Back to the Basics of Mindfulness

09/08/23 • 20 min

What is mindfulness? Is it being present to each moment? Or is there more to it than that?

What if we’re present but frequently lodging objections? What if we’re present but secretly wish things were different – in our firm, organization, relationships? What if we’re present but we’re not at peace with what we see inside?

Can mindfulness help with that?

What is mindfulness? Is it being present to each moment? Or is there more to it than that?

Can mindfulness help with that?

Previous Episode

Letting Go Into Fall

It’s been an eventful summer. Fires, hurricanes, indictments, work...and hopefully you've also had a few cool dips in the lake or the ocean, or been able to take a few deep breaths in the forest.

Everything makes an impression, doesn’t it? The questions for me are, which impressions to keep close to my heart? What to let go of? And what to let go into?

I want to hold onto the memories of those long, cold swims in the lake. Mostly I want to let go of the front page. More than anything, I want to let go into the ease and wellbeing of the mountains, even (or especially) when I'm back at my desk, writing curriculum, offering programs, watching the clock.

What are you letting go into this fall?

Next Episode

Can We Turn Resilience Into Love?

We sit and we sit and we sit. Some days there’s ease. But some days for me anyway, there’s just sorrow or anger or fear. And I really don’t want to be with it.

And yet I’ve noticed there’s a resilience that emerges when I practice turning towards difficult moments and memories, and even towards the things I’m sure will be hard in the future (tipping a hat to Mark Twain*).

But that begs the next question for me. Which is, is it possible to turn towards the really hard stuff with not only resilience? Is it possible to turn towards it also with love?

*“I’ve suffered a great many catastrophes in my life. Most of them never happened.” ~ M.T.

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers - Back to the Basics of Mindfulness

Transcript

Hi everyone, it’s Judi Cohen and this is Wake Up Call 409. Sorry for the late note today, everyone!

Since it’s the fall, kind of back to school time, I thought it might be nice to go back to basics about mindfulness, too. So that’s what we’ll be doing for a while.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I can get lost in the details. Or lost in the lists – the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Four Brahmaviharas. There are a lot of lists in mindfulness.