Finding My Path

I was really impressed by a talk given by Jon Kabat-Zinn at Google:
Mindfulness Meditation.

Actually, I was so impressed that I bought two of his books:

• Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life (amazon link)
  
• Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness (amazon link)

I'm in the process of reading them, and thus far it has been an enriching experience.

People in their twenties, after growing up :), sometimes face too much stress, associated with confusion, discontent and sleep deprivation. This comes from facing the real world, wanting to make a name for yourself, working harder and harder, mimicking other go-getters that have had success, while continually wanting to answer (unconsciously) really simple and fundamental questions:

1. Who am I?
2. What's my purpose?

This happened to me. And this confusion and endless stress can really cause pain, if uncontrolled.

Mindfulness meditation is a central theme in Buddhism, being all about awareness of one's thoughts, feelings and actions. It is said that some people live all their lives in a dream state, perpetually thinking about past mistakes, future actions and desires, continually having internal conflicts. Such people race through life without noticing the present moment, the "now", the only time when you actually live.

I noticed this pattern in my own being, and I really don't want to live a life of regrets, and sorrow.

In closing, I'll reproduce a beautiful poem recited by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the above linked presentation:

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life.

– Derek Walcott

Be happy ~