Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.
JON KABAT-ZINNThere are a lot of different ways to talk about mindfulness, but what it really means is awareness.
More Jon Kabat-Zinn Quotes
-
-
You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
Dying without actually fully living, without waking up to our lives while we have the chance, is an ongoing and significant risk.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
The real meditation is how you live your life.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
Writing can be an incredible mindfulness practice.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
Mindful parenting is the hardest job on the planet, but it’s also one that has the potential for the deepest kinds of satisfactions over the life span, and the greatest feelings of interconnectedness and community and belonging.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
Meditation is really a non-doing. It is the only human endeavor I know of being where you already are.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
But you cannot have harmony without a commitment to ethical behavior. It’s the fence that keeps out the goats that will eat all the young shoots in your garden.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
One way to look at meditation is as a kind of intrapsychic technology that’s been developed over thousands of years by traditions that know a lot about the mind/body connection.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
Note that this journey is uniquely yours, no one else’s. So the path has to be your own. You cannot imitate somebody else’s journey and still be true to yourself. Are you prepared to honor your uniqueness in this way?
JON KABAT-ZINN -
Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
You are only here now; you’re only alive in this moment.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
All the suffering, stress, and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
He who dies before he dies does not die when he dies.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
Stillness, insight, and wisdom arise only when we can settle into being complete in this moment, without having to seek or hold on to or reject anything.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
Just stopping, is a radical act of sanity and love.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
This is something called “walking meditation.” The goal is to learn to be aware of each and every movement and feeling. I know it seems ridiculous, but it does change the way you experience walking.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
Voluntary simplicity means going fewer places in one day rather than more, seeing less so I can see more, doing less so I can do more, acquiring less so I can have more.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives. It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment. We also gain immediate access to our own powerful inner resources for insight, transformation, and healing.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
Meditation is simply about being yourself and know about who that is.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
Too much of the education system orients students toward becoming better thinkers, but there is almost no focus on our capacity to pay attention and cultivate awareness.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
Living in a chronic state of unawareness can cause us to miss much of what is most beautiful and meaningful in our lives.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
From the point of view of the meditative traditions the entire society is suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
The awareness is not part of the darkness or the pain; it holds the pain, and knows it, so it has to be more fundamental, and closer to what is healthy and strong and golden within you.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
The only time that any of us have to grow or change or feel or learn anything is in the present moment. But we’re continually missing our present moments, almost willfully, by not paying attention.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
In letting go of wanting something special to occur, maybe we can realize that something special is already occurring.
JON KABAT-ZINN -
When you’re walking, just walk. When you’re eating, just eat. Not in front of the TV, not with the newspaper. It turns out, that’s huge.
JON KABAT-ZINN