How we REACT to the many obstacles or challenges life brings to our doorstep determines our quality of life. And, our quality of life is determined by how we process and react to these inevitable hurdles. No one can escape the experience of suffering during their lifetime; however, we can prepare and train ourselves to run the hurdles that confront us with a greater amount of dexterity and with greater ease.
If anxiety, stress, worry, self-doubt, or depression affect your ability to enjoy your life and possibly manifest their existence via physical or emotional ways detrimental to your health and well-being, the practice of Mindfulness Meditation can help to ease your suffering.
We learn through Mindfulness that we can control (how we react) to our thoughts rather than having our thoughts control us…and that is a life-changing concept.
Each of us are not only products of our environment, we are also defined by our lifetime of experiences and those thoughts/beliefs we adopt along the way.
“Our own worst enemy cannot harm us as much as our unwise thoughts. No one can help us as much as our own compassionate thoughts.” — Buddha
We underestimate the role our thoughts play in our ability to meet our daily challenges. An extremely large percentage our beliefs have no basis in truth. We create them based upon our own experiences, what we have been told by parents, friends, teachers, clergymen, etc. Although many of our thoughts may have been appropriate in a given circumstance, we tend to cling to them and they become detrimental to our present well-being.. An example: when you were 10 years old, you were attacked and bitten by a dog. At the time, you acquired a fear of all dogs. However, over time you hopefully learn that not all dogs present a danger to you. But often we cling to those fears and hold on to a belief which has no basis in fact. Or a parent or teacher suggested to you early on in your life that you lacked creativity in your art class, so you attach yourself to the belief that you are not creative.
Mindfulness is a tool, neuro-scientifically researched, that will help you remove those obstacles of attached thoughts and unfounded beliefs that create a life burdened by anxiety, stress, worry, self-doubt and depression. It is not what happens to us in this life that defines us, it is how we choose to think and react to our life experiences. Our true essence resides not in our mind: but rather in our heart!
Your own thoughts can be your worst enemy!” — Tae Yun Kim