A Mindful moment

[JonW]

My other thought on this subject is about humour.
If I hadn't been mindful at that moment, my stress levels would have gone into the red. I love my dog and I'm fiercely protective of him. Ordinarily I would have been consumed by anger at the thought of harm being done to him.
Not only did being mindful avert a stress crisis, it also enabled me to see the humour in the situation.
I would guess that many people tend to look at meditation as an intensely serious undertaking and, of course it is in terms of the commitment one brings to it. But I have found that daily meditation practice actually makes my life a lot lighter. That's to say I'm far better equipped to see the humour in a lot of situations that arise whereas previously those same situations would have instilled fear and worry in me.
As I've mentioned on another thread I'm currently reading The Dude & The Zen Master by Jeff Bridges & Bernie Glassman. Both Bridges (the actor) and Glassman (the Zen master) show that you can be intensely serious in your commitment to meditation and also be able to laugh at yourself. For me that's an important lesson.

[larorra]

Hi Jon,

I really enjoyed your post. Before mindfulness the old me if faced with a situation like yours would have totally panicked and probably fallen out with my friend, but nowadays i can deal with situations like that better, i used to get easily hurt by insensitive work colleagues that liked to Wind me up to get a reaction, i think they are perplexed nowadays that they dont get a reacti!on Now when they come out with a smart remark i will say something like well thats your perception, doesnt Botherother me anymore.

[here]

Great thread! Seems like mindfulness combined with a CBT approach of challenging negative cognitions. I think it's pretty liberating stuff!