A running theme in the MBSR curriculum relates to how our perception shapes our experience.

With which lens we CHOOSE to look at a situation will determine how we experience it. What makes this valuable is that we can train our minds to respond in more supportive ways when confronted with stressful situations, or difficult thoughts and feelings.

The glass is either half empty or half full. Whether one can embrace the moment with curiosity and care, or succumb to unhelpful thought patterns and attitudes (fear or resentment, for example) will determine what one sees.

Training our minds in this way, through mindfulness and meditation practice, offers us this remarkable freedom of choice.

This corner window in my living room, reminds me of how John O’Donohue wonderfully describes the mind as a ‘tower of windows’ - each window representing a different perspective.

Through which window are YOU looking today?

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“There is a beautiful complexity of growth within the human soul. In order to glimpse this, it is helpful to visualise the mind as a tower of windows..
Sadly, many people remain trapped at the one window, looking out every day at the same scene in the same way. Real growth is experienced when you draw back from that one window, turn, and walk around the inner tower of the soul and see all the different windows that await your gaze..
Through these different windows, you can see new vistas of possibility, presence, and creativity. Complacency, habit, and blindness often prevent you from feeling your life.
So much depends on the frame of vision - the window through which you look.”

- John O’Donohue