An extract from FULL CATASTROPHE LIVING
by Jon Kabat-Zinn
"Mindfulness is a great gift we can give to ourselves. It means we can reclaim our entire life rather than just living for vacations or the other 'special' times when everything will be 'perfectly arranged' to bring on those hoped for feelings of inner peace and serenity.....the challenge is to make calmness, inner balance, and clear seeing a part of everyday life....
In bringing mindfulness to an activity or an experience, whatever it may be, you flesh it out. It becomes more vivid, more bright, more real for you. In part, things become more vivid because the stream of your thinking subsides a little and is less likely to interpose itself between you and what is actually happening....
As encountering each moment with awareness becomes more familiar to you, you will find that it is not only possible but even enjoyable to be in the moment, even with ordinary tasks such as washing the dishes. You come to see that you don't have to rush to get through with the dishes so that you can get on to something better or more important because, at that moment that you are doing the dishes, that IS your life. As you will notice, if you miss these moments because your mind is somewhere else, in an important way, you are shortchanging your life."
