When you find that you've become distracted in your meditation...or in life, simply bring yourself back to the moment, gently, easily, without giving yourself a hard time. Without beating yourself up. And then...celebrate! Because you're back!
How can we call remaining in the present “meditation?” Is meditation merely a state of non-distraction? When do you find yourself most present? Most distracted? Whether distracted or present, each moment is an opportunity, an invitation, to meditate. Many people assume that we mediate by finding a cushion or quiet place and then sit, motionless, in a state of calm bliss. But, every moment that we’re awake can also be a moment when we’re aware. Each Moment is an Invitation to Practice Each moment that we’re present, whether with our family, friends, or those we care for, is a moment [...]
Distraction Isn't Your Enemy! Considering that the main objective of meditation is to arrive at a state of non-distraction without altering our mind, how do we deal with the fact that distraction seems to be the one thing that prevents us from meditating? Is there some easy way to deal with our tendency to get distracted? After all, we'd probably all be excellent at meditation if it weren't for the fact that we get so distracted during our meditation. And, it's this distraction that can become the most frustrating and cause us to abandon our meditation practice in favor of [...]
Use Meditation in Everyday Life When we think about meditation or mindfulness, it's easy to get caught-up in the belief that we need to be sitting on a cushion, cross-legged, or located within a monastery to practice meditation. While these aspects of meditation can provide us with the support necessary to achieve a stable meditation practice, and while a formal meditation practice is the only way to become familiar with our mind, the primary reason to meditate, especially within the context of caring for another, is to become familiar with our true nature within our ordinary daily life. In fact, [...]
COMPASSION ISN'T OUTSIDE OF YOU Compassion isn't something foreign to our minds and our hearts. It isn't something "out there" that we have to get or acquire. And, it isn't something that we need to learn (although we may need to remember it at times). Granted, there are times when we feel that to find even the smallest compassionate impulse for certain patients requires of us the most Herculean effort. There are also times when, either due to the amount of stress that we're experiencing, or the number of patients we're dealing with, it doesn't feel like there's "...enough to go [...]
GUEST POST In this post, it's my pleasure to introduce a new contributor to this site's content. As a guest blogger, Holly Ashby brings to the community an important aspect of preventing burnout in nursing; how do we work with ourselves to positively affect our environment. We've covered this topic before in discussing how we can use mindfulness, awareness and compassion. Here are a few of Holly's ideas. Banishing Toxic Behaviours It’s very easy to develop certain behaviours and habits throughout your life without even realising it. Some of these can make a positive impact, like realising you’re actually a [...]
For this post, I'd like to introduce my friend and peer Tiffany Swedeen. Tiffany is a talented and multifaceted RN who works in the Northwest. Tiffany's rich experience and her journey into and through a difficult period of life inspired me to share her vision and work in this post. Job Burnout Took Me By Surprise As an eager new nurse working in acute care in 2005, I wrote an article on ‘Job Burnout” for my department’s nursing newsletter. I believed my suggestions would encourage the more seasoned and weary staff to seek self-care. Little did I [...]
By creating the third mind of nursing, that wonderful creatrix of possibility from which spring infinite possibilities for change, we can create an intangible force of awareness and compassion, and venture to bring the collective mind into a new era of nursing.
Minding the bedside, remaining mindful, aware, and compassionate in the presence of those we care for, comes from turning the mind, re-turning the mind inward; transforming the stormy arisings of thoughts, emotions and feelings and recognizing them to be impermanent phenomena, like passing clouds in the sky.
In the second part of this series, Why Do You Get Stressed..., we looked at why we become stressed due to our thoughts and thinking. In this final part, we’ll explore how mindfulness and meditation can help us to work differently with our mind and emotions.