There are many reasons why it is a good idea to keep a journal. I want to share four big ones with you.<ol><li>Remember details</li><li> Find old friends</li><li>Help process feelings and ideas</li><li>Preserve the writer’s history</li></ol>

4 Advantages of Keeping a Journal

When I travelled to Europe in 1978 I kept a journal.There were several details of my trip, that I had completely forgotten until I re-read the journals.Recording the details of your life can enrich your stories.

1. Remember details

People who keep journals have life twice.

Keeping a journal can help you find old friends. One of the women I met on November 26th, 1978, wrote down her address. I found her on Facebook and just sent her a message. (Social media and Google can also help, but the journal did remind me of her name.)

2. Find old friends

When you keep thoughts in your head it can be hard to know how you think and feel. Writing down how you feel will help you process your emotions, as feelings become words, which can be then be edited.

3. Help process feelings and ideas

Writing is the only way I have to explain my own life to myself.

When you are dead and a famous writer, your journals will give your readers insight into how you thought and what your life was like.You may never sell more than one hundred copies of your book, you may never publish your writing, or your journals may only be read by the mice that crawl through your basement. Or your journals will be read by zombies after the zombie apocalypse, sharing insight into how you felt and thought.

4. Preserve the writer’s history

Now you know why journaling can be helpful. But how should you journal? It is very personal, and you should do what works best for you. But I will give you some tips to help you get started.<ol><li>Choose your kind of journal</li><li>Date your entry</li><li>Tell the truth</li><li>Write down details</li><li>Write down what you felt</li><li>Write a lot or a little</li></ol>

6 Tips for How to Write a Journal

You have several options for how to keep your journal.A book, where you write with a pen or pencil onto paper: Write in a book that is not so pretty you are afraid to write in it. Keep the size small enough you don’t mind carrying it in your messenger bag, and big enough you can read your handwriting. The advantage of paper is you can write without having to be plugged into an electronic device.The disadvantage to a paper journal is if you lose the journal and you didn’t make a copy of it, you have lost all of the writing.

1. Choose your kind of journal

Software: There are several software applications on the market you can use to journal. Be sure they sync to the cloud, as you don’t want to lose your entries because you fry your computer hard-drive.<a href="https://journey.cloud/">Journey</a> and <a href="https://dayoneapp.com/">Day One</a> can add photographs and text, and export all of your entries into a PDF. You can also journal in Microsoft Word or <a href="https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview">Scrivener</a> and save your files to a cloud-based program that will keep your files safe if you lose your computer or pour water on your keyboard.

You think you will remember when it happened, but without a written date, you might forget.

2. Date your entry

The journal is a record of how you felt and what you did. Telling the truth will make you a reliable storyteller.If you haven’t cleaned the seven litter boxes for a week, don’t write that you clean them every day simply because you want your readers one hundred years from now to think you had good habits.

3. Tell the truth

Record details like the time, location, who you were with, what you were wearing. Details will help bring the memory alive when you record using your five senses.To this day, if I smell a certain kind of Japanese soup, I can remember vividly the day I flew to Korea to renew my Japanese visa, only to discover the Japanese embassy was closed for a traditional Japanese holiday.

4. Write down details

What you were thinking? Were you mad? Sad? Happy? Write down why.

5. Write down what you felt

A journal entry doesn’t have to be three pages long. It can be a few words that describe what happened, a few sentences about the highlight of your day, or it can be a short description of an event from your day, where you describe details to help you remember what happened. Like, what time of day was it? What sound do you remember?Your journal entry might be a drawing, a poem, or a list of words or cities you drove through. It is your journal, and you have the freedom to be creative.

6. Write a lot or a little

There is no right or wrong time to write in a journal. Write when you will remember to do it. Do you always brush your teeth before you go to bed? Have writing in your journal be part of your bedtime routine. Perhaps put it on your bedside table, or beside your hammock, or on the floor beside your futon.If you are a morning person, consider keeping your journal on the table where you drink your morning coffee, tea, water, milk, or orange juice.These are only suggestions. You don’t have to write down your feelings or why you felt a certain way.

When to Journal

A journal is a diary of your life. Who you are, who you were with, and where you want to go.

As somebody who journals semi-regularly, I have seen its positive effects on my mental health. I hope this wonderful write-up by author Pamela Hodges helps others keep journals too. 

Many people wonder how to write a journal. This writer's clear tips will help you get started and encourage you to continue.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

mindfulness

Mindfulness

writing

Reading & Writing

communication

Communication

How to Write a Journal: 6 Tips

Self-Control is an ability that helps you to remain calm & positive during crucial moments.  Self-control as by the name, says control over yourself, control over your fear, over your <a href="https://inspirationalblogs45.blogspot.com/2021/08/Top-5-ways%20to-improve-your-positive-thinking%20.html">negative thoughts </a> , over the distractions and over the toxicity around us.

What Is Self-Control?

Self-Control is important because you can easily trigger with your feelings and emotions. Self-control helps in dealing with serious times and taking wise decisions when there's a need.  <ol><li>It helps in avoiding toxicity </li><li>It makes you focused  </li><li>It helps in controlling your behaviour </li> </ol><ol><li>It makes you achieve your goals. </li> </ol>

Importance of Self-Control

5 tips that will help you in improving your self-control and will help you in achieving your goals.

Tips to Improve Self-Control

Distraction is our enemy, we have to fight with it , so remember to remove all your distraction .  While for your goals your first priority must be your goals and nothing doesn't make you a fool. Keep everything far away from you that makes you weak, lowers your morale or distracts you. It doesn't matter whether it's a smartphone, family friends or something else save some time for your passion.

1. Remove everything that distracts you .

Meditation is something that's beyond our imagination, it has numerous benefits but nobody wants to do it. Practising meditation is one of the best ways to control your thoughts and to make your brain calm and more stable. <a href="https://inspirationalblogs45.blogspot.com/2021/04/mindfulness-meditation-practice.html">Practising meditation </a>for 10 min every day will give you the proper results. If you will increase your time of meditation then you will get more  benefits.

2. Practice meditation daily

One of the famous techniques to stay positive and to control thoughts is Spot, swap and change. This technique works well when you are stuck with negative thoughts and depression. What you have to do is whenever you get negative thoughts then spot it and find out the reason why you got that thought and change it with positive thoughts.

3. Spot,Swap and Change

Temptation is a fundamental desire to get involved in short term enjoyment which threatens us for our long term goals . As teenagers we all are tempted to do something whether our smartphone, tv or anything and it's completely normal.

4. Control your temptation .

In the society that's full of Strees and anxiety we must keep ourselves aside from it and the best way to do is to avoid stress and depression.Don't take stress, stay alive stay free

5. Learn To Manage Stress 

Self-control is essential and it's the need for success and for a happy life.Don't waste your time, energy and efforts in stress and overthinking defeat yourself and build a new one. Good day:)

Conclusion 

Self-control allows people to regulate behaviors to reach goals. Learn why it matters, how to improve it, and how it affects your health .

Being inspired is a very tough task . But not the impossible one , introducing you the best and evergreen blog that will make you inspired everyday .we will provide you the quality of content just for free

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

health

Health

mentalhealth

Mental Health

meditation

Meditation

How to improve self-control 

“The man who sees me in everythingand everything within mewill not be lost to me, norwill I ever be lost to him.He who is rooted in onenessrealizes that I amin every being; whereverhe goes, he remains in me.When he sees all being as equalin suffering or in joybecause they are like himself,that man has grown perfect in yoga.”

“The﻿ nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons.They arise from sense perception,and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.”

“We behold what we are, and we are what we behold.”

“A man's own self is his friend. A man's own self is his foe.”

“When a person responds to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were his own, he has attained the highest state of spiritual union.”

“Actions do not cling to me because I am not attached to their results. Those who understand this and practice it live in freedom.”

“No one who does good work will ever come to a bad end, either here or in the world to come”

The Bhagavad Gita Quotes in English on Success, Karma, Love, Life will enlighten you. These quotes and thoughts from Bhagwat Geeta will make

religionandspirituality

Religion & Spirituality

timemanagement

Time Management

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

 The Bhagavad Gita Quotes on Life, Love, Karma

Irrational thoughts enter our brains and affect our actions more often than we’d like to admit. From the sugary donut you regretted before taking your first bite, to getting upset with others for making the same mistakes you do — irrationality comes in many forms and seems to carry plenty of drawbacks.Yet, researchers note that the behaviour also gives our overly-taxed brains a rest and can even spark new innovations.

Irrational Humans: Introduction

<ul><li>Human beings are not logical, we are storytellers most interested in emotional comfort and safety.</li><li>We can convince ourselves and justify anything.</li><li>This is partly because our brains haven’t had a significant upgrade for millions of years.</li><li>On top of that, the human brain takes up <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/how-much-energy-does-thinking-use/">20 percent or more </a>of our energy.</li><li>Shortcuts can lead to accepting probabilities as facts, succumbing to confirmation bias and convincing ourselves that we have the ability to truly multitask.</li></ul>

Primitive Minds

<ul><li>While irrationality can sometimes trip us up, it can also fuel creativity and innovation.</li><li>Our irrational behaviours are associated with our desire to do something different. It can be considered an integral part of our survival and progression.</li><li>We may believe we are the smartest species, but we may be slow, illogical and limited in many aspects.</li></ul>

Irrationality And Innovation

Stemming from our neanderthal roots, we make irrational decisions for survival and safety. 

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

The Reasons Why We Do Irrational Things

Choking is a phenomenon in which people tend to fail when performing under pressure. This is also applied to people who fail at the most critical or key point in their life.

What is "Choking"?

Choking primarily is caused by a mental state. Especially when people are feeling nervous and not focused

Cause of "Choking"

There are two theories that can explain why people tend to choke: Distraction Theory and Explicit Monitoring theory.

Two Theories of Choking

Our brain commonly can only handles one task at a time. So, when people doing multiple activities at the same time, our focus will lower. This is also applies to activity that are more difficult and intensive.

Distraction Theory

This theory explain that choking can happen because people tend to over-analyse what they want to do. This will affect how they perform the task. Activities that performed spontaneously is more easy to do and will have a better result.

Explicit Monitoring Theory

1. Try to train and performing activity under pressure. This will help you accustomed to pressure and help you to maintain focus longer which will lead to better result.2. Do a pre-activities routine, like taking a deep breath, memorize key word, moving your body, etc. This will help you more relaxed.3. Focused on external goals. Having external goals will help you not to get distracted by your internal feeling like anxiety, nervous, etc.

Advice to Avoid Choking

Download a free audiobook version of "The Boys on the Boat" and support TED-Ed's nonprofit mission: https://adbl.co/2Lf9Pa2 Check out our full book recommendation: http://bit.ly/2IDVLsY View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-to-avoid-choking-under-pressure-noa-kageyama-and-pen-pen-chen Your favorite athlete closes in for a win; the crowd holds its breath, and at the crucial moment ... she misses the shot. That competitor just experienced the phenomenon known as “choking,” where despite months, even years, of practice, a person fails right when it matters most. Why does this happen, and what can we do to avoid it? Noa Kageyama and Pen-Pen Chen explain why we choke under pressure. Lesson by Noa Kageyama and Pen-Pen Chen, animation by Olesya Shchukina. Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Mehmet Sencer KARADAYI, Christian Kurch, SungGyeong Bae, Luis Felipe Ruiz Langenscheidt, Joe Huang, Rohan Gupta, Senjo Limbu, Martin Lau, Robson Martinho, Jason Garcia, Cailin Ramsey, Aaron Henson, John Saveland, Nicolle Fieldsend-Roxborough, Venkat Venkatakrishnan, Sandy Nasser, CG Nobles, QIUJING L BU, Yoga Trapeze Wanderlust, Jaron Blackburn, Alejandro Cachoua, Thomas Mungavan, Elena Crescia, Edla Paniguel, Sarah Lundegaard, Anna-Pitschna Kunz, Tim Armstrong, Erika Blanquez, Ricki Daniel Marbun, zjweele13, Judith Benavides, Ross Henriques, Ken, Caitlin de Falco, Scheherazade Kelii, Errys, James Bruening, Michael Braun-Boghos, Ricardo Diaz, Kack-Kyun Kim, Artem Minyaylov, Alexandrina Danifeld, Danny Romard, Yujing Jiang, Stina Boberg, Mariana Ortega, Anthony Wiggins, Hoai Nam Tran, Joe Sims, and David Petrovič.

productivity

Productivity

Download a free audiobook version of "The Boys on the Boat" and support TED-Ed's nonprofit mission: https://adbl.co/2Lf9Pa2

Check out our full book recommendation: http://bit.ly/2IDVLsY

View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-to-avoid-choking-under-pressure-noa-kageyama-and-pen-pen-chen

Your favorite athlete closes in for a win; the crowd holds its breath, and at the crucial moment ... she misses the shot. That competitor just experienced the phenomenon known as “choking,” where despite months, even years, of practice, a person fails right when it matters most. Why does this happen, and what can we do to avoid it? Noa Kageyama and Pen-Pen Chen explain why we choke under pressure.

Lesson by Noa Kageyama and Pen-Pen Chen, animation by Olesya Shchukina.

Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Mehmet Sencer KARADAYI, Christian Kurch, SungGyeong Bae, Luis Felipe Ruiz Langenscheidt, Joe Huang, Rohan Gupta, Senjo Limbu, Martin Lau, Robson Martinho, Jason Garcia, Cailin Ramsey, Aaron Henson, John Saveland, Nicolle Fieldsend-Roxborough, Venkat Venkatakrishnan, Sandy Nasser, CG Nobles, QIUJING L BU, Yoga Trapeze Wanderlust, Jaron Blackburn, Alejandro Cachoua, Thomas Mungavan, Elena Crescia, Edla Paniguel, Sarah Lundegaard, Anna-Pitschna Kunz, Tim Armstrong, Erika Blanquez, Ricki Daniel Marbun, zjweele13, Judith Benavides, Ross Henriques, Ken, Caitlin de Falco, Scheherazade Kelii, Errys, James Bruening, Michael Braun-Boghos, Ricardo Diaz, Kack-Kyun Kim, Artem Minyaylov, Alexandrina Danifeld, Danny Romard, Yujing Jiang, Stina Boberg, Mariana Ortega, Anthony Wiggins, Hoai Nam Tran, Joe Sims, and David Petrovič.

TED-Ed’s mission is to create lessons worth sharing. Feed and expand your curiosity with our award-winning animated shorts - published on YouTube and available with supplemental learning materials on ed.ted.com.

Want to suggest an idea for a TED-Ed animation, nominate an educator or animator? Visit our website at: http://ed.ted.com/get_involved.

Consider backing us on Patreon. By doing so, you directly support our nonprofit mission to create free, high-quality educational content: https://www.patreon.com/teded

For more information on using TED-Ed content for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film, or in an online course), please submit a Media Request using this link: https://media-requests.ted.com/ 


TED-Ed

How to stay calm under pressure - Noa Kageyama and Pen-Pen Chen

There may be times that you’d like to feel invisible, but for the most part, people like to feel that other people notice and care about them. If you’ve ever walked into a social gathering and waited five minutes for someone to greet you, then you know how painful it is to feel like you’re blending into the background. Alternatively, consider the agony you can suffer when you’ve sent a text to a friend, only to have it sit there “delivered,” but unanswered.

“Ugh! I Wish I Was Invisible!” 

When you stop and think about it, though, why should we care so much about whether people notice us or not? After all, the people who know us might be busy and preoccupied with other things. It shouldn’t make a difference, either, whether people who don’t know us acknowledge our presence. And, in reality, aren’t there those times when we’d be just as happy to get in and out of someplace without having to stop and talk to anyone?

“Hellooo! I’m Standing Right Here!!!”

In positive psychology, the quality of “mattering” is considered, in the words of York University’s Gordon Flett and colleagues (2022) to be “a key psychological resource.” Although we might occasionally enjoy the cloak of invisibility, Flett et al. propose that feeling chronically insignificant can become a “meta-pathology” that can interfere with the ability to obtain “optimal health and well-being.”

The Quality Of Mattering

According to Flett et al., rather than simply feeling invisible, when we suffer from what they call “anti-mattering,” we define ourselves as someone whose “personal identity is dominated by the sense of not mattering to others.” We adopt this identity as a shield for the specific reason of protecting ourselves from the stress of being ignored or regarded as irrelevant by others. The “anti” here, literally means “against” mattering, not simply being low in the feeling that we matter.

Why Does it Matter to Matter?

In the words of Flett et al., anti-mattering “should be regarded as a unique and specific vulnerability unlike any other risk factor.... [it] can become a cognitive preoccupation that is internalized and results in self-harm tendencies and an inability or unwillingness to engage in self-care.”

A Shield That Harms Instead Of Protect Us

The anti-mattering stance can come from many sources, such as facing constant rejection from potential romantic partners, employers, or even those rude people who never reply to your texts. However, Flett et al. propose that its most likely source can be traced to early childhood experiences of neglect by distracted and unresponsive parents. The hard shell around our need to matter eventually forms so that even the worst experiences of rejection will fail to penetrate.

A Shell That We Get Into Instead Of Out Of

Unfortunately, the more resistant the shell becomes to rejection or dismissive treatment, the harder it is for others to get through to us. Rewarding relationships become that much more difficult to attain as others learn that it's easier just to stay away from you.

Hurdles Are Both The Obstacles And The Race

To tap into the unique qualities of anti-mattering, Flett et al. set about to develop a new 5-item Anti-Mattering Scale (AMS). Across a series of studies using young adult and adolescent samples, Flett et al. first built and then compared their AMS to an existing "General Mattering Scale" (GMS) in its relationship to measures of depression, loneliness, and anxiety. You can best get a sense of what's at the heart of anti-mattering by testing yourself on these five items (rate yourself from 1=not at all, to 4=a lot).

The Anti-Mattering Scale (AMS)

<ol><li>How much do you feel like you don’t matter? </li><li>How often have you been treated in a way that makes you feel like you are insignificant? </li><li>To what extent have you been made to feel like you are invisible? </li><li>How much do you feel like you will never matter to certain people? </li><li>How often have you been made to feel by someone that they don’t care what you think or what you have to say? </li> </ol>Most of the participants in the undergraduate sample scored between 7 and 15 on this scale, with an average at just about 11.

The “Anti-Mattering” Test

Key to the idea of the AMS is that it's not just feeling unimportant (or low in mattering). These five items from the GMS (General Mattering Scale) show this nuanced difference. Rate yourself with the same scale as the AMS:<ol><li>How important are you to others?</li><li>How much do others pay attention to you?</li><li>How much would you be missed if you went away?</li><li>How interested are others in what you have to say?</li><li>How much do other people depend upon you?</li></ol>

The “General Mattering” Test

Participants tended to receive higher scores on the GMS than the AMS, with the average at 16 and the majority scoring between 13 and 18.From these averages alone, you can see that it is more common for people to feel that they have a valuable role in the life of others than to feel that they are not worth anyone's attention.

“I Am The Touching And The Untouchable.”

Now that you’ve tested yourself on AMS and seen how it differs from GMS, it’s time to turn to the psychological consequences of turning away from others as a self-protective mechanism. As shown in the Flett et al. findings, the patterns of scores on key indicators of mental health, including depression, loneliness, and anxiety, showed that anti-mattering wasn't simply the opposite of mattering.

Does Being High on Anti-Mattering Matter?

Most importantly, the findings across the young adult and adolescent samples confirmed the predicted relationship between anti-mattering and loneliness as well as the incremental effect on depression of high AMS vs. low GMS scores. This pattern reflects, in the words of the authors, “ties between low mattering and a maladaptive early schema reflecting disconnection and alienation from others.” Combined, high AMS and high loneliness scores produce what Flett et al. refer to as the “double jeopardy of feeling alone and insignificant.”

The Double Jeopardy

To sum up, feeling that we matter is clearly a contributor to positive mental health. Anti-mattering can become part of a larger identity in which we feel that we lack value to others, even contributing to a sense of marginalization. Although the York University findings established the negative consequences of anti-mattering among young adults and teens, this basic need appears to be one that can form an important cornerstone of healthy development throughout life.

A Serious Matter

If anything matters, then everything matters.

Everything matters. Nothing’s important.

On mattering, not mattering, but, more importantly, anti mattering. Would we (still) wear the Invisibility Cloak if we knew we could never take it off again?

New research shows the downside of feeling invisible on mental health.

Why Mattering Is So Important to Our Mental Health

Being "outdoorsy" can stir up images of big beautiful national parks, snowy slopes or lush, green forests. But smaller moments in nature, like walking my dog around the neighbourhood or even listening to rain sounds playlist while falling asleep, have been just as valuable — and don't require the time, money or physical mobility of a big trip.Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people "including improved attention, lower stress, better mood, reduced risk of psychiatric disorders and even upticks in empathy and cooperation.

Going Out In Nature Is Great

<ul><li>Getting your daily dose of nature is vital to your well-being.</li><li>Getting your daily dose of nature is vital to your well-being, says Ming Kuo, who runs the Landscape and Human Health Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.</li><li>Nature helps our mental muscles relax and recover, and our immune systems need it, too.</li></ul>

Think of Time in Nature As A "Multivitamin" — It's Best to Take It Every Day

<ul><li>Find a crew who enjoys the same activities you do. This helps you stay safe in more remote areas. There are numerous online events and groups to check and start your hiking trips with like-minded people.</li><li>You don't have to be outdoors to experience nature's wonder.</li><li>Enjoy natural scents with an aromatherapy diffuser or open a window to get some fresh air. Enjoy a game like #FindThatLizard on Twitter and Instagram to see a camouflaged lizard in its natural environment.</li></ul>

How To Start

Enjoying the outdoors can look like anything from walking the dog to celebrating Indigenous culture — you don't have to hike the tallest mountain peaks or go camping to love nature. Learn how to find your footing in nature in a way that works best for you.

exerciseandfitness

Exercise & Fitness

There's no one way to enjoy nature. How to find what works for you and get outside : Life Kit

People have been practising mindfulness for thousands of years. Mindfulness was popularised in the East by religious and spiritual institutions. The popularity of mindfulness in the West is rooted in Buddhist and Hindu traditions and can be traced to particular people and secular institutions.

The History of Mindfulness

Hinduism is widely considered to be the oldest religion in the world. It initially arose as a synthesis of many religious traditions around the historical region that now makes up India. Then, in the 1800s, British writers started calling Vedic traditions Hinduism. The earliest traditions, which have since been incorporated into Hinduism, arose more than 4,000 years ago in the Indus Valley- now Pakistan. These religious traditions continued to develop in Vedic writings 2,500-3,500 years ago, including rituals and the worship of gods common to modern-day Hinduism.

A Brief History of Hinduism

Buddhism was founded around 400-500 B.C.E. by Siddhartha Gautama, who became referred to as the Buddha. Since the Buddha's lifetime, it has split into several different traditions, including Theravada Buddhism and Zen Buddhism. Buddhism and Hinduism share many commonalities. One is they're both concerned with the concept of dharma - a way of life that is in harmony with the universe's natural order. Mindfulness (Sati) is considered to be the first step towards enlightenment.

A Short History of Buddhism

Some mindfulness meditation practices, such as the body scan, are very similar to yoga as they both involve awareness of one’s body. The origin of yoga coincides with the origin of Hinduism, and the recent rise of yoga’s popularity in the West coincides with the rise of mindfulness. This underscores the intertwined nature of Buddhism, Hinduism, mindfulness, and yoga.

How Mindfulness Relates to Yoga

Jon Kabat-Zinn was the biggest influence on bringing mindfulness from the East to the West. Kabat-Zinn founded the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Oasis Institute for Mindfulness-Based Professional Education and Training. Here, he developed his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. Kabat-Zinn learned about and studied mindfulness under several Buddhist teachers, including Thich Nhat Hanh, which gave him an Eastern foundation in mindfulness that he integrated with Western science.

How Mindfulness Moved From East to West

Mindfulness plays an important role in the greater field of psychology and positive psychology. Mindfulness has become a tool for any practitioner’s toolbox. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) are used to treat a variety of patients. Mindfulness meditation is also used to increase an individual's level of well-being.

Mindfulness’ Role in (Positive) Psychology

<ul><li>Mindfulness could be a yoga practice that involves mindfulness</li><li>It might involve setting aside time for mindfulness meditation sessions</li><li>It could involve practising mindfulness during everyday activities, such as washing dishes.</li></ul> Very few mindfulness traditions are based on restricting their teachings to an exclusive group. Therefore the versatility of mindfulness is the key part of the philosophy of mindfulness, whether it is practised religiously or in a secular matter.

Mindfulness Practice and Philosophy

Mindfulness' roots reach deep into Buddhism, religion, psychology, and philosophy. Here you'll find a complete history of mindfulness.

philosophy

Philosophy

History of Mindfulness: From East to West and Religion to Science

The most distinguishing feature of this Japanese school of the Buddha-Way is its contention that wisdom, accompanied by compassion, is expressed in the everyday lifeworld when associating with one’s self, other people, and nature.The Zen practitioner is required to embody freedom expressive of the original human nature, called “buddha-nature.”

Buddha-nature

...practicing without prioritising the visible over the invisible, the explicit over the implicit, or vice versa.This preparation involves the training of the whole person and is called “self-cultivation” (shugyō) in Japanese.

Nondiscriminatory wisdom

Zen maintains a stance of “not one” and “not two,” that is “a position-less position.”<ul><li>“not two” means negating the dualistic stance that divides the whole into two parts.</li><li>“not one” means negating the non-dualistic stance occurring when the Zen practitioner dwells in the whole as one, while suspending judgment in meditation. </li><li>the free, bilateral movement between “not one” and “not two” characterises Zen’s achievement of a personhood with a third perspective that cannot, however, be confined to either dualism or non-dualism, neither “not one” nor “not two”.</li></ul>

Dualism or non-dualism

Zen recommends that its practitioner follow a three-step procedure: adjusting one’s body, breathing and mind.To adjust the mind  means that the practitioner consciously moves to enter a state of meditation. He learns to disengage him- or herself from the concerns of daily life by the immobile bodily posture and the breathing exercise.Meditation trains one to sit face-to-face with one’s self, while creating a psychological isolation from the external world.This mechanism is the same as when one has a dream at night when the level of consciousness is lowered.

The Adjustment of the Mind

No-mind does not mean:<ul><li> a mindless state,</li><li>that there is no mind</li></ul>No mind means that there is no conscious activity of the mind that is associated with ego-consciousness.No-mind is a free mind that is not delimited by ideas, desires, and images.

No-mind

If the term “philosophy” is taken to mean the establishment of “the kingdom of reason",  Zen is an anti-philosophy.Reason is incapable of knowing and understanding in toto what reality is.Physical nature and human nature must be sought in an experiential dimension.

Zen as Anti-Philosophy

Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy explained 

Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

If God could explain how he made the world he would not be God. The mystery is what what separates the art from the science. Zen is more of an art than a science. Imagine a school that poses the method to make all its students geniuses. All of them with be boring people. You can teach the technique, but the real art is passed through osmosis. That's why Zen teachings have been passed through stories and dialogues. One can not really teach Zen. Only show the way.

Life is a mystery to itself

“You may wish to ask where the flowers come from, but even the God of Spring doesn’t know.”

The goal of Zen stories is to make you smile more than to appeal to your logical side. But if a normal joke is aiming to get you to laugh, Zen stories wants you to get enlightened. To act like shock therapy for the spirit. They always pose very confusing dilemmas. And the story emphasize giving up trying to solve the riddle logically, and relying on spontaneity to solve it. The ultimate goal is to be nonplussed, so that one does get into attachments with society's rules. Zen is about flowing with the Dao.

Zen Stories

Translates to “mind-without-mind.”We all begin life as babies with an intuitive understanding of the world. As we mature, we discover the validity of our emotions. As adults, we graduate to primarily using logic to navigate our lives. Most people stop here, thinking that they mastered the art of thinking.Mushin states that intuition, not logic, is the highest form of understanding. Emotions & logicact as biases if overly relied upon. Paradoxically, it is only when we make the leap from using analytical logic to intuitive understanding that we become thinkers of the highest order.

“Mushin” (無心)

Disclaimer: I didn't make and I do not own any of these songs or audio material. All credits go to their rightful owners. Track list 00:00:00 • Atis Freivalds - A Night Under The Stars 00:03:51 • Atis Freivalds - Fly Away 00:08:24 • Sid Acharya - Stories From The Sky 00:13:08 • Atis Freivalds - In Between 00:17:59 • L.D.C.N - Looking Back Once More 00:22:16 • Oak Meadow - Moving On 00:27:45 • Fabbro – Pandemic 00:31:20 • S'Hill - Distant Memories 00:36:10 • Fantompower - The Afterlife 00:38:24 • Andyxx – Evening 00:41:54 • Home - Climbing Out 00:44:54 • Home – Decay 00:49:01 • Home - Half moon - Rise Of The Shaman (Book): https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/bassareus-lyaeus/the-rise-of-the-shaman/hardcover/product-nym2wz.html?page=1&pageSize=4 - Become my Patron at https://www.patreon.com/BassareusLyaeus - Paypal donation: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=7PEQSV7EXHMMQ - Discord Community: https://discord.com/invite/Qrn48b557j

Alan Watts on Liberating Yourself through Zen

Find 100+ Mindfulness Tips & Facts - Curated from inspiring sources like Books, Podcasts & Articles - Genuine Insights from like-minded Users like You!