(Source: inspirationalcollages)
When we worry and stress internally about things that are out of our control, we prohibit ourselves from experiencing the present moment. We all find ways to suffer and worry over things that have have occurred in the past or are yet to come. This causes us great mental distress.
The mind is beautifully complex; those complexities can create a fog in the mind. You are your mind. Your thoughts and actions pave your life’s path. When you ignore your instincts, you are ignoring your self, mind & soul.
Please remember, you are a soul with a body. Not a body with a soul. Let your light shine. Commit to feeding your soul and finding yourself- the rest will fall in place.
-ECC
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“The beauty of life is, while we cannot undo what is done, we can see it, understand it, learn from it and change.
So that every new moment is spent not in regret, guilt, fear or anger, but in wisdom, understanding and love.”—Jennifer Edwards
If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it.
If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.
If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.
-Nora Roberts
(via soineverforgettoday)
You are free to be here, in touch with life, not manipulated by the ghouls of suffering from events that are over and done.
Thich Nhat Hahn (via hoopadelic)
True religion is real living; living with all one’s soul, with all one’s goodness and righteousness.
-Albert Einstein
(Source: purplebuddhaproject)
Mindfulness: the cure for the common grumpy cat
Often times we allow ourselves to succumb to the feelings of woe and sadness that haunt our hearts from experiences that we’ve had in the past. We wake each day in the same grumpy slump.
Constantly re-hashing the past over and over leaves the mind in a state of confusion. Many of us spend a lot of time suffering and thinking of how we wish we could change things that have occurred in our past, aching for the for the present to be much different than it is today. We waste our lives away worrying about what will happen in the future or why things in the past happened to us.
Happiness is available in the present moment if you allow yourself to be at peace with what has happened in your life and relinquish worrying about the future.
When you practice mindfulness (Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you’re mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience).
Learning to be mindful of one’s thoughts and actions is an imperative step in losing that grumpy face.
Be thankful every day that you wake up and do your best to be a positive person.
“We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us, and make us kinder. We always have the choice.”
The Dalai Lama
Some believe is a soul that persists through change and is the seat to our emotions and thoughts… but becoming mindful of our bodily and mental states teaches us that such states come and go. They do not last. they are impermanent and insubstantial….The second Noble Truth tells us that desire is the cause of suffering. More specifically, it teaches us that selfish desire is the cause of suffering because through it we become attached to things. Once attached to the things we like, we do not want them to change. We want them to remain permanent so that our permanent self can enjoy them. But nothing remains the same, and when things change we are sorrowful. In a word, we suffer. But if there is no self to begin with, if what we call a permanent self or soul is an illusion, then selfish desire and attachment make no sense. It is simply impossible to continue to enjoy pleasant things forever. It is ignorance of our true nature and the true nature of everything - impermanence - that leads to the illusion of a substantial, unchanging self. Suffering is the inevitable result of this ignorance.
Studying Religion by Gary E. Kessler (via woodstockandwonderland)
(Source: elephantcircle)
We have great fear inside ourselves. We are afraid of everything–of our death, of being alone, of change. Fear is born from our concepts regarding life, death, being, and nonbeing. If we are able to get rid of all these concepts by touching the reality within ourselves, then nonfear will be there and the greatest relief will become possible.
~Thich Nhat Hanh
A place to begin is by paying simply attention, by cultivating agenda-less, moment-to-moment awareness of yourself, others, and of the swirl of life. When you do, you notice that every day you are continuously cycling in and out of moments of falling in love and having your heart broken. Both are always present, shifting toward you and away, each one a tiny lesson on how to be fully alive.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-piver/buddhism-and-relationship_b_556769.html
Many people regard Buddhism as a religion, but if we say that it is a way of life, we may be closer to the truth.
Life is the art of bringing happiness to others and ourselves. If we ourselves are not happy, we cannot make others happy, and if others are not happy, we cannot be truly happy either.
To practice the art of bringing happiness to ourselves and others, we need to have faith and confidence in something that we find true and beautiful, that accords with the truth, and that can be a foundation for true and lasting happiness.
Because we need such faith, Buddhism is also called a religion.
Faith here does not mean faith in a creator god or a metaphysical first principle, the existence of something of which we cannot really prove.
Faith here means confidence in something beautiful and true that can bring about happiness and that we can actually touch.
-Thich Nhat Hahn
