Practical Points about Cultivation Mindfulness and Deepening a Personal Meditation Practice

By: Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD.

1. The real meditation is how you live your life.

2. In order to live life fully, you have to be present for it.

3. To be present, it helps to purposefully bring awareness to your moments - otherwise you may miss many of them

4. You do that by paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgementally to whatever is arising inwardly and outwardly.

5. This requires a great deal of kindness toward yourself, which you deserve.

6. It helps to keep in mind that good or bad, pleasant of unpleasant, the present moment is the only time any of us are alive in - and therefore the only time to learn, grow, see what is really going on, find some degree of balance, feel and express emotions such as love and appreciation, and do what we need to do to take care of ourselves - in other words, embody our intrinsic strength and beauty and wisdom - even in the face of pain and suffering.

7. So a gentle love affair with the present is important.

8. We do that through learning to rest in awareness of what is happening inwardly and outwardly moment by moment - it is more a"being" that a "doing".

10. We bring awareness to our moments only as best we can.

11. We are not trying to create a special feeling or experience - simply to realize that this moment is already very special - because you are alive and awake in it.

12. This is hard, but well worth it.

13. It takes a lot of practice.

14. Lots of practice.

15. But you have a lot of moments - and we can treat each one as a new beginning.

16. So there are always new moments to open up to if we miss some.

17. We do all this with a huge amount of self-compassion.

18. And, remember, you are not your thoughts or opinions, your likes or dislikes. They are more like weather patterns in your mind that you can be aware of - like clouds moving across the sky - and so don't have to be imprisoned by.

19. Befriending yourself in this way is the adventure of a lifetime, and hugely empowering.

20. Try it for a few weeks - it grows on you.