elishagoldstein, a blog by Elisha Goldstein

Mondays Mindful Quote: Thich Nhat Hanh

Welcome back to the Monday's Mindful Quote. If you are new to this, here's the concept behind it. Every Monday I'm going to cite a quote or a poem that is related to mindfulness and psychotherapy in some way and then explore it a bit and how it is relevant to our lives. For me, quotes and poetry can often sink me into a state of greater understanding.

Here's is a quote from the blog post 10 Quotes for a Mindful Day by the influential author and mindfulness teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh:

"There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way."

It can sometimes seem like we are on a lifetime quest to achieve happiness. "Once I find my soul mate, then I'll be happy" or "If I get that promotion, then I'll be happy" or "Once I'm making this or that income, then I'll be happy." Woven within the mere thought itself is a sense of being "less than" you want to be and therefore makes you less happy than you were before that thought even arrived.

Some might argue that it's not the conditions of our lives that make us happy (although some can certainly help at times), it's the way we relate to ourselves and our lives that provide the happiness. It's the way we walk through life.

In other words, we're always practicing something. If we spend our time wrestling with negative, excessive worrying, or hopeless thoughts, we're practicing unhappiness. If we spend our time noticing and acknowledging these unhelpful habits of the mind, without judgment, we can then choose to turn our attention to matters that walk in line with greater happiness and sense of peace.

In the realm of behavioral therapy, a therapist might say, "what would you be doing differently if you were happy?" Some people might answer, "I'd be smiling more" or "I'd be riding my bike" or "I'd be spending giving more to others." Then the response from the therapist would be, "now let's put these into action."

Sometimes we need to put our feet in front of our heads and then our thoughts and emotions will follow.

Try: What would you do if you were happy or what have you done when you've been happy? Write these things down and begin practicing them. Don't take my word for it, try it yourself and see what happens.

Please share your thoughts, stories, and questions below. Your interaction here provides a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.

*Originally posted at Psychcentral.com

 

 

 
Published Aug 03 2009, 06:37 AM by Elisha Goldstein

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Comments

 

Mindfulness Meditation Therapy said:

I would like to add a few additional thoughts about mindfulness.

Without a doubt, the single most important step on the "path to happiness'" is to learn to recognize the conditioned habitual reactions that keep us stuck in emotional suffering. Recognize those negative thoughts, the proliferation of worry and fear, guilt and regret, jealousy and envy. If you can't recognize these harmful thought patterns, you will suffer.

Mindfulness teaches you how to do just this - to see reactions as they arise in real time and stop right there, not allowing them to ambush your happiness.

Eventually, you want to replace the negative thoughts. However, before you can discover the positive, you MUST fully face, work through and resolve the negative emotional energy that powers your negative thoughts and beliefs. Pushing them away to make way for the positive will not work.

"Happiness is the way" means that we choose to bring the healing spaciousness and compassion of mindfulness, pure non-judgemental knowing, to the negative emotions themselves. Surround them with the space of mindfulness and they cannot harm you. Avoid or resist them and you sustain them, you feed them with un-knowing and the "thou shalt not know" response that creates suffering, dukkha and violence in the first place.

If you learn to love your anger, anxiety, jealousy, negative thoughts through mindfulness, you will find that they will transform themselves and positive responses will naturally arise in their place.

November 26, 2009 11:24 AM

About Elisha Goldstein

Elisha is a practicing Psychologist teaching mindfulness workshops and seminars at multiple organizations across California. He is a Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher, published author, and speaker, including the Mindfulness and Psychotherapy Conference at UCLA headlining Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield, and Daniel Siegel. You can check out his CDs on Mindful Solutions for Stress, Anxiety and Depression and Mindful Solutions for Addiction and Relapse Prevention at http://www.drsgoldstein.com .