Latest / the Daily Quote - Positive Daily Inspiration and Motivational Quote of the Day / Jon Kabat-Zinn - "You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf."
Transcript
- 0:00Podcasthero.com. Welcome to the Daily Quote, the
- 0:05podcast designed to kick start your day in a positive way.
- 0:10I'm your host, Andrew Mcgiver, and this episode is brought to
- 0:13you by the Great News Podcast because good news should be
- 0:18heard available where all fine podcasts are found.
- 0:22But just to make it easy, I've left a link in the show notes
- 0:26right here where you're listening right now.
- 0:31Today's quote comes from John Cabot Zinn, Professor Emeritus
- 0:36of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School,
- 0:40founder of the world renowned Mindfulness Based Stress
- 0:43Reduction Program, and the scientist who brought ancient
- 0:47mindfulness practices into mainstream medicine.
- 0:52He once said, you can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf
- 1:00these words completely Reframe the relationship most of us have
- 1:04with stress. Here's what most people are
- 1:07actually trying to do when life gets hard.
- 1:11Stop the waves. Eliminate the stress, fix the
- 1:16situation, remove the problem. Get to the place where
- 1:20everything is calm and manageable and under control.
- 1:24And then, finally, then I'll feel OK.
- 1:30But Cabot Zinn, A molecular biologist who spent decades
- 1:35studying the science of the mind, is pointing at something
- 1:39the research makes undeniable. The waves don't stop.
- 1:44Stress isn't a malfunction in your life, it's a feature of it.
- 1:49In 1979, Cabot Zinn began working with chronically I'll
- 1:53patients who weren't responding to traditional treatments,
- 1:58people whose waves weren't going anywhere.
- 2:01And what he discovered was that what transformed their
- 2:04experience wasn't eliminating their difficulties, but changing
- 2:09their relationship to them. That's what surfing is.
- 2:13The surfer doesn't control the ocean, doesn't calm the water,
- 2:18doesn't wish the waves away. They developed the skill to move
- 2:22with the waves rather than fighting against it.
- 2:27Khaled Zinn describes mindfulness as moment to moment,
- 2:31non judgmental awareness. Not trying to get to some better
- 2:35place, but learning to be present with what's actually
- 2:39here. The wave of a difficult
- 2:42conversation, the wave of a deadline, the wave of
- 2:48uncertainty. You can't make them stop, but
- 2:52you can learn gradually with practice to ride them without
- 2:58being swept under. That's not resignation, that's
- 3:02mastery. So here's the question, what are
- 3:06you currently trying to stop that you might be better served
- 3:11learning to surf because the ocean isn't going to calm
- 3:14itself. But you can get better on the
- 3:18board, one wave at a time, present, aware and riding rather
- 3:25than drowning. That's it for today.
- 3:29I'm Andrew McGivern, signing off for now, but I'll be back
- 3:33tomorrow. Same pod time, same pod station
- 3:39with another daily quote.