Nirvana.........................

 I want to sit here longer, to move unhurried, to glide, to breathe, to be ordered but not scheduled, to release into reverie, to let my mind wander, my shoulders loosen, my being melt and flow with curiosity, delight, warmth, ease.

-Annie Mueller, from here

On stress................................

 

...........................................relief.

On spinning.......................

 .................................................your wheels:

a path....................

 Relaxing is not a waste of time—it's an investment in well-being. Breaks are not a distraction—they're a chance to reset attention and incubate ideas.  Play is not a frivolous activity—it's a source of joy and a path to mastery.

-Adam Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

that vision thing.................

 Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for.

-Richard Wiseman

Easy does it...............................

 In summary, he told me, you want to exert effort in meditation practice but not more than necessary: “A bird flaps its wings and then soars on momentum, and doesn’t flap again until it needs to.”

If you spend time in Buddhist meditation settings you’ll hear variants of this advice frequently offered to “achiever” personalities who mistakenly think the more fierce their effort, the more plentiful their likely results. “Don’t try so hard to make something happen” “Soften your gaze” “Ease up” All different ways of getting at the simple but hard-to-follow guidance: Just relax. 

Relaxation, as Tim Gallwey says, happens only when allowed, not as a result of “trying” or “making.”

“The art of relaxed concentration unlocks a secret to winning: not trying too hard”

-as taken from this Ben Casnocha post

air moving..................

 Someone has insulted you?  You mean, rather, that you allowed them to insult you.

     Because regardless of their intention, what they say is just air moving between the two of you.  Their words become an insult only if you regard them as such.  Otherwise, they are the uttering of a fool.

     Try, therefore, not to be bewildered by appearances, and instead take a break from the situation, put some distance between yourself and the immediate impression.  That way you will find that it is easier to retain command of your ruling faculty, your ability to reason.

-Massimo Pigliucci, A Field Guide to a Happy Life

The doctor says.....................

.................give yourself a break: 

Here’s a tip for anyone wanting to become a machine of relentless focus: stop trying to become a machine of relentless focus. Despite the officially sanctioned fairy tales, you can’t. Your brain does not work like that. Nice theory — wrong species.

-From this post by Eric Barker

Wars.......................

      So wars: what does it mean to win, what does it mean to lose?  And the wars, of course, against yourself.  I certainly am always at war one way or another with myself, and some of them are wars I must fight to try to slay the demons, to kill the dragon, to lay the ghost to rest.  But there are other wars you fight with yourself to be more, to do more that you have it in you really to do or to be.  I think of that wonderful line from one of the poems of my  beloved Gerard Manley Hopkins whare he says, "My own heart let me more have pity on."  My own heart let me more have pity on.  That's a lovely phrase.  Be merciful to yourself, stop fighting yourself quite so much.  Maybe what you are asking of yourself, what you're driving yourself to do or to be, what you put a gun to your own back to make yourself do, is something at this point you needn't have to think about doing.  So, think back at the end of the day to the wars you're involved in.  How are they going?

Frederick Buechner,  The Remarkable Ordinary

The walk......................................

 ....................God’s canvas that he paints differently each day.

One constitutional amendment coming right up...

   I'd like to live in a country where the official motto was, "You never know." It would help me relax.

-George Carlin

the grace needed...................

Value is, at bottom, simple.  The balance of values is complex, and how to trade them, to choose the worthiest course, is the problem of how to live.  Life has its absurdities, which we might expect and find humor in.  As for the meaning of life itself, in human history, we have yet to formulate an answer.  But we have found good enough reasons to potentially find meaning in our own situation, enough so as to find personal peace.  We needn't resign from life or withdraw, but can instead ready ourselves for being ever more attuned, in faithful practice.  For the basic joy in the surfer's kind of relational connection, even in an ordinary surf, is a real basis for peace in the sublime mix of the beautiful and the grotesque, of the fortunate and the unfortunate, of the just and the unjust.   One can relax the perfectionist scruples, ease up on the angst, and be less anxious.  One can get stoked and simple engage in worthy activities that give one the grace needed to call the present good enough within a life that's being well lived.

-Aaron James,  Surfing With Sartre:  An Aquatic Inquiry Into A Life Of Meaning

Still learning........................

via

There are very few things better than.......

……………………………………………...forest bathing.

Saving grace...............................

via

Some sentences just make you go.....

...............hmmmm.  Walking speeds increasing by 10%?  Wondering who did that study?  Could it be just more youngsters living downtown?  Inquiring minds want to know.

"We are in principle accessible anywhere, at any time; we can be texted, emailed, tagged: “The world today is faster, more scheduled, more fragmented, less patient, louder, more wired, more public.” There is not enough downtime. So Lightman argues in his brisk, persuasive essay. His snapshots of the relevant social science portray the grim effects of over-connection in our digital age: young people are more stressed, more prone to depression, less creative, more lonely but never really alone. Our time is ruthlessly graphed into efficient units. The walking speed of pedestrians in 32 cities increased by 10 percent from 1995 to 2005."

-Kieran Setiya, as culled from this Idleness as Flourishing essay

This is almost a given..........

The "We must DO something!" people are, as usual, making things worse.

-as lifted from here

Developing.......................

Funny, this never worked with my kids..........

via

Cool............................