“Sometimes I am asked, if you are practicing being fully present, being process- and not product-oriented, is that mindfulness? My reply is that mindfulness is a component of what I call the ‘practicing mind,’ but the practicing mind is much more. It would be more accurate to say the practicing mind is the skill that enables you to enjoy the process of becoming mindful; once mastered, that skill can be aimed at anything. Mindfulness is also a skill, and like all skills, you need to learn the mechanics, and they must be repeated until they become natural and free-flowing. This is important to understand because it drastically impacts your experience of transformation and expansion. When you possess the practicing mind, you stop pushing against yourself as you work at change. Instead, you surrender to the moment, and you feel content with who you are and where you are in this moment. You feel that you are where you should be and doing what you should be doing right now.
The purpose of this book is to give you an overview of the relationship between you, your mind, and what you experience as your thoughts. I hope to increase your awareness of who you really are so that you can step on your own path of enlightenment and find peace, joy, calmness, and power. Our world needs for you to understand your energy and to be more in control of it. This is a very pivotal time. Clearly, it is one of the most stressful in history, but it also offers opportunities that before were much more elusive.”
~ Thomas M. Sterner from It’s Just a Thought
Tom Sterner is one of my favorite writers and thinkers.
This is the third Note we’ve created on one of his great books. We started with The Practicing Mind and then featured Fully Engaged.
This is a quick reading, 120-page book (that I read in a couple hours before the family got up on Monday morning) all about, as per the sub-title, how to create “Emotional Freedom through Deliberate Thinking.” It’s fantastic. Get a copy here.
I’m excited to share a handful of my favorite Big Ideas so let’s jump straight in!
btw... Quick note before we get to work...
One of my favorite lines in the whole book is from the dedication page. Tom dedicates the book to his two daughters and ends by saying, “You are both my best friends.” I smiled when I read that as I a) thought of his relationship with his adult kids and b) imagined MY relationship with my (10- and 5-year-old) kids when *they* are adults.
As you know if you’ve been following along, the first Heroic Love Target to which I commit every morning captures my intention to make being best friends with them a reality...
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