“When I think lightly, like a child who has not yet consolidated their concepts, I can see others without barriers,” Sebastião Miranda writes. “I can appreciate them solely for their existence. We must regain this lightness and learn to love like a child or a devoted mother.”
A mindful pause can open space for change—where even noticing a bad habit can be a win. What if we threw a little party for our awareness?Read Ellen Balzé’s reflections on mindfulness, habits, and self-compassion in Mindfulness and Changing Habits.
In the months following my serious fall and its traumatic aftermath, it was difficult for me to stay present. . . . Although I knew that thoughts of the past and future are futile, it was a challenge to let them go and be in the present moment, moment by moment.
It can be easy for me to fall into self-pity. I find myself clinging to a solid sense of self when I experience physical or emotional pain. But when I apply what I have learned in my longtime Buddhist practice, I can let go of my self-clinging and self-pity, and I can experience compassion for all suffering beings, including myself.
Engaging in self-reflection this way helps us to see things as they are, not as they seem. We invite ourselves to go deeper, to investigate our habitual patterns of judgment and values that we often take for granted. As we do so, we find that there is space there, a gap where we can decide how we want to proceed. We don’t have to be prisoners in our own mental cage.
Cardiac coherence is a method based on conscious breathing in a diaphragmatic way. The list of scientifically proven benefits is long. After two weeks of daily practice, stress resistance and emotional balance slowly increase; intellectual capacity and decision-making increase; and overall well-being improves.
