Why Mindfulness is Better than Chocolate Quotes

“The researchers summarized: "A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.". Long ago, Buddhists reached much the same conclusion.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“When we're being mindful, we're paying attention to the present moment, deliberately and non-judgementally. When we're meditating, we're being mindful of a specific object, such as the sensation of the breath at the tip of our nostrils, for a sustained period of time.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“It's our version of "me" that causes us the most stress and heartache. Which is why it comes as a relief to discover that this version is as transient as a cloud in the sky. Focus on the cloud and the result is uncertain. Focus on the sky and we discover clarity.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“Meditation provides the tools not only to abide more comfortably in the present, but also to observe rather than engage with unhappiness-creating thoughts.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“Question: Where’s the best place to hide something of great value? Answer: The present moment. No one will ever find it! YOGA JOKE”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“providing associated benefits—equanimity, inner peace, spontaneity, and zest for life, to name just a few.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“Although the mechanics of what we do at the gym are our main concern, in reality we’re mostly doing it for the twenty-three hours a day we’re not at the gym. We may monitor our regime with keen attention, but the main benefit is that our improved cardiovascular fitness, capacity for weight-bearing, and flexibility mean we can cope with much greater ease with whatever life hands”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“Meditation is a bit like the term “sport” in that it encompasses a fairly wide range of activities”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“of meditation is the practice of mindfulness in relation to a specific object over a sustained period of time.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“Some activities seem especially well suited to mindfulness practice.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“we could perhaps be free to enjoy these privileged circumstances.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“about half the time we’re thinking about something other than what we’re actually doing. Some neuroscientists label this the “narrative” state as opposed to the “direct” state,”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment deliberately and non-judgementally.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“the First Noble Truth: “Dissatisfaction exists.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“Stress and dissatisfaction are feelings we generally try to avoid. But here’s a paradoxical idea: how about we welcome them? Not so much the negative feelings themselves as an acknowledgement that they exist.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“The reason it’s not easy being you may have little to do with frenetic overwork. You may suffer from loneliness, a sense of irrelevance, or despair that whatever you’ve most sought from life seems to have passed you by. You may be the victim of an injustice that has robbed you of cherished relationships or financial security.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“that cognitive overload is degrading our attention span as well as our peace of mind.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“it’s imbued with the most profound happiness-giving qualities.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“your mind is, quite literally, infinite.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“we can become the observers of our thoughts rather than their unwitting slaves”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“We then move onto the possibilities offered by mindfulness in changing the content of your ongoing conversation with yourself. Chatter, chatter, chatter. We’re all up to it. But are there recurring themes in this constant stream of self-talk that don’t serve you well? For example, are you a worrier, constantly anticipating all the things that could possibly go wrong then convincing yourself that the worst outcome is almost certain? Or are you a victim, feeling you can never make any headway because of your circumstances, past events, or the people in your life? Or are you someone who struggles to find any compelling purpose or happiness beyond filling your days with as many pleasurable distractions as possible?”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“But “the nature of people’s activities had only a modest impact on whether their minds wandered.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“An ancient tale tells of a novice who asked an enlightened monk to reveal the secret of happiness. The monk told him, “I eat, and I walk and I sleep.” When the novice replied that he also did these things, the monk replied, “When I eat, I eat. When I walk, I walk. When I sleep, I sleep.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“Regular meditation enhances our ability to be mindful.

Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. We'll all experience loss, grief and heartache at some point. But whether or not we keep dwelling on it and torturing ourselves with it is something in which we have a choice - although it may not feel that way at the time.

It's not our circumstances that make us happy or unhappy, it's whether or not they are an authentic reflection of what matters to us.

Your mind is brighter, lighter and clearer in a clean and tidy environment.

Speed, distraction and instant gratification are the enemies of nearly everything that matters most in our lives.

If you typically wake up feeling resentful about having to get out of bed, go to a job you dislike, or undertake disagreeable tasks, you're immediately setting yourself up for unhappiness.

Every day most of us do sensuously enjoyable things. Ironically we rob ourselves of the full pleasure of our sensuous enjoyments because our minds are elsewhere. Most people already possess the causes for many pleasures, but don't stop to enjoy them.

If our purpose in life is to be happy, before looking for new causes of happiness, it makes sense first to identify the happiness-creating experiences we already have in our lives and to leverage them using mindfulness.

The real voyage of discovery exists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes.

Regular meditation practice is the foundation for a calmer, more insightful and contented experience of reality.

The self-inflicted pain of attachment: the inability or unwillingness to step away from a spiral of negative interpretations, beliefs and emotions.

Exploring your own mind may very well be the most valuable, surprising and liberating undertaking of your life.

When we change our mind, we change our reality.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness is better than chocolate : A practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“,,, let go of the real source of our unhappiness: our own self-obsession. Stress, loneliness, pessimism, financial worries, and unhappy relationships all have one thing in common: they're all about "me".”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“When we understand the true nature of mind, we start to see these thoughts merely as thoughts instead of engaging with them. They arise, abide, and pass. They have no substance and certainly no power unless we git it to them.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions

“Like depression, loneliness arises from unhappiness creating thoughts feeding into the insula, deepening the negative spiral of thoughts and feelings.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate

“First, people were not thinking about what they were doing 47 per cent of the time. Second, people were unhappier when their minds were wandering than they were not. And third, what people were thinking was a better predictor of their happiness than what they were doing.”
― David Michie, Mindfulness Is Better Than Chocolate: A Practical Guide to Enhanced Focus and Lasting Happiness in a World of Distractions