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    Cultivating a Mindful Life
    Cultivating a Mindful Life
    Cultivating a Mindful Life
    Ebook87 pages1 hour

    Cultivating a Mindful Life

    By Sue Schleifer

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    About this ebook

    You have heard the word mindfulness. What does it mean? How does it relate to your life? How do you live mindfully? These questions and more are explored in 35 stories in "Cultivating A Mindful Life."

    To live mindfully means to be aware of one’s body, mind, and emotions. It means to be awake in the moment, to be attuned to what is rather than what one wishes would be true.

    You will gain a deeper understanding of how to bring mindfulness into your life through the personal stories and the experiences of the author’s life coaching clients. Inspired by authors, researchers and speakers, the author brings their wisdom to her examples of living mindfully.

    Each chapter ends with questions for reflection so that you may dig deeper into the topic and develop your own practices for living a mindful life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSue Schleifer
    Release dateOct 4, 2014
    ISBN9780989076234
    Cultivating a Mindful Life
    Author

    Sue Schleifer

    Sue Schleifer, born in Santa Barbara, California, currently resides in Lafayette, Louisiana. In addition to her writing career, Sue is a life and leadership coach with clients throughout the United States. She offers workshops and training sessions on effective communication, mindfulness, and writing.She is the author of two books: "The Key to the Castle: Zen and Travel Stories of Trust" and "Cultivating a Mindful Life." She has also written two plays, "Take Down The Letters" and "What Matters" which can be read at New Play Exchange..

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      Book preview

      Cultivating a Mindful Life - Sue Schleifer

      Cultivating a Mindful Life

      Sue Schleifer

      Copyright © 2014 by Sue Schleifer

      Cover design by Megan Barra

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      Thank you for downloading this e-book. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please return to your favorite e-book retailer to discover other books by this author. Thank you for your support.

      Also by Sue Schleifer, Published at Smashwords:

      The Key to the Castle: Zen and Travel Stories of Trust

      Table of Contents

      Cultivating a Mindful Life

      Planting the Seeds

      On Relationship

      Working In The Field You Love When You Can’t Get A Job In Your Field

      What We Do For Love

      The View From The Balcony

      Thinking, Thinking, Thinking

      Consistent, Persistent, and Patient

      Mindsets

      How Am I Showing Up?

      Choosing Happiness

      Distracted

      Dedicated and Determined

      Awakening Possibility

      Creative Speculation

      Fake It Until You Become It

      Climbing Into Another Person’s Skin

      Identity

      Risky Business

      Labels

      Negativity in the Workplace

      Meaning, Belonging, Expression

      Validation

      A World That Listens

      Curiosity

      A Dent in the Universe

      Are You a Conspirator of Love?

      Knowing When to Ask For Help

      Managing Stress

      My Boots Lost Their Soles

      Lucky

      Taking Risks

      Art of the Pie

      Satsuma for Sam

      Happiness

      Rejuvenation

      Invitation

      Cultivating a Mindful Life

      To cultivate means to grow and care for something under conditions that you can control as well as to develop a quality or skill. In the chapters that follow, I tell stories and provide opportunities for reflection that will help you to grow and develop a mindful life.

      When I live mindfully I am:

      • Aware of my body, mind, and emotions

      • Awake in the moment

      • Attuned to what is rather than what I wish for or hope would be

      And when I am aware, awake, and attuned, I am clear, creative, and compassionate in my relationships, with myself, and with my community.

      Mindfulness

      Jon Kabat-Zinn describes mindfulness as paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. I can practice mindfulness at any moment of the day: when showering, eating breakfast, helping children get ready for school, driving to work, in a meeting, working on a project, watching a child’s soccer game, cooking dinner, or in conversation.

      When I live mindfully I give my attention fully to whatever I am doing. I learn to train my mind to be in the here and now rather than thinking about the past or the future. I am present with things as they are in this moment rather than how I might wish them to be.

      For many centuries, people around the world have cultivated living mindfully. Like any other skill—playing baseball, violin, or fly-fishing—it takes lots of practice. To feel a sense of knowing and satisfaction from a skill or art form requires many hours of experimentation, repetition, and often the guidance of a teacher. Practicing mindfulness is no different. Sitting quietly and noticing is a time-honored path to cultivating a mindful life.

      This book focuses on stories that support living mindfully. While I do not specifically give instructions on how to meditate, I do highly recommend that you develop a meditation practice. There are many books on meditation and mindfulness as a daily practice as well as centers to help support your practice. I encourage you to check these out.

      You may want to start with a book by Jon Kabat-Zinn, mentioned above. He was the founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He has written several books. I especially recommend Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life.

      Please note that throughout this book I have changed the names of my clients in order to preserve confidentiality.

      Questions for Reflection

      At the end of each chapter I have included questions for reflection. I recommend that you pull out a journal so that you may write down your thoughts as you read. When you come to a chapter that particularly resonates with you, take a few minutes to write in your journal about how the ideas relate to your life.

      What came up for you as you read the chapter? What memories were triggered? When did you experience something similar?

      Use the questions at the end of the chapter to dig a bit deeper into your thoughts and experiences. You may want to stay with a chapter for a week or even up to a month, reflect on the questions daily, and write whatever comes to you in your journal. You may start to notice patterns.

      By taking time to reflect on the ideas in this book, you will cultivate a mindful life.

      Planting the Seeds

      Sometimes the unexpected shakes us up. It might be a welcome surprise, like receiving a bouquet of flowers from a friend or perhaps reconnecting with an old love at a high school reunion. These events heighten our gratitude and contribute to a sense of well-being that radiates out to others.

      At other times, we may have an unexpected experience that awakens us in another way. Across the world, people are shaken by earthquakes and deluged by storms and hurricanes. Many have been unemployed for far longer than they ever anticipated. These experiences hit the core of our being and force us to call upon internal resources.

      At times of change, disasters, or when we are feeling

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