7 Tips To Help You Slow Down and Enjoy Your Life As It Is
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.” ~Gandhi
I have always been a person who wants to be one step ahead. I think my parents would say that I liked to push the boundaries. I wanted to experience many things, and I wanted to experience them quickly.
When my brother went to sleep-away camp, I had to go the next year despite being three years younger than him.
At age thirteen I had to ski with the older kids, racing faster and harder than I was ready for.
When I was fifteen I pushed to take a trip …
12 Tips to Create a Peaceful, Passionate Life
“Get out of your head and get into your heart. Think less, feel more.” ~Osho
Osho’s game was to get people out of their heads. He wasn’t focused on world peace; he was intent on self-peace.
How do you get out of your head? How do you get more present?
For most of my life, I was stuck in my head. “Stuckness” was my primary experience. I always wanted to be somewhere else, someone else.
After years of quietly suffering and pretending to be happy, I came to understand that my stuckness was caused by numbness—physical, emotional, and spiritual.…
3 Keys to Staying Present under Pressure
“The only pressure I’m under is the pressure I’ve put on myself.” ~Mark Messier
Back when Earth was cooling, I was a broker at Shearson Lehman Brothers. I still have nightmares about the pressure there—the pressure to sell stocks and bonds, to succeed, to be the best in the office, and to forget what is really important in life.
Now I write books and lead workshops. I live on thirty-three acres with a couple hundred blueberry plants, foxes, incredible people, sunrises, sunsets, and cold dips in a mountain pond all in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains.
While it …
Be a Master of Where You Are Now
“Have respect for yourself, and patience and compassion. With these, you can handle anything.” ~Jack Kornfield
I hadn’t taken a yoga class in a while, and in the midst of my busy schedule I finally gave myself permission to go. Needless to say it had been a few months since I found myself in a downward dog position.
Something was different about my participation in two classes I recently took. I wish I could say I was able to go deeper into the poses, but it was actually challenging because my flexibility is not where it used to be.
What …
Book Giveaway and Interview: One Minute Mindfulness
Update: The winners for this giveaway have been chosen. Subscribe to Tiny Buddha to learn about future giveaways!
The winners:
As you can likely tell from the number of author interviews/giveaways I’ve posted during these last few weeks, I’ve been receiving and reading a wide selection of books lately. One-Minute Mindfulness is now sitting on my coffee table, where I know I will refer it often.
The full title reads One-Minute Mindfulness: 50 Simple Ways to Find Peace, Clarity, and New Possibilities in a Stressed-Out World. It delivers on its promise.
From the Amazon Description:…
Feel. Focus. Flow.
“This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival” ~Rumi
Not more than half an hour ago, I was, in a very typical fashion, struggling and getting frustrated trying to gather my thoughts for this post. I could even feel the tension in my shoulders clawing its way up to my neck (over a blog?).
Even as I took a shower, I was scrubbing the shampoo into my hair so hard because I was in a rush and had so many other thoughts whizzing round in my head! I was well and truly unconscious, going through the …
10 Ways to Let Go of Work on the Weekend
“One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching.” ~Unknown
Sometimes, for me, it’s not a matter of if I’ll work on the weekend; it’s a matter of how.
On the one hand, I’m committed to being mindful and creating balance in my life.
On the other hand, I have a lot of dreams and goals and I enjoy giving my all to pursuing them. Even if it sometimes means I write on a Saturday or edit on a Sunday.
I’ve decided that what’s most important is not to create a black-and-white understanding of …
7 Tips to Keep Technology from Taking Over Your Life (from Wisdom 2.0)
“To change the world we need to combine ancient wisdom with new technologies.” ~Paulo Cohelo
This weekend I was honored and grateful to speak at Wisdom 2.0, a conference that addressed the question:
How can we use the technologies of our age, from cell phones to social media, with mindfulness, meaning, and wisdom?
Organizer Soren Gordhamer, author of Wisdom 2.0: Ancient Secrets for the Creative and Constantly Connected, created nothing short of magic by attracting participants from all sides of the conversation, from Twitter and Facebook to Yoga Journal and Samovar Tea.
If you’ve ever sat in a room …
10 Things That Are Real: How to Take a Break & Connect with Yourself
“The world doesn’t happen to you, it happens from you.” ~Unknown
It’s easy for me to drown in the sea of day-to-day things. How can I not when technology, social networks, phone calls, and the pressure to be successful in spite of the economic downturn constantly bombard me?
It’s almost as if catching a breath of air, and not a forced one, has become increasingly difficult. The world as we know it is constantly evolving before our eyes. How are we to keep up? Must we keep up if it means losing sight of the simplicities we cherish?
Some of …
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