I noticed this quote on Tumblr. I’ve noticed on the few occasions I’m able to just sit with difficult emotions in a meditation, they tend not to be as monolithic as they otherwise seemed beforehand.
On a related note, it’s been a while since I read anything by Jack Kornfield. I really enjoyed his book “A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life” when I read it in 2006 during our honeymoon in the Drakensberg mountains.
In fact, I read the book here:
Procrastination can be a productivity scourge. I’ve certainly had my share of it and I am probably doing it right now. I just watched a fun video suggesting how we can overcome procrastination and the surprise, for me at least, is that one solution is mindfulness meditation.
I wasn’t expecting that at all but it makes sense, in a way.
Image credit: Pixabay
Rian recently wrote a great post titled “Being” which speaks to a couple things I’m experiencing these days. One of the themes he touches on is the positive side of smallness. One aspect he writes about is the size of your online social network:
All of this to say that we’ll do well to remember that the web is people all the way down. And that smaller networks mean more meaningful relationships.
… and being a small fish in a big pond:
When I lived in South Africa I thought what I wanted was to become an author and conference speaker. It was a bit easier there because there aren’t as many UX people as there are elsewhere in the world. And when I decided to move back to the US several people didn’t understand. “You’ll be a small fish in a big pond,” they said. “I know,” I would answer, “isn’t that awesome?”
The small fish bit appeals to me at this point in my life. Working to be the big fish is exhausting and there is always a younger, more energetic fish swimming further and faster. Just keeping up becomes a very unhealthy obsession. I think Rian has the right idea about this (and other aspects of being).
Mindfulness is the best thing you can do for yourself. That practice of just being mindful of what you do, why you do it and reaching down into who you are will also radically change your life. It takes a lot of time and persistence and it really pays off. Be mindful of the things that you resist as well as the things that attract you because both reveal important personal truths and will guide you towards a more meaningful and fulfilling life.
Also, don’t be too hard on yourself. Expect more of yourself and strive to do better, be better, but beating yourself up takes you further away from where you want to be.