In my explorations of mindfulness and other contemplative practices, I’ve made small, very small steps in learning how to pay attention to the present — to what’s here at this moment — without judgment.  This often requires a shift from doing to being, a shift that, as the title of this post indicates, isn’t easy to make.  But I continue to practice.

Various writers and thinkers have made this practice easier.  I had in mind one writer — Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn — when I was writing the “Making Connections” post last week.  I spent some time early this morning listening to an interview with Jon that had sat on my to-do list for several weeks. If you have an hour, I recommend the interview that Krista Tippett did with Jon titled, “Opening to Our Lives: Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Science of Mindfulness.” 

To learn more about some of Jon’s work, check out the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, which Jon founded in 1995 at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.