Quotes from Mindfulness

Quotes I have found so far from the book "Mindfulness" by Ellen J. Langer...

1. Contexts control our behavior, and our mindsets determine how we interpret each context. p. 35
2. Without psychotherapy or a crisis as motivation, the past is rarely recategorized. We might from time to time call upon different episodes from the past to justify a present situation or grievance, but it rarely occurs to us to change the way the events or impressions were initially stored. P. 64
3. If exposed to patterns of stimulation that are perceived as repeated and unvarying, the sensory system often shuts down, since it is not "receiving" anything new. P. 67
4. Once we become mindfully aware of views other than our own, we start to realize that there are as many different views as there are different observers. P 68
5. Instead of living a dull, stale existence in a cell for forty-odd years, the Birdman of Alcatraz found that boredom can be just another construct of the mind, no more certain than freedom. There is always something new to notice. And he turned what might have been an absolute hell into, at the least, a fascinating, mindful purgatory. P. 74
6. If I have orange juice for breakfast every day, even though there are many alternatives available, chances are I am not making a meaningful choice. Meaningful choice involves some awareness of the other alternatives that have not been selected. Through this awareness we learn something about ourselves, our tastes and preferences.p. 85 (Ratprincess: What about prune juice? 8-O lol)
7. When we are behaving mindlessly, that is to say, relying on categories drawn in the past, endpoints to development seem fixed. We are then like projectiles moving along a predetermined course. When we are mindful, we see all sorts of choices and generate new endpoints. P. 97
8. "It is by logic that we prove. It is by intuition that we discover," said the mathematician Henri Poincare. p. 116
9. The dancer Isador Duncan, whose art is by definition motion and change, said, "If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it." P. 117
10. With one pre-set image labeled GRAND CANYON in their minds, blinding them to what lies below, they search for the one and only "right" spot to stand. In advising his audience that there is no such spot and that they could search instead for whatever was "meaningful" to them.... P. 117
11. Bach also spoke of the effortless flow of musical ideas. Asked how he found his melodies, he said, "The problem is not finding them, it's--- when getting up in the morning and getting out of bed--- not stepping on them." P. 118
12. Creating new categories, exploring multiple perspectives, and focusing on process all increase the possibility that a novel approach to a problem will be discovered. P. 139
13. "Take a word of advice, even from a three foot nothing. Try not to associate bodily defects with mental, my good friend, except for a solid reason." Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, P. 153 (Ratprincess: oops... what if I am both bodily defective and mental... what does it leave me with... 8-O lol)
14. Most of our labels for people tend to be global: genius, midget, homosexual, giant. Such labels tend to influence every other judgment of, or reaction to, the person who bears them. P. 155
15. Because most of us grow up and spend our time with people like ourselves, we tend to assume uniformities and commonalities. When confronted with someone who is clearly different in one specific way, we drop that assumption and instead look for more differences. P. 156
16. Sensory as well as physical handicaps create a series of hurdles that require mindful solutions. The deaf, blind, or wheelchair-bound person must approach simple activities, that others pursue mindlessly, in a more problem-solving frame of mind. P. 161
17. Ironically, the greater mindfulness generated by a handicap, or other difference, can create yet one more way in which the person differs from the majority. Greater mindfulness may lead to original perceptions that others may view as bizarre..... In combating prejudice, then, the issue is not simply how we might teach the majority to be less judgmental, but also how we might all learn to value a "disabled" or "deviant" person's more creative perceptions. P. 161-162 (Ratprincess: Thank you Langer... since I am both deviant and disabled, you have classified me as one of da group with creative perceptions. And... no wonder I am even to bizarre for myself... 8-O lol)
18. To be "deviant" means that one does not belong to this so-called "normal" group. In itself, the notion of deviance has no meaning. P. 167 (Ratprincess: so one of my prof said in the class of Phenomenology--- 偏見, 偏見, 有偏才有見... the English Translation is something like... bias bias... how could you see without bias... just like how do you see normal without the contrast of abnormal-- and the matter of the fact is that much of what we know about normal is through them abnormal...)
19. "Is there a split between mind and body, and if so, which is it better to have?" Woody Allen, Getting Even P. 171 (Ratprincess: now I know... I prefer both... 8-O lol)
20. From earliest childhood we learn to see mind and body as separate and unquestioningly to regard the body as more important. We learn that "sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you."" If something is wrong with our bodies we go to one kind of doctor, while with a "mental problem" we go to another. Long before we have any reason to question it, the split is ingrained into us in endless ways. It is one of our strongest mindsets, a dangerous premature cognitive commitment. P. 171
    
21. If the lion is fear-provoking in one context and not in another, then before fear can be experienced, one has to supply the fearful context. P. 175
    
22. Contexts are learned. Thus most of what provokes emotion is learned. P. 175
23. Emotions rest upon premature cognitive commitments. We experience them without an awareness that they could be otherwise, without an awareness that this is the way we, albeit passively, constructed the experience. P. 175 (Ratprincess: schema etc and automaticity)
24. Without looking closely and noticing that the same stimulus in different contexts is a different stimulus, we become victims of the associations we ourselves constructed. P. 176
25. Our thoughts create the context which determines our feelings. P. 176
26. Robert Ulrich reported that gall-bladder-surgery patients who had been assigned to hospital rooms with windows facing brilliantly colored fall trees had shorter postoperative stays and took fewer pain reliever than those assigned to rooms that faced a brick wall. P. 179
27. "I can resist everything except temptations." Says a character in Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan.
28. When patients are given a placebo and then get well, the illness is considered to be "Only psychological." (Here we see the old mind/body dualism, alive and well.) It is interesting that no one tests the effectiveness of active drug by telling patients that "this is only a placebo." (Is this implicit recognition of the power of the mind to change the effect of the drug?) P. 189
29. Placebo effects are real and powerful. Who is doing the healing when one takes a placebo? Why can't we just say to our minds, "Repair this ailing body"? Why must we fool our minds in order to enlist our own powers of self-healing? P. 190
30. The study about warts... P. 192
31. One reason mindfulness may seem effortful is because of the pain of negative thouhts. When thoughts are uncomfortable, people often struggle to erase them. The pain, however, does not come from mindful awareness of these thoughts, but from a single-minded understanding of the painful event. P. 202
32. The story about the hermits and the professor.... "In the lab of the hermits, no one noticed that the monkeys could talk." P. 204
    

A thought....

Mindlessness and my whole experiences concerning Microsoft..... http://ratologyreloaded.blogspot.com/2008/10/mental-models.html

Another thought de Ratprincess at this point.... it seems like mindset in my languae is mental model or script etc while mindfulness is about the multiple interpretations of the same artifact following da constructivist kinda principles...