Practical Mindfulness Training

• Session 1: Attention (to the present moment)

Videos

Attention and the Now - Quotes

• “When your attention moves into the Now, there is an alertness. It is as if you were waking up from a dream, the dream of thought, the dream of past and future. Such clarity, such simplicity. No room for problem-making. Just this moment as it is.” - Eckhart Tolle
• “When you step into the Now, you step out of the content of your mind. The incessant stream of thinking slows down. Thoughts don’t absorb all your attention anymore, don’t draw you in totally. Gaps arise in between thoughts-spaciousness, stillness. You begin to realize how much vaster and deeper you are than your thoughts.” - Eckhart Tolle
• “The past has no power over the present moment.” - Eckhart Tolle
• “Mindfulness comes in moments. We don’t have to “do” it all the time. Touching base with the here and now every now and then sheds a different light on your day.”
• “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. (The past doesn’t exist anymore and the future is just a projection of the mind). Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.” - Eckhart Tolle
• “When you’re in touch with Presence, you feel at home wherever you are. And if you’re not in touch with that, no matter where you go, you always feel there’s something not quite right.” - Eckhart Tolle
• “Paying attention to the here and now requires intention, not force.”

• Session 2: Automatic patterns and reactivity

Videos

Reactivity – Peter Strong (PhD)

• “Knowing yourself is to be rooted in being, instead of lost in your mind.” - Eckhart Tolle
• "If we become more aware of our thoughts, feelings and body sensations that are provoked by stressful events, we can loosen ourselves from automatic ways of responding and respond more consciously"
• “If you are in the habit of creating suffering for yourself, then you are probably creating suffering for others too.” Eckhart Tolle
• “When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge.” - Tuli Kupferberg
• “Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.” - Eckhart Tolle
• “How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.”– Charlie Gilkey
• “The person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts, and so he loses touch with reality.” - Alan watts

• Session 3: Judgment & Conflict

Videos

This video discusses the importance of becoming aware of judgments, without judging them.

No Arms, No Legs, No Worries – Nick Vujicic

Judgment - Quotes

• “The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.” - Eckhart Tolle
• “No failure is ever really a failure unless we stop trying altogether – indeed, it may be a blessing in disguise, a much-needed lesson.” - Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood
• “A thing is only right or wrong because you say it is. A thing is not right or wrong intrinsically.” - Neale Donald Walsch
• “If you want to feel bad, feel bad. But judge not, and neither condemn, for you know not why a thing occurs, nor to what end.” - Neale Donald Walsh
• “What a miserable day. He didn’t have the decency to return my call. She let me down. Little stories we tell ourselves and others, often in the form of complaints. They are unconsciously designed to enhance our always deficient sense of self through being ‘right’ and making something or someone ‘wrong’. […] How simple life would be without those stories. It is raining. He did not call. I was there. She was not.” - Eckhart Tolle
• “The suffering itself is not so bad; it's the resentment against suffering that is the real pain.” - Allen Ginsberg
• “By letting go of judgments, we create a silent mind.” – Deepak Chopra

• Session 4: Acceptance

Videos

Acceptance - Quotes

• “Surrender comes when you no longer ask, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ Acceptance of the unacceptable is the greatest source of grace in this world.”- Eckhart Tolle
• “Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is — no matter what form it takes —you are still, you are at peace.” - Eckhart Tolle.
• Whenever an experience comes to an end – a gathering with friends, a vacation, your children leaving home – you die a little death. A ‘form’ that appeared in your consciousness as that experience dissolves. Often leaves behind a feeling of emptiness that most people try hard not to feel, not to face. If you can learn to accept and even welcome the endings in your life, you may find that the feeling of emptiness that initially felt uncomfortable turns into a sense of inner spaciousness that is deeply peaceful. - Eckhart Tolle
• A dialogue: Accept what is. I truly cannot. I’m agitated and angry about this. Then accept what is. Accept that I’m agitated and angry? Accept that I cannot accept? Yes. Bring acceptance into your nonacceptance. Bring surrender into your nonsurrender. Then see what happens. - Eckhart Tolle
• “Suffering usually relates to wanting things to be different than they are.” - Allan Lokos
• The more you resist and fight, the more battle there will be.
• “When there are wars within us, it will not be long before we are at war with others, even those we love.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

• Session 5: Goals / Future (doing versus results)

Powerpoint Presentation

• Session 6: Compassion

Powerpoint Presentation

• Session 7: Ego / Identity

Powerpoint Presentation

• Session 8: Integration