Why Self-Esteem is a Fairweather Friend

One of my favorite quotes from Einstein: He says 'The consciousness that created the problem is not the consciousness that can solve it.' What mindfulness does is it begins to shift our consciousness. And so we begin to see our challenges and our difficulties from a different perspective. And we begin to see ourselves and life from a different perspective. And that changes everything.

All of us have the capacity to change. All of us have the capacity to hold ourselves with greater compassion and greater kindness. And, sometimes, it requires other people—other people re-teaching us our loveliness, re-teaching us our own worth, so that we can find it again within ourselves.

Mindfulness is about paying attention with kindness, with curiosity, with openness ... The word 'mindfulness' means 'to see clearly' ... We're trying to see clearly what's happening in our lives so that we can respond effectively, wisely, compassionately.

It takes about 20 to 30 seconds to encode a positive experience in our long-term memory.

Our mind wanders about 47% of the time ... About half of our life we're kind of missing because we don't know how to pay attention.

The word for 'mind' and 'heart' is the same in Asian languages—which mindfulness comes from ancient Asian traditions—so mindfulness could be translated as 'heartfulness.'

We have to love ourselves first. Otherwise, how can we possibly love anyone else?