Mindfulness without the Bells and Beads

Chapter 16Week 8: Maintaining Momentum

Well here we are, week 8. Congratulations! We have covered so much ground in just 8 short weeks together, and I'm so grateful to have been a part of your journey in some small way. You should be very proud to have come this far in service of self-discovery and unlocking exceptional leadership, performance, and well-being. Let's review some of the ground we've covered and discuss ways in which you can maintain the momentum of your practice. Just as your physical health will decline if you stop exercising, a trained mind will begin to atrophy without continued consistent practice.

The insights and effects of a consistent mindfulness practice can be subtle, grow gradually, or nearly knock us off our feet when we realize them. I'm not talking about Enlightenment here. I've already mentioned you can't get that from a book. But, at this point in your practice, you may have experienced some insights into how you show up in the world and how that affects your reality and relationships.

Perhaps you've noticed how quickly the mind retreats into defensive mode in reaction to a story it created by guessing at the intent of someone's behavior and then being able to Catch and Release that automatic reaction. Maybe you've become more aware of the tendency of the mind to jump into “doing” mode during any downtime, nearly robbing you of the ability to rest and recover, but you were able to Catch and Release that impulse and take a well-deserved break. ...