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There are a lot of different ways to talk about mindfulness, but what it really means is awareness.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.
JON KABAT-ZINN

Attention Judgment Mindset Moments Pay Present Purpose
You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.
JON KABAT-ZINN

Affection Attention Thinking Wisdom Yourself
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

Chance Death Live Ourselves Risk Wake Up
The real meditation is how you live your life.
JON KABAT-ZINN

Life Live Meditation Reality
Writing can be an incredible mindfulness practice.
JON KABAT-ZINN

Incredible Practice Writing
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

Community Feeling Hard Job Mindset Potential
Meditation is really a non-doing. It is the only human endeavor I know of being where you already are.
JON KABAT-ZINN

Human Meditation Yourself
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

Commitment Eat Ethics Garden Harmony Young Yourself
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

Body Connection Development Kind Meditation Technology
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

Imitation Journey Path Preparation Respect True Unique Way Yourself
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

Activity Human Improvement Intention Meditation Simplicity System Yourself
You are only here now; you’re only alive in this moment.
JON KABAT-ZINN

Alive Moments Yourself
All the suffering, stress, and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.
JON KABAT-ZINN

Addiction Preparation Sight Stress Suffering Yourself
He who dies before he dies does not die when he dies.
JON KABAT-ZINN

Death Deep Himself Philosophy
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

Arise Hold On Moments Reject Seek Wisdom
Just stopping, is a radical act of sanity and love.
JON KABAT-ZINN

Act Love Sanity Stop
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

Change Experience Feeling Goal Learning Meditation Moment Myself Walk
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

Deep Myself Place See Simplicity Wisdom
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

Awake Live Mindset Moments Ourselves Powerful Resource Transformation
Meditation is simply about being yourself and know about who that is.
JON KABAT-ZINN

Be Yourself Meditation Simplicity
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

Capacity Cultivate Education Focus Ourselves Student System
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

Aware Beautiful Live Meaning Missing Ourselves State
From the point of view of the meditative traditions the entire society is suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
JON KABAT-ZINN

Attention Meditation Point Society Suffering Tradition View
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

Aware Darkness Fundamental Gold Health Hold Pain Strong Yourself
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

Attention Change Feeling Growth Learning Moments Pay Present Time
In letting go of wanting something special to occur, maybe we can realize that something special is already occurring.
JON KABAT-ZINN

Let Go Magic Moments Special Time
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

Eat Huge News Walk Yourself

There are a lot of different ways to talk about mindfulness, but what it really means is awareness.

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There are a lot of different ways to talk about mindfulness, but what it really means is awareness.

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