What is the quality of my thoughts today?

One of the many benefits of meditation and mindfulness is the discovery of recurring thoughts that
are no longer useful, relevant, or productive. And, many of these thoughts may be the underlying cause of emotional pain such as: fear, anger, depression, and anxiety. The originator of these thought seeds may have been another person such as a relative or acquaintance, it may have come from a place of self-doubt, circumstances in the past or from parts-unknown. Regardless of the original source of these mental weeds, they have now become a part of us and are doing damage to the quality of our lives. Negative thinking patterns such as “My work is never good enough” or “I am not capable of making decisions” or “I can never earn more than minimum wage” and many more are common examples and may show up even though we no longer subscribe to the originator’s notions. The first step in tending the garden of our mind, is to sort out the weeds from the blossoms, identifying the negative thought patterns from the healthy ones. However, in the hubbub of our busy lives these subtle thoughts may not be readily obvious.

Try this: 

At the end of a regular meditation, take a few moments to reflect on the last 24 hours. And, ask yourself, "Have I experienced emotional pain such as fear, anger, anxiety, etc in the last 24 hours? and If so, "Are there any thoughts associated with these negative emotions?" Try your best to let these thoughts bubble up and become clear phrases or sentences. If you are unable to form sentences or phrases, try to capture single words that are feeding that harsh emotion. Be sure to record these in a journal with the entry date, so that you can further refine the idea and make note as to how often these thoughts arise. This first step places you in an optimal position to work towards reducing and replacing the outdated thinking patterns with your trusted adviser, coach, or mentor.

As a single footstep will not make a path on the Earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives. - Henry David Thoreau

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How important is my sense of wonder?

The author at one year old

I think that one fully realizes just how important a sense of wonder is once it has been lost. It is most noticeable when it has become completely lost. And having become lost, life becomes predictable, drab and colorless. For me, this is not a desirable, comfortable, nor an acceptable state of being. If it is lost, why did it go? Is it lost forever? Or, can it return when it is missed, desired, and sought after? Let's start at the beginning, when we were children.

Like any child, my ability to tap into the great mystery of life was akin to breathing, a natural and nearly unconscious act. I did not know much about our world, our universe, it was mostly an enigma to me. In that frame of mind the universe was extraordinarily fathomless and my overriding experience of it was contained within a deep sense of awe. For example, I could not comprehend or explain why there were some many stars in the sky, I could just observe these billions and billions of distant suns as tiny, brilliant points of light (as Carl Sagan might have describe them) in sheer wonderment. And, my heart would rise and sing as I took in their limitless beauty. I experienced my world from within a pervasive sense of wonder, a kind of "I don't know" state of grace. I felt tiny and insignificant because of the sheer magnitude of how much of my world was incomprehensible to me. This precious state of  "I don't know" mind is known by the Zen Buddhists as  “Beginner’s mind”  and is also used in the title of the book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by the Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki. This idea is better known in the global culture and society of today as mindfulness, a state of non-judgmental awareness. And, is a state of being that may become accessible to anyone with good instruction and practice in the numerous techniques of meditation.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few - Shunryu Suzuki

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What is the most important question for me to answer at this time?

Many of the questions in our lives are the "low-hanging-fruit" of the question-and-answer space, for example:  “what’s for breakfast?” “Is The coffee ready?” "Are there any dry towels?"and “Should I stop for gas on the way into the office?” We answer them seemingly without effort. Yet, there remains for each of us another, different list of not-so-easy questions relegated to the fringes of our consciousness, “benched” and in “time-out” waiting for the right moment to be addressed. For many people, these important questions remain on the “back-burner” cold and unanswered until the end of time. These are the difficult-to-answer questions, the ones that make us uncomfortable and perhaps we are left feeling unqualified to answer. Yet, we are uniquely qualified to answer them - as they belong to us and we belong to them. And, answering these powerful questions can have a significant impact on the quality of our lives.

Here are a few questions that may belong on the list:

1. Who am I?
2. What is my purpose?
3. Is worrying giving me traction?
4. What is the one thing I can do today that will significantly move my life forward?
5. What course of action will lead to a lasting feeling of happiness and contentment in my life?

Perhaps, you can come up with a few more that are more relevant and unique to your journey.


True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.- Socrates

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