Izabela L-Sletner

On Mindfulness

I feel sorry for “the feelings”. I am sorry for the way they are treated or rather mistreated. They are diminished, ridiculed and disrespected; they can be both dismissed and glorified. And above all they are misinterpreted. When we sense an emotion we get immediately busy with giving a meaning to it, explaining, justifying and …

On Mindfulness Read More »

On Mindfulness

The thinking, intelligent mind likes to take possession. It appropriates whatever is happening to “you” using words like “I”, “me” and “mine”. It loves telling stories in the first person. The truth is that it is not “You”. It is only a part of you-an aspect of you. It has a task to make you …

On Mindfulness Read More »

On Mindfulness

 A member of my family died lately. It was too soon, too abrupt and too painful; it almost always is. We are still shocked at that fact. We don’t know how and where to put this huge empty space that is left for us. There is a story about his life and about his death. …

On Mindfulness Read More »

On Mindfulness

“I wish I could stop thinking “is a thought that probably pops up on everybody’s mind from time to time. Thinking in such cases instead of bringing a solution and help, has accelerated into a messy hurricane or a mental vortex threatening our sanity and giving us a headache or other even more serious malady; …

On Mindfulness Read More »

On Mindfulness

I began learning to write and read by learning alphabet. So did Shakespeare. I am not going to compare his skill of writing to mine, but it is obvious that we both started from A, B, C… If it is knitting, cooking or composing music one has to start from a very simple, basic level …

On Mindfulness Read More »

On Mindfulness

The past does not exist and neither the future. Whatever we experience is happening now in the present. We tell a story about what happened or what’s going to happen, but this story is being told now. What we take for the past are patches of feelings and thoughts stored in our nervous system. They …

On Mindfulness Read More »

On Mindfulness

I was not taught to indulge my wants. Contrary, I was taught to control them. There was something wrong with the very notion of having a desire. There was something frivolous and egoistic in it. The real virtue was in giving up and giving away or in working very, very hard hoping for a reward. …

On Mindfulness Read More »

On Mindfulness

“To be or not to be?” is this really “the question”? I believe that it is rather “How to be happy?” question. And when we are that we don’t bother about being or not being, the answer becomes obvious. Yes, happiness-that’s what we want in life. The right to pursuit happiness is even written into …

On Mindfulness Read More »

On Mindfulness

When I talk about mindfulness and mention non-intellectual, non-thinking aspect of it I see some kind of panic and trepidation in people’s eyes. I see doubting and ridiculing the idea of existence without thinking. Our mind simply can’t imagine such a state as useful and honorable one. “Think!”-is an order we all here from early …

On Mindfulness Read More »

On Mindfulness

I don’t like making mistakes. But who does? I know that mistakes are important for me learning, developing and growing. I know that I can’t avoid them. They belong to life. I try to pacify them, using affirmations and wise sentences like: “The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything” (by Edward …

On Mindfulness Read More »