It’s so much more difficult to focus on what’s within your control than on all the things that aren’t.

I'm not a snob about contemplative practice. I see zero shame in scrolling through Instagram during moments like these. I'm not trying to maintain monastic levels of composure throughout the day.

I just decided to explore what would happen if I fell back on what has proved paradoxically comforting in the past when waiting for potentially terrible news.

“Life is so very messy! I have spent most of my life trying to control this messiness with all my imperfections. Recently I discovered that no matter how hard I try, it would bring me more anguish in my attempts to control it. Everything is temporary and some things are just out of our control!“

Kalyn Jolivette

Mindfulness doesn’t provide some kind of magical exemption from discomfort. Not at all. It's actually the opposite. It means when practiced consistently—with or without meditation—we can sometimes change the degree to which we fight against some present discomfort.

"You don't have to analyze it. You just have to feel it." 

Dan Harris

First, you must let your heart
be broken open
in a way you have never
felt before,
cannot imagine.

Dorothy Walters

If your strategy for trying to live in the present more doesn't acknowledge that the present often sucks, you will find yourself frequently convinced that you have failed instead of realizing that your expectations are unrealistic.

"The universal war is not limited to the relation between different states, but takes place between villages, between households, and between individuals, and that it takes place even between the different parts of each individual soul."

~ T. K. Seung