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Maintaining a Mindfulness Practice

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Lesson time 04:59 min

Starting a mindfulness practice is only the beginning. Jon shares guidance on how to continue the journey.

Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars

Topics include: Maintaining a Mindfulness Practice

Preview

[MUSIC PLAYING] - So now that you've come to the end of this course, it's quite possible that you feel that you've come to the end of this course. But in fact, there is no end to this course in the same way as there's no end as far as I can see to the practice, to life, at least while we have it to live, that we keep up the practice, that we let life be the practice, that we let life be the teacher, that we become fully engaged and fully embodied humans moving seamlessly in the world, in our family, in our work, all of what we most care about, whatever it is, in ways that actually continue to challenge us and grow our mindfulness practice. And so in that sense, I want to say congratulations for having made it through a first pass of this course. And now you know that this is a timeless practice, that it's always about now. And having reached this kind of juncture, what next is a natural question to arise. And there, it's almost as if the entire course was just the launching platform like Cape Canaveral launching you into a practice that hopefully is-- and it's certainly my intention-- that the practice be a lifelong one for you. As you know, there's no one right way to do it. So you have to thread the needle of finding your way to embody mindfulness and heartfulness in the world. And everybody in your life will collaborate and become your mindfulness teacher. You've probably seen that already. And it's a very, very hard training, very, very hard training. Because a lot of the time, you will think that you're the most mindless person in the world. And sometimes, you may actually be for a moment or two the most mindless person in the world. But as soon as you are mindful of that, you're not. And if you don't take it personally, you don't even have to get depressed or beat yourself up about it. And just take one more in breath, new beginning. One more outbreath, complete letting go. And here we are again. So from that point of view, there's no end to this program. There's no end to the practice. There's no end to the love affair. There's no end to the adventure. And let's live life to whatever degree we can as fully as I can because the world absolutely needs every single one of us to contribute in whatever ways we can, which we might think are far too small to be significant. But there's no such thing as insignificant. The people touch in the world with your kindness, with your generosity, with your clarity, with your stability of mind, you may not know that you've ever had that effect on them. It may all happen wordlessly. But that's how the love spreads. So this is it, folks. The present moment is all we have. And if we are in wise relationship to it, we-- it's the only way to change the future, the only way to change the future. Because if we are here for this moment, the next moment is going to be different because we've brought wakefulness and lovingkindness into this moment. In some tiny, little way, it's different tha...

About the Instructor

A pioneer of the Western mindfulness movement, Jon Kabat-Zinn has spent more than 40 years studying, teaching, and advocating the benefits of mindfulness. In his MasterClass, he teaches you how to cultivate a mindfulness practice, reduce your stress, and soothe your thoughts with meditation and movement. Jon shares expert tips and guidance that meets you where you are. Let this class help you make the most of being alive.

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Jon Kabat-Zinn

Mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn teaches you how to incorporate meditation into your everyday life to improve your health and happiness.

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