I like the simplicity of Sylvia Boorstein’s definition of mindfulness:

Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience.
It isn’t more complicated that that.
It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.

What mind tends to do is complicate things. It does this when it is on autopilot and reacts by generating judgments and opinions. We can only respond wisely when we can accept that the present moment is as it is. To do that, we need to know what is happening–by being mindful!

It’s a self-reinforcing system: more mindfulness, less reactivity, more acceptance.

Posted by Deb.