‘Mindful Awareness’ at Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life, Page 6

Sometimes it’s not so much a case of “It didn’t work”, but rather a case of “I didn’t work”.

A couple of the most common desires are losing weight and giving up smoking. People genuinely want to do these things and for what they see as sensible and rational reasons. And yet they often don’t. If they had more energy to do these things, surely they would. Isn’t this a motivation problem?

Lots of evidence and experience back the ‘open is good’ position. I don’t want to deny any of this. I do want to say that it may not be the right position everywhere all the time.

Any of these activities that fit feel ‘natural’ to me. When I do things that don’t feel natural, I feel more stressed — with all the implications that this has for our physical and psychological wellbeing. So, it is an interesting question what ‘natural’ means exactly.

Living in the here and now is enlivening. But what about when we have to put off dealing with what’s happening in the here and now? Do we simply have to live impoverished lives?