09 Dec The 2 things you need if you want happiness
Check out the latest article from my friend and colleague, Dr. Paula Watkins (and you can also find out more about Paula HERE) …
The wellness world is swamped with information about mindfulness. We're told how we should be mindful and what we should be mindful of. Essentially it’s about how and where we place our attention.
Mindfulness practices emphasize paying attention to everything with a non-judgmental acceptance. In contrast, positive psychology approaches tend to emphasize focusing on, and enhancing, the positive.
So which is it?
Non-judgmental acceptance
As meditators, we're often told to pay attention to everything: the good, the bad and the mundane. We’re told to do so without judgment, and with acceptance toward what is. In fact, we train to recognize our internal dialogue (those judgments, evaluations and biases) and we train to see that dialogue for what it is (just impermanent mind-stuff).
As for painful and downright negative experiences … we learn to accept them for what they are (just impermanent life-stuff). This is all apparent in modern definitions of mindfulness: a kind of present-centered awareness in which each thought, feeling, or sensation that arises in the attentional field is acknowledged and accepted as it is.
Focusing on the positive
From positive psychology, we learn a host of well-researched strategies and we’re often told to focus on the positive – to selectively attend to what’s good in our lives and hone in on that to prompt positive emotions (and the many bio-behavioral benefits that come with them)…
…keep reading Dr. Paula's full article on the MindBodyGreen website HERE