Paying Attention to the Right Things

Today I was reading my library book, "Mindfulness for Beginners" by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, who teaches Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.  There were a couple of things that I read that I thought it would be good to think about.

The author was talking about some of the patients he works with, and how he tries to get them to see that, "...as long as you are breathing there is more right with you than wrong with you, no matter what is wrong."

How is that possible?  Well, to illustrate he teaches that instead of focusing on all that is wrong and needs to be fixed, we should "systematically pour energy in the form of attention into what is right with us."

Here are the examples he gave of some of the things we can focus on.  He said we should focus on the fact that, "we have a body in the first place, that we are breathing, that we can sense the world in various ways, that the mind generates thoughts and emotions seemingly endlessly, that we have the capacity for kindness toward ourselves and others, that we can be patient and trusting."

This reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from a previous general conference. 

“The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.”                  Russell M. Nelson

This quote has been helpful to me.  What I focus on has a big affect on how I feel, and how happy I am. 

*Photo by Simon Wilkes on Unsplash