Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

  • Home
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
    • About
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Contact

October 28, 2015 By Admin

Can We Return to Grace in America?

Mindfulness Can Activate More Grace in Our Lives

Today we all need to be cultivating more and deeper grace.  Grace needs to be activated. Given so many of our cultural problems (murders and mass murders by gunfire, rampant personal and corporate greed, ego-entitlement, chronic stress, feelings of insecurity, technological advances that do not ADVANCE us, religious hatred, intolerance, bigotry, financial issues, a dying middle class, etc.), an important national agenda may be the grace-mindful happinessenergetic cultivation of personal and national grace. Grace is one of those experiential realities of inner-experience that defies a clear definition.  Perhaps the best definition is the more general one: being gracious implies you think, speak and act (Buddha’s view) with kindness, benevolence, forgiveness, humane consideration, friendliness, and charitable ways. You can see this is NOT our norm.  The United States was (and in some ways still is) the greatest philanthropic nation on earth; however, in other ways this great country thinks, speaks and acts in opposite, highly self-interested directions.  Of course, such behavior may be the limbic (survival) realities of our wired minds and a hundred-thousand years of genetic transmission. As Darwin, Freud and others have noted – humans have the capacity for great evil and great goodness. Your choice belongs to YOU!

Let us examine some ways we can activate more grace in our daily lives. Using mindfulness attention to day-to-day things we may otherwise be on autopilot for is a good start.  Noticing is important! The more transcendent aspects of grace may involve a higher power, various attributions to gods and their original religions, gently “touching” another person’s inner-most and  soul-based feelings, and other caring aspects of human interaction.  Think of the song Amazing Grace!  Listen to it’s words.  In some ways the Taoist views of The Way and the bountiful harmonious wonders of the natural world (forests, mountains, streams, lakes, winds, rain, snow, sunshine, moonlight, etc.) may capture important original meanings of grace for humans.  For others grace may be found in the smile on the face of another person, in mutual laughter, moving toward the light, Augustine’s “common grace,” Kohut’s “experience near empathy,” and/or Goldie Hawn’s open forgiveness in golden light for those who have harmed her. For others it might be found in  Martin Luther King’s ideas of service to others, Bushido’s (Samurai view) of finding someone needing your help, Thich Nhat Hanh’s or The Dalai Lama’s kind compassionate actions for others,  approaching the moment of your own death, or perhaps even bliss.  Other views include P. Chodron’s (Buddha’s) using kindness to repair our “innocent situations” where we have caused pain accidentally for others, and ultimately Shantideva’s view of exchanging self for others both psychologically and in actual physicality. The next time you are upset with another person, imagine walking in that person’s shoes – being them.  As you can see, there are many simple and complicated ways you can be with your inner-most grace AND activate it for the benefit of others.  If you are serious, you may want to VOW now that you will
grace-mindfulhappinessuse great intention to place more grace in your daily activities with others.  You will see how helping others nurtures your own inner self-worth and happiness.  Go for it!

For more details refer to Aronson, B. C. (2006). (Ed.). Grace: Quotes & Passages for Heart, Soul, and Mind. New York: Random House, pp. 1-63.

 

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, VermontChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

CLICK HERE  or any image blow to Order 

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

Filed Under: Featured, MIndfulness Tagged With: DR ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, GRACE

Twitter

Mindful Happiness -Currently in Production

Mindful Happiness Posts

Deepak Chopra Ideas on “The Future of God” – Part 1 Deepak Chopra’s new book, The Future of God… (2014) presents some very challenging perspective on spirituality, atheism, and formal religion.  Here I will simply present some paraphrased details and my own ideas on these topics. Basic Foundations Human beings have special talents for searching […]

Practice Approaches to for Mindful and  Enhanced Emotion Regulation Brought to us by way of  The Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont Mindful Approaches for Enhanced Emotion Regulation; here are some approaches to practice. 1)In some ways you could understand the progression from auto-pilot mind to greater stability and equanimity of […]

 A Practice To  Help Prevent Alzheimer Disease Kirtan Kriya meditation is part of the ancient Kundalini yoga tradition.  Current clinical research dealing with prevention of Alzheimer disease supports its use in medical meditation.  As G. Harrison (The Beatles fame) noted: As you move attention beyond yourself, you may find peace of mind is there.  Sanskrit root […]

Contemplative Practices – Affirmative Self-Inquiry Contemplation and affirmative self-inquiry may be helpful in improving your awareness of your better parts of self – your positive strengths and traits.  Our self-critical mind often causes us to spend far too much time on critical, negative thinking about ourselves and about others.  The practice below may be helpful […]

Beads: Significance in Spiritual and Religious Practices The significance of religious and spiritual practices in the world is enormous.  Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist practitioners make up the overwhelming majority of the world’s population. The  CIA estimates are that Christians (33%), Muslims (23%), Hindus (14%) and Buddhist (7%) make up the majority of religious followers. […]

Use of Breathing Techniques – Do a Polyvagal Test First Polyvagal Test The polyvagal theory (S.Porges) and polyvagal functions are complex, highly important, evolutional processes with powerful influences on human survival, overall physical health, and emotion regulation.  The tenth cranial nerve (from scull base to anus) functions in various ways, the most important of which […]

Mediation:  Conscious or Not? A true, in depth understanding about what human consciousness is and how it works has eluded mind and brain scientists for many years.  A few very interesting ideas have been presented by Stuart Hameroff, professor emeritus and director of the University of Arizona’s Center for Consciousness Studies. Consciousness rests in the […]

Meditation Process in Chan Buddhism Chan Master Changlu’s The Deportmant for Sitting Meditation  (12th century China) is a clear and helpful set of instruction. 1) It begins with the making of a personal vow for great compassion, personal liberation, and samadhi – all for the purpose of delivering sentient beings from their suffering and to their […]

Henry David Thoreau  & Walking Meditation Henry David Thoreau is, perhaps, the most individualistic of the American Transcendentalists. He asked us to consider what we have learned that is useful as we travel our own “stream of life.” He cautions us not to regret when we die that we “had not lived.” He advised us to […]

The Deep Courage to Let Go Pema Chodron, now recognized as a world leader in the Chogyam Trungpa Shambhala tradition, has presented a wonderfully clear method for letting go of personal blockages and impediments to enlightenment,  the bodhisattva way of life, and awakened bodhichitta (clear mind, soft heart). She teaches us how in “The Joy […]

Meditation on Gratitude – Why it is so Important The daily rapid vibrations from our fast-paced and sometimes dangerous world may impact us in ways that make unhealthy norms of being. The struggle to feel good enough, to have enough, to be somebody, to keep up with the raging ads about what you need NOW and […]

Trauma Therapy:  Basics from Some Expert Clinicians For many years trauma therapist have used many approaches in their psychotherapy. Most of these approaches lack strong empirical support for outcomes, and are often the “favorites” of these therapists.  One might wonder what benefits therapists derive from using approaches that are not evidence-based. If an intervention fails […]

A Primary Source of Unhappiness Self-medication to reduce or avoid pain and suffering is a major unhelpful habit in the United States. It is a desperate human effort to reduce pain and suffering in physical and psychological experiences. Therefore, we humans may be hard-wired for it. When we suffer and do not utilize effective wise […]

Approaches to Treating Chronic Pain Chronic pain is one of the most common and costly physical conditions in the United States. The following approaches have proven to be somewhat effective in reducing personal suffering from chronic pain. Although some of these can be practiced on your own, it is wise to work with a pain […]

Many Benefits of Mindfulness and Vipassana Meditation The Dalai Lama (Gyatso, Tenzin), the world leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and Paul Ekman, the world famous Psychologist of human emotions, have teamed up to discuss how to use mindful emotional awareness skills to become more emotionally balanced and compassionate. These two highly skilled practitioners have listed 21 […]

Psychodynamics of Alliance – Therapeutic Relationship Enhancement This post includes basic considerations, processes, and clinical skills necessary for developing a strongly positive clinical alliance and therapeutic relationship in therapy.  Here the alliance is required for any substantial change in psychotherapy, and the therapeutic relationship rides the quality of the initial alliance to expand and inter-penetrate […]

Vipassana Meditation and Introduction Vipassana meditation, as taught by S. N. Goenka, has been practiced in India, Europe, the United States and in many other parts of the world. There are various claims for effectiveness when used as a form of meditative treatment with various populations (often correctional and substance using populations); however, there is […]

Mindful Happiness – Happiness – Guided Imagery of Your Life This experience will include guided imagery and multi-sensory memory of happy experiences in your life.  At time, shadow experience may pop up, in which a happy memory has an unhappy component.  Your mindful concentration will be needed to remain on track with only the happy […]

Psychological Research on the Dangers of Smartphone Abuse There is no doubt that smartphone technology bring us a great deal of advanced technological access to a world of information and communication. There is a downside. Recent research published by The American Psychological Association in March, 2017, and opinions in The Atlantic warn of potential and actual biopsychosocial […]

Mindfulness Training  From The Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton,Vermont The Problem:   Many people become stuck in the suffering of their past, and they continue to re-experience an event in the futile hope to better understand it, or to find an escape from it.  Many of the same people become fixated fearfully […]

Mindful Happiness Tags

ELEANOR R LIEBMAN CENTER MINDFUL HAPPINESS PRACTICES ACTIVITIES MINDFULNESS EMPTINESS BREATHING ADDICTION COMPASSION EXERCISES MINDFUL CONSCIOUSNESS SELF MEDICATION BRAIN THICH NHAT HANH ENLIGHTENMENT JOURNALING SELF ESTEEM VERMONT ANTHONY QUINTILIANI SELF TRAINING CLINICAL SUPERVISION SUFFERING HAPPINESS TRAUMA MEDITATION MBSR DR ANTHONY QUINTILIANI MINDFUL TRAINING THERAPY. SELF COMPASSION ACTIVITY MINDFUL MEDITATION VIPASSANA WISE MIND WALKING MEDITATION MEDITATION PRACTICE PRACTICE SELF CARE BUDDHISM MINDFULNESS TRAINING COVID-19 VIPASSANA MEDITATION PSYCHOTHERAPY

Mindful Categories

Mindful Happiness Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Site Map

Copyright © 2021 · Mindful Happiness