Pause breathe connect with mindfulness. Though it runs contrary to our mind’s mistaken beliefs, we truly begin to come alive only when we slow down to pause breathe, and connect with ourselves.
Connecting with ourselves means checking in with the state of our body, listening to its needs, and acting in response to those needs. It means checking in with the state of our heart, tending to our emotional needs, and attempting to meet ourselves and the world with an open heart even in the midst of fear, hurt, and the impulse to protect ourselves. And it means checking in with the state of our mind and learning to direct our awareness toward more wholesome mind states.
When we pause and connect with ourselves in these ways, we begin to see ourselves more clearly, and in seeing ourselves more clearly we have the freedom to choose how we will respond.
The great challenge in our busy world is to stay connected with ourselves— with our bodily felt experience, our living wisdom, our sensitivity and our depth.
John Welwood
To learn more about mindfulness, register for the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction MBSR online course.