For example, if your partner had a bad day at work and complains about the food you made, it takes mindfulness to maintain an objective awareness that recognizes the real cause of the complaint. But when strong emotions take hold, all your energy pours into hyperfocused attention as you go into fight-or-flight mode. Your awareness fails, and

Awakening is an accident, but continued practice will make you accident-prone.

Mindfulness is the optimal interaction between attention and peripheral awareness.

Being fully present means being aware of it, but not engaging in its content.

The condition in which the mind “stands back” to observe its own state and activities is called metacognitive introspective awareness.

Once you have moved through the four steps and attention is restricted to the breath at the nose, start silently counting each breath.

Attention not only interprets objects based on self-interest, it leads us to identify with external objects (this is “my” car), or mental states (“I am” angry, happy, etc.).

intentions lead to mental actions, and repeated mental actions become mental habits.

Consistently neglecting peripheral awareness in favor of attention eventually stunts the faculty of awareness.