HLTH-1240 Instructor: Julie Pugmire

A Cultivated Stillness
Cultivating a mental stillness

Taber T. Fellows

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While working on my meditation practices many experiences have been achieved. One
such achievement Ive noticed is how I have cultivated qualities of patience having the patience
to wait for things to play themselves out shows me theres no need for the waste unnecessary
actions. These unnecessary actions are the times when we feel that it is necessary to interrupt, or
disturb the natural flow/balance of life, going against the current fighting in the natural flow, and
placing added weight on ones-self, and disrupting the balance of our lives. Do you have the
patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoved till the
right action arises by itself? LAO-Tzu, Tao-te-Ching (Jon Kabat-Zinn).
Mindfulness is a profound practice intended to cultivate reverence, being consciously
aware of everything we do waking up from living our lives in a
dreamlike state, an auto-pilot action, if I may. Harmonizing myself
with the world in which I/we live in, as well as examining just exactly
who I am. Questioning my views of the world and finding my place it.
Cultivating an appreciation for the fullness of life, and living in each
moment were Im alive. Meditation helps us wake up from this of automaticity and
unconsciousness, thereby making it possible for us to live our lives with access to the full
spectrum of our conscious and unconscious possibilities. (Jon Kabat-Zinn). This in-word
investigation helps us to find the nature of our minds through this careful, systematic self
observation, which may gently lead us along the paths of our lives of greater satisfaction,
harmony and wisdom. Cultivating this stillness (the mindfulness state) is what the Buddhist
referred to as the heart of Buddhist meditation. Fundamentally mindfulness is a simple concept,
its powers reside practice and applications of mindfulness. It means paying attention in a
particular way: on purpose, within the present and being non-judgment. This type of

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concentration or paying attention nurtures and cultivates a greater form of awareness and clarity
accepting the present moment as reality. (Jon Kabat-Zinn).

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As daily lifes problems, continue to build feelings, of being left out and stuck, or out of
touch with reality. Over time we lose confidence within ourselves, we lose the ability to redirect
our foes in ways that would lead to a greater personal satisfaction and happiness, even perhaps,
obtaining greater health. Through the practice of meditation, I have found and learned powerful
ways of getting myself stuck in fact in touch with my own personal wisdom and vitality.
Meditation Itself has been a way for me to take charge of my actions, emotions, and negative
thoughts in which have guided me down and through the narrow pathway enlightenment. Finally
being able to fully understand the reasoning behind my poor actions and behaviors, admittedly
what Im saying. I am far from being perfect my flaws clearly show that I am human and as
human mistakes are made. However, through my meditating practices I truly have learned how
to relax my mind, and

body through this. I have

discovered less stress,

less pain and, above all,

less tension within.

These feelings are

remarkably enjoyable,

invigorating, enticingly

fulfilling and relaxing.

My murky waters have re-

turned clear, and I can

now see that a positive

more productive future is near, and that sings beautifully within the space between my ears, my
life has become clearer. By and through cultivating stillness, this mindfulness state of being
this concentration of deliberately staying focused on one specific item such as the breath this
temporarily helps the mind to forget about everything else that would normally occupy our
minds and time, along with the energy it requires. These items that are deliberately being
temporarily displaced (left to be only and not allowed to enter the conscious mind) consist of
physical pains, and stress related issues and anxietys just to name a few.

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If remaining completely comfortable throughout your entire meditating session, and it
becomes impossible to do due to some physical reason or another simply re-adjust yourself, and
acknowledge that it just happened. Then continue on with your mediation. Sometimes these
things can affect our concentration from sitting for a long period of time. Therefore it is
imperative to be completely comfortable and relaxed. Begin slowly focusing on your breathing
techniques, as you fall deeper and deeper into the mere act of concentrating on the breath you
should at this time be able to notice that there is nothing else there that can distract you/us. Thus
we are finally free from everything that can possibly be a distraction to our meditation.
Harmonizing ones-self, starts by centering our-selfs in our posture focusing on our
breathing. Then, from your heart or from your belly, invite feelings or images of kindness and
love and radiate until they feel your whole being. Recognizing and honoring your being and a
kindness that you perhaps did not receive enough of throughout your life, breathing it in and
breathing it out, as if it were a lifeline where we find our fair share of nutritions as it nurtures us
sufficiently back to the point where starvation of acceptance from other turns into peacefulness.
Once we are in touch with being whole, we feel at one with everything. When we feel is
everything, we feel whole ourselves, cultivating stillness of the mind through sitting or lying still
in the moment we reconnect not only with our bodies as we transcend our body to merge with
breath, and the universe, experiencing ourselves as whole thats folded into a larger whole.