Still Life Quotes

“Meditation is important in direct proportion to how it supports your life, aliveness, humanity, capacity for goodness, and courage to face the moment.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“The mind is a well-meaning, overzealous puppy without a chew toy.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“we must accommodate our bodies if we want to befriend our minds.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It’s a way of entering into the quiet that’s already there–buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day.” —DEEPAK CHOPRA”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“Everything we feel, someone else has felt—might be feeling at that very same moment. This point is essential. It’s the essence of how mindfulness proves transformative in our lives and relationships. It connects us on a profound level to our humanness, what it means to go through life’s vicissitudes, and how to be present for other people and to reality itself.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“We spend so much time holding it all together in our lives that there is a palpable sense of relief when we pause to meditate, realizing there is nothing to grasp or clench or cling to for now.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“Alternate nostril breathing, or nadi shodhana, creates an exquisite feeling of clarity and balance and is said to stimulate both sides of the brain: the left side, characterized by order and logic, and the right, governed by big picture thinking, creativity, and intuition.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“That’s all panic is, really . . . Getting ahead of yourself.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“Breathwork is a great way to make regular deposits into your mindfulness bank, building up stores that will provide for you in the future. You can withdraw from it as needed.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“Your goal is not to battle with the mind, but to witness the mind.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“Above all, when we stop aiming for the cessation of thought, the mind becomes a quieter place to be.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“May I rest in awareness. May I meet the moment as a friend. May I feel my mind and body connect.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“weren’t for my mind, my meditation would be excellent. —PEMA CHODRON”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“Some signs of spiritual bypassing include1: Not focusing on the here and now, living in a spiritual realm much of the time. Overemphasizing the positive and avoiding the negative. Being self-righteous about the concept of enlightenment. Being overly detached. Being overly idealistic. Pretending that everything is OK when it’s not. With”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“Become still and take a few deep breaths. If you’d like, bring your hand to your heart center. Feel your breath rise and fall in your chest. Perhaps notice your heartbeat, the temperature of your skin, and any sensations in your body. Pay particular attention to the area of your heart. Imagine going into your heart as if it were a room or natural environment to which you feel profoundly connected. Maybe you imagine the space of your heart as more of a feeling. Now, go into your heart, and pick a dream. Begin to visualize your dream in detail. Where are you? Who is nearby? What are you wearing? Are you dressed formally or casually? What sounds do you hear? Is it a natural environment with few people or a room filled with friends and family? Continue to focus on your breath as you welcome these images in your mind. If you get stuck on an element of your visualization, don’t worry. You don’t need to force anything or overly control what you see. Notice what moves you and where your attention wants to go. Now, pause. I want you to imagine that your dream just happened. It just came true. How does it feel? Note the sensations in your body. Feel the expression on your face. Practicing this feeling is powerful because every dream that was ever accomplished, whether modest and individual or collective and historic, began here, first, as a thought.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“One chief hallmark of meditation is an increased capacity to regulate our emotions.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth. —MUHAMMAD ALI”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“mindfulness gives us the choice of what to feed, befriend, and bring into action.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“Knowing how to be a good friend is largely intuitive. Listen. Love. Make good-natured fun. Support. Forgive. Can you do this for yourself? I’m not asking about all the time. For a few minutes today, what if you tried?”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“The ego is who we think we are. And the soul is really, really who we are,” Ram Dass says.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living

“The key to a mindful life is waking up to the possibility of the moment.”
― Rebecca Pacheco, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living