The practice of meditation may at first seem counterintuitive or foreign to the Western mind. With the abundance of digital technologies and entertainment options available to us, why would anyone abandon these luxuries to sit alone in silence. Surely there are more productive ways one ought to spend their limited time here on earth. Yet meditation has become a recent cultural phenomenon. According to one study, … Continue reading The Science of Mindfulness
Much of our suffering and psychological problems we face are due to the fact that we are using ancient cognitive machinery to deal with the complexities of the modern world. Humans evolved though a process called natural selection in which genes that were best suited for their respective environments were passed on to the next generation. As Robert Wright notes in his book Why Buddhism is … Continue reading Mindfulness and Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer
The value of silence Continue reading The Importance of Silence
As humans we spend most of our lives in a state of perpetual craving and desire. We land a big promotion at work, but soon fantasize about continuing to move up the corporate ladder. We become consumed by discontent and dissatisfaction as we constantly compare our social standing to that of our peers. Wealth, status and power are engrained in our cultural ethos. However, all … Continue reading Escaping the Rat Race: Lessons from Buddhism
Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity Simone weil Our lives are the collective sum of what we choose to pay attention to. Each passing moment a spotlight is cast into the world and reveals to us what we focus on. In one sense nothing can be more important than cultivating one’s attention, it dictates what we see and how we interact with … Continue reading Attention – A Gateway to the Mysteries of the World
Self-understanding it’s trickier than it might seem at first. If you don’t believe me, think about the thoughts that come through your mind. Do you know what triggers them? I’m often surprised by the sh*t that goes through my mind and that’s why I want to understand myself better. I need to know where those thoughts come from. Is it because of some frustrations? Is … Continue reading A Mind Map towards understanding Yourself
Thanks to your comments to the Question of the Day – No. 404, I started to wonder why we tend to feel better while cleaning our surroundings if we have a bad mood. Is it cathartic? If so, why? Let’s consider the following scenario: you sit around your house feeling neutral (or even good) and all of a sudden something happens and your mood gets … Continue reading Cleaning the house helps cleaning the mind?
Things happen and I often hear that things happen to us. What if we somehow influence most of them? What if when a car breaks down and we blame the universe, it’s actually our fault for not doing its checks more often? What if when we get sick it’s because we haven’t paid enough attention to our health along the way? Things happen for a … Continue reading The Self-fulfilling Prophecy – Reblog
Have you ever thought about yourself as being a seed? Things might look like crap from time to time and maybe you feel that you are buried down deeper and deeper with no way out, but there is a way out: through everything. Maybe you are in that point of your life when you enjoy almost everything about it. Or maybe you feel stuck in … Continue reading Do what seeds do: Grow Through Dirt
Each action we make involves some energy, but where is all that energy coming from? You surely noticed that we feel more energized when we do certain actions compared with others even though no additional energy came in. It seems that whenever we like something, we somehow find more energy to invest in that something compared to when we don’t like it. In … Continue reading Your Emotion is Your Energy
According to Wikipedia, “Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing one’s attention to experiences occurring in the present moment.” I’m sure most of you have heard about this and you practice it from time to time. I myself do also practice it from time to time and it is a constant battle between present and future. I try to enjoy the present moments whilst … Continue reading A few words about Mindfulness
In my opinion, movies are the closest thing to a complete expression of an idea. A movie has words, images, music and behavior and all together can get the closest to what it’s in its creator’s mind. If we think about this, sometimes a movie can have an only purpose – to get that idea out in the world. It might be considered a … Continue reading Thoughts about Movies
I often find myself full with strong feelings like anxiety or anger and even the most insignificant things can trigger an inappropriate response full of rage from my behalf. As I pointed in an older post, to get in control of my emotions I have to get in control of my thoughts. The process of monitoring and understanding our own thoughts is called introspection. … Continue reading Mindful Introspection
