{"id":56,"date":"2010-09-09T20:10:24","date_gmt":"2010-09-09T19:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/?p=56"},"modified":"2010-09-19T19:16:34","modified_gmt":"2010-09-19T18:16:34","slug":"how-mindfulness-has-helped-me-by-vicki-mckenna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/how-mindfulness-has-helped-me-by-vicki-mckenna\/","title":{"rendered":"How mindfulness has helped me by Vicki McKenna"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-196\" title=\"Vicki McKenna\" src=\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/09\/22152736\/vickiphoto-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>Buddhists talk often about happiness. It is a focus on the path. My journey with spirituality, particularly Buddhism and Daoism, has led me to realise that essentially I am a happy being but as I have grown older I feel, for me, the spiritual journey is now more about attaining a state of contentment rather than cultivating happiness. Happiness seems somehow more frivolous&#8211;like an energetic, rather fast heartbeat whereas at my ripe old age of fifty eight contentment sounds like a centred, steady, regular heartbeat.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>To encourage the growth of contentment in the unruly garden of the mind there is no better tool than that of Mindfulness. Buddhism has helped me to understand that when I hang on to old emotional states such as anger, grief, anxiety, or fear I suffer. Freedom from attachment to these states arises when we let go of them in this moment and move towards an acceptance of what is in this moment. This is Mindfulness.<\/p>\n<p>I had polio as a child and now have post polio syndrome. This has been a fantastic opportunity to cultivate Mindfulness. Whenever I feel sad, angry, fearful or in pain I tune into the feelings that I am identifying with and then let them go realising &#8220;I have feelings but I am not my feelings&#8221;. And in opening to this moment I appreciate my being and my environment right now. Through choosing Mindfulness rather than attachment to my feelings, comes contentment.<\/p>\n<p>A conversation with a friend, the warm smell of the dinner cooking, the play of sunlight on leaves &#8211;the small things of life are here for us to enjoy when we let go of identifying with our cares and woes and instead live in a calm appreciation of this moment. When we do this we are giving the body and mind the chance to deeply relax and in this contented space healing can take place. I am deeply grateful to this practise of Mindfulness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Buddhists talk often about happiness. It is a focus on the path. My journey with spirituality, particularly Buddhism and Daoism, has led me to realise that essentially I am a happy being but as I have grown older I feel, for me, the spiritual journey is now more about attaining a state of contentment rather [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How mindfulness has helped me by Vicki McKenna - Many Roads<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/how-mindfulness-has-helped-me-by-vicki-mckenna\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bodhicharya.org\\\/manyroads\\\/how-mindfulness-has-helped-me-by-vicki-mckenna\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bodhicharya.org\\\/manyroads\\\/how-mindfulness-has-helped-me-by-vicki-mckenna\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"How mindfulness has helped me by Vicki McKenna\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-09-09T19:10:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-09-19T18:16:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bodhicharya.org\\\/manyroads\\\/how-mindfulness-has-helped-me-by-vicki-mckenna\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":334,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bodhicharya.org\\\/manyroads\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bodhicharya.org\\\/manyroads\\\/how-mindfulness-has-helped-me-by-vicki-mckenna\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bodhicharya.org\\\/manyroads\\\/files\\\/2010\\\/09\\\/vickiphoto-150x150.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bodhicharya.org\\\/manyroads\\\/how-mindfulness-has-helped-me-by-vicki-mckenna\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bodhicharya.org\\\/manyroads\\\/how-mindfulness-has-helped-me-by-vicki-mckenna\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bodhicharya.org\\\/manyroads\\\/how-mindfulness-has-helped-me-by-vicki-mckenna\\\/\",\"name\":\"How mindfulness has helped me by Vicki McKenna - 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