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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
Benefits of Mindfulness: Mindful Living Can Change Your Life
Mindfulness 101: A Beginner's Guide
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Mindfulness leads to a different kind of happiness than we're used to.
Well today, I am actually going to share a
quote with you from my good friend, Scott
Barry Kaufman, that I think brilliantly
encapsulates a mindfulness meditation,
and one of the great features of it.
I'll talk more about that in a moment.
First, let's start with tuning into
the sound of the bells, making this our
short 15 seconds of meditation together.
Listen to the sound, follow it all the
way until it dissolves into silence.
So I'm going to read
you this quote by Scott.
Scott Barry Kaufman is a professor
at Barnard College, Columbia,
formerly professor at U Penn.
He's a, a good friend, a big voice
in the psychology world, runs the
psychology podcast and he's a
brilliant mind and he's a budding
meditator and he wrote this.
This is actually a tweet from I think a
couple months ago, actually a month ago.
And, well, I'll just read it to you.
He says, "Mindfulness meditation is a
matter of rewiring your brain so that
instead of primarily being rewarded
by the possibility of reward, you
are intrinsically rewarded by all of
the beauty that already exists at any
given moment, right in front of your
eyes or in your rich imagination."
Whoa.
Okay.
I think I'll read that again for
you so that we can let it sink in.
There's a lot there that on the
surface it might just sound like
a nice soothing quote, but it's
pointing to something really deep and
meaningful about what the practice of
mindfulness does to the mind over time.
And in this case, he's
pointing to the brain.
So he says, "Mindfulness meditation
is a matter of rewiring your brain
so that instead of primarily being
rewarded by the possibility of reward,"
instead of being rewarded by the
possibility of reward, this meaning
like something in the future will happen
and then we'll be happy, instead of
that, you're intrinsically rewarded.
Intrinsically rewarded from the inside
out, not based on external variables.
Intrinsically rewarded by all of the
beauty that already exists at any
given moment, right in front of your
eyes or in your rich imagination.
So if we.
I think of a moment of mindfulness,
let's just say a moment of
meditation, the way we practice.
The kind of happiness and fulfillment
that we're cultivating is very
different than what we're used
to pursuing in day-to-day life.
Instead of trying to get someplace
else or change our experience, we're
learning to relax into experience,
to settle into this moment, however
it is, and letting the peace come
out of not resisting experience.
And so this quote, when he's saying
we're rewiring the brain so that
instead of primarily being rewarded
by the possibility of reward,
that idea is how we typically
find happiness in day-to-day life.
The, the possibility of reward, the
possibility of something happening
outside of me or in a future moment
that will meet the blueprint for
what I want this moment to look like.
And we can go our entire lives
pursuing that kind of happiness.
And it's, it is actually a
form of happiness, right?
There are many people that have lived
great lives like that, where you set a
goal, or something you're working toward.
And when you get that, there's
a little bit of fulfillment.
Then you adjust and then you set
another goal and you move toward that.
And you can kind of just go
through that cycle in life.
But it's, it's very transient.
Or because experience is transient,
there's no like real lasting
satisfaction in it, and we're
always kind of chasing something.
So a lot of people that eventually
come to meditation and come because
they're looking for something
deeper and Scott's quote is
pointing to that something deeper.
Instead of that kind of happiness
being rewarded by the possibility
of reward, you're intrinsically
rewarded by all of the beauty that
already exists at any given moment.
And that comes from training.
That is the power of the meditation
practice, where we, we soften all
of the resistances we typically
have to the moment, the way it is.
And when we soften that we get to,
our mind expands in such a way that
we can hold the, the many dimensions
of what are here, including pain,
discomfort, but also gratitude and joy.
And like all of that can actually
exist sometimes in a single moment,
many different flavors and where
we're intrinsically drawn to
experience the fullness of that.
The many dimensions of that, which
I think, starting out seems weird.
When I at least was getting into
these practices, I was always
thinking, like, why would I be drawn
to experience the fullness of life,
specifically the painful parts?
Like, I'm just, I, I want to
be present so that I don't
have to experience those parts.
But the deeper I've gone into
my practice, the more I've
appreciated, the, the certain kind
of wholeness I get to experience
when I open up to those dimensions.
And that's come from the wisdom
of seeing that the more I
fight them, they don't go away.
It's not like I push away sadness.
And then it's like, Oh, now there's joy.
It just doesn't work like that.
So there's some recognition
that happens over time.
Like these experiences are often
like gravity, you could fight them
and get angry that they're there,
but they're still going to be there.
So, eventually you need to learn
to walk with it and move with them.
But it's not just like an
acceptance of these experiences.
We really can start to value and
appreciate all of these layers of
our humanness and sadness, and even
our moments of grief as painful
as it is, there can be this soft
appreciation of Whoa, this is like,
I'm really experiencing the full
experience of this human life.
And as much as we might hate it and
resist it and want to get out of it,
there can be, yes, and an appreciation
for what it means to show up for that.
And the tenderization
that that can happen.
The way that that can soften us, dropping
us into more states of connection,
receptivity, vulnerability, these come
when we decompensate, when we stop
trying to be something else or have a
different experience than what's here.
And then were intrinsically
rewarded by all of the beauty
that already exists at any given
moment, right in front of our eyes.
And that's what this quote is pointing to.
Mindfulness meditation, as a matter
of rewiring your brain so that
instead of primarily being rewarded
by the possibility of reward, you
are intrinsically rewarded by all of
the beauty that already exists at any
given moment, right in front of your
eyes or in your rich imagination.
So ponder that today.
As you go throughout your day, notice if
you are caught up in the happiness that's
dependent on the possibility of reward.
And instead, just see if you
could take a breath and relax
into this moment as it is.
Deep fulfillment does not come
from chasing a future moment.
It comes from settling in and
relaxing into this moment as it is.
So let's all thank Scott Barry
Kaufman for this great quote.
You could go follow him
on Twitter or Facebook.
Send him a nice message.
He's a great human being, hugely
humble and curious and brilliant.
So thank you, Scott.
Okay.
That's it.
Talk to you soon.
Take care.
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