Quotes About Mindfulness

When we reach reflexively for something to dull an ache inside of us, in that very moment of reaching, we are hiding from our pain. We're storing it away. Tamping it down.

I won't ski in the backcountry the day after a big storm anymore. The mountains are so humbling. As soon as you think you're on top or crushing it, that's when you need to be really careful.

Buddhist mindfulness is about the present, but I also think it's about being real. Being awake to everything. Feeling like nothing can hurt you if you can look it straight on.

I don't care what straight people do, I don't care what gay people do. I don't care what nobody do. That's they business. I just care about what I do. You know what I'm saying?

I just want to live each moment, but it's kind of hard to do that when you are asked to analyze yourself constantly. But it's also good in that you are forced to think about things that you don't ordinarily think about. I think it's strange.

I have the strange ability to shut things out.

I was saying earlier that it's really strange - you can almost step outside yourself and observe yourself running, and that's what I was doing.

In a strange way, I feel like we need to cultivate more boredom in our lives: like, boredom needs to be okay again. It needs to be seen as a good thing, and I think it's definitely a good thing for relationships.

I can think of no wiser financial investment than in self-knowledge. It is the path to freedom, at many levels. By sorting through painful past experiences, irrational beliefs, and unacknowledged fears, people can become free of these chains and find healthier ways of coping than making money and consuming things.

On a bike your consciousness is small. The harder you work, the smaller it gets. Every thought that arises is immediately and utterly true, every unexpected event is something you'd known all along but had only forgotten for a moment. A pounding riff from a song, a bit of long division that starts over and over, a magnified anger at someone, is enough to fill your thoughts.

I just close my eyes no matter where I am, and just be still.

T]hese three days of meditation have revealed to me that every thought I think is, in one way or another, an ugly, fatuous form of self-congratulation. Even what appears to be the most searing self-criticism is in fact self-congratulation. A man capable of seeing his worst side, you congratulate yourself. Coetzee is pleased to have been so hard on himself.

Don't you think about tomorrow, think about today instead.

Focus is about controlling your behavior, so it becomes easier to do the right things, and harder to be distracted by the wrong things.

Everything you do in the gym becomes easier when you stop expecting it to be easy.

No matter how intense and competitive and driven you may be, don't shut out the opportunity to be in the moment, to embrace what you have, and hold on to it for as long as you can. Take time in your life for true fun and happiness and joy and laughter, wherever you can find it. It doesn't make you weak to enjoy your life and appreciate the things that give you satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.

Confidence lets you hear the voices around you and in your own head, without responding or reacting. You can hear them without listening to a single word.

Glance at negatives, but focus on positives.

The most practical of all methods for controlling the mind is the habit of keeping it busy with a definite purpose.

Almost any negative thought pattern can be broken with thoughts of gratitude. When you "think thanks," you dial into what you have instead of what you lack. The effect is immediate—you feel positive.

The most practical of all methods for controlling the mind is the habit of keeping it busy with a definite purpose."73

They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries."72

who cares about all the problems and barriers, nothing matters but the Spectacular Now.

It's funny, but you never really think much about breathing. Until it's all you ever think about.