The Practicing Mind: Bringing Discipline and Focus Into Your Life

I told her that it might seem hard to believe, but that the feelings she was experiencing right then were just emotions and that they would pass. I also told her, “If at the end of that time you still feel that you really have to have a pogo stick like hers, I will buy you one for executing the patience.”

I hope you already know that the answer is that it is always perfect. It is perfect at being wherever it is and at whatever stage of growth it is in at that

equanimity comes from the art of non-judgment. Non-judgment quiets the internal dialogue of our mind.

When you remain aware of your intention to stay focused on the present, it’s easy to see when you have fallen out of this perspective. You immediately begin to judge what and how well you are doing and you experience impatience and boredom. When you catch yourself in that moment, just gently remind yourself that you have fallen out of the present,

I feel that a large part of what makes us define something as work is that the activity requires a lot of decision-making, and that can be very stressful and fatiguing. This is especially true when the decisions that you are making are very subtle and you are not even aware that you are making them.

You have simplified the task by breaking it down into small segments and only asking yourself to focus for a short period of time.

When you truly shift into putting your attention on what you are doing “right now” and continue to be aware that you are doing so, you begin to feel so calm, refreshed and in control. Your mind slows down because you are only asking it to think of one thing at a time. The inner chatter drops away.

What is required is that you are aware of what you want to achieve, that you know the motions you must intentionally repeat to accomplish the goal, and that you execute your actions with no emotions or judgments; just stay on course.

Speaking about what she was reading, she said, “You need to keep reviewing these ideas so that you can hang on to the clarity and perspective. Otherwise, life steals it away.”

at once, but can be broken up into, say, six groups of ten or two groups of thirty during the day,