Barrie Davenport

When children are small, they are natural practitioners of mindfulness.

They don’t need reminders to be in the moment and focus on the task at hand.

They don’t need mindfulness quotes for kids to teach them how to be.

That’s how they live every day.

Life is a beautiful garden of wonder for children who see everything with fresh eyes.

As kids grow a bit older, the world steps in to dissuade them of the notion that right now is the only place to be.

They are instructed to focus on the future and correct the mistakes from the past.

The first whispers of anxiety and regret sweep through their developing minds.

Can you choose to be happy in this moment?

Would you say you have a happy life?

After many years of coaching people to reach their happiness goals and having written hundreds of articles on how to be happy, I’ve discovered that happiness boils down to a few essentials.

First, happiness is a state of being that you can choose.

It is a choice about how you want to live your life, in spite of difficulties and pain.

Also, happiness can only be appreciated in the present moment.

You can’t sustain happiness while dwelling in the past or future.

And finally, happiness requires connection with others — sharing our happiness and doing things to make others happy.

If you type the phrase “choose happiness” into your favorite search bar, you will see millions of search results.

It has been written about by ancient philosophers and is still the topic of many current bestselling books.

Want a little happiness inspiration for yourself? Decide to choose your own happiness.

Helping others doesn’t necessarily mean donating millions to charity or volunteering for fifty hours a week. Rather, it can involve approaching life with a fresh generosity of spirit, a simple giving-ness that is its own joy.

But how can we develop these qualities? Loving-kindness meditation, or “metta bhavana,” offers us the key. The Sanskrit word for meditation is “bhavana” which literally means “to cultivate.”

In this way, we can see meditation as a process of cultivating positive qualities of mind, rather than some state of hyper-concentration.

So “metta bhavana” means the “cultivation of loving-kindness.”

Loving-kindness (or lovingkindness) itself can be defined as non-judgmental, compassionate acceptance, and awareness of ourselves and others.

What do you have to gain by reading the best Rumi quotes on love and life?

To answer that question, you’ll have to know more about the person behind the quotes.

As a 13th century Sufi mystic and poet, Rumi (full name: Jalal al-Din Rumi) is best remembered for his lyrics and for his didactic epic, Masnavi-yi Ma ‘navi (“Spiritual Couplets”).

Fame wasn’t what he was aiming for.

But over the centuries, people of all faiths have come to appreciate the wisdom of the quotes shared below.

Gratitude is more than a self-help buzzword.

Medical professionals maintain that orbiting in an ecosystem of thankfulness has mental and physical benefits.

So if you’re in search of contentment, joy, and inner peace, cultivating some may be worth a try.

To that end, today we’re exploring 11 gratitude exercises for adults.

When was the last time you took a break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to think about your beliefs, happiness, and the bigger picture of your life?

Between work, school, friends, family, and all the stuff life throws at you, it can sometimes feel like you’re lost or stuck.

If you want to strengthen your self-awareness, make better choices, improve relationships with yourself and others, and understand what’s going well and what can use improvement, self-introspection can help.

You’ve suspected, at least for some time, that attachment leads to suffering.

But some forms of attachment are more problematic than others.

In Buddhism, attachment suffering means you are in opposition to the forces of the universe, making you susceptible to negative emotions.

The Buddha warns of the dangers of becoming attached to people, material things, and specific outcomes.

But is attachment always a bad thing?

Isn’t it good to feel attached to the people you love?

We know you’ve got questions — good ones, too.

We’ll do our best to answer them.

You’re ready for bed when you start thinking about something disturbing.

You turn out the lights and get comfy, but your brain won’t shut off.

What’s it working on this time?

• A nightmarish scenario (maybe from the news or a movie you watched)
• Negative thoughts about something from your recent (or not so recent) past
• A problem you have to solve
• A situation you’re hoping to avoid in the near future
• A conversation you have to have (but are dreading)

From one thought to the next, your brain jumps, and as you change position in your bed and try to tell yourself, “Shut up and go to sleep!” your brain scoffs — actually scoffs — at you and keeps running those in-house movies.

You can’t stop thinking.

You need a good night’s sleep, but your brain has declared mutiny and won’t shut down for the night.

So, what do you do?

You want to learn how to stop thinking about something when you need to get some rest.

But your brain must have its own internal coffee house, because it’s wide-awake, and it’s just going to keep thinking about one thing after another forever.

Fortunately, there is a way to calm your brain down and banish those distracting thoughts so you can finally get some sleep.

Meditation is a hot topic nowadays.

So many people swear by its benefits, and maybe you’ve already discovered some yourself.

Perhaps you’ve also found solace in prayer — or you know someone who has.

What if you pray and meditate?

As you’ll see further on, for all their differences, the two are not mutually exclusive.

Praying and meditation can even complement each other.

So, how are they different?

And what’s with the stigma against meditation in Christian circles?

I have always found meditation to be the most effective method of stress relief.

It’s great because you can practice it anywhere, anyone can do it, and it doesn’t involve prescription drugs with possibly unpleasant side effects.

While I love to meditate on my own, I have found that guided meditation videos are a great way to let go and relax into my meditation time.

Like most meditators, I find it difficult to keep my mind from wandering when I am meditating on my own.

When I use guided meditation videos, I can remain more attentive and engaged, while completely focusing on the words and sounds from the video.

Video meditation has given me the tools that I need to achieve a deeper state of relaxation and strengthen my meditation skills for the times when I’m not using guided meditation.