Fully Engaged: Using the Practicing Mind in Daily Life

along the path of mastering parenthood.

observer, we are growing our thought awareness, our ability to watch our thoughts instead of simply being immersed in them and reacting to whatever emotion or sensation they elicit.

Most of us know exactly what sets us off in a difficult confrontation. Without the correct tools at hand, we can very quickly become absorbed in the emotion of the situation. Instead of being the observer of our thoughts, we become tightly integrated with them, acting out whatever we are feeling.

ability. That means that in this moment you are pushing through a barrier.

The mind doesn’t like the present moment — or at least it doesn’t like being instructed to be in the present moment. It thinks there’s nothing for it to do there. It loves to problem solve. And if you don’t give it a problem to solve, it will go looking for one. That is its nature, and it’s not always a bad thing.

One reason for this is that the feelings that create this experience are always rooted in either the past or the future. The simple phrase “And then what?” immediately pulls us into the present moment because we cannot have the awareness to ask ourselves this question if we are experiencing this moment outside the present.

I asked myself this question: “If I could react any way I wanted in this situation, what would that way be?”

our experience of lack is a behavior that we have firmly installed into our personalities,

that, we are successful. In every repetition we become more powerful in our ability to control how we are experiencing any moment.