{"id":1451,"date":"2011-07-11T07:25:19","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T11:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/?p=1451"},"modified":"2011-07-11T09:17:17","modified_gmt":"2011-07-11T13:17:17","slug":"metaphor-monday-the-glass-is-alway-full-even-if-your-a-pessimist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/07\/metaphor-monday-the-glass-is-alway-full-even-if-your-a-pessimist.html","title":{"rendered":"Metaphor Monday: The Glass is Alway Full Even if You’re a Pessimist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Folk wisdom asks if the glass is half-empty or half-full. The optimist sees it as half-full, focusing on the positive; the pessimist sees it as half-empty, focusing on the negative. Yet, if you really think about it, the glass is always full — full of water and<\/em> air.<\/p>\n

The perspective of air and water shifts the context and opens us to a broader reality. Mindfulness helps us to see things as they are — to see beyond our preconceptions and to get beyond notions like optimism and pessimism.<\/p>\n

The glass example highlights how we actively construct our experience by how we pay attention to it. What does it mean to go beyond optimism-pessimism? For one, it invites us to go beyond the storyline, to go beyond liking and disliking to experiencing with interest, curiosity, perhaps even fascination.<\/p>\n

This is a more de-constructed view of the world; fresh and unsullied by prior learning, not beholden to theories, expectations, and desire.<\/p>\n

As you move through the rest of your day, pay attention to all of the times when your mind expresses a preference for things to be other than they are in the moment. I am sitting outside and there are bugs flying about. Some of them are deer flies and they can be quite nasty. My storytelling mind says, “This would be perfect if the deer flies weren’t here.” Yet, they are here. And so the challenge is to be mindful of them. This is not to say I just offer myself to their flesh ripping avocation, but I’ll include them in the landscape of now.<\/p>\n

There are many more such narratives, “if only …” scenarios. And bliss always resides in what is here right now. And I can taste this bliss if I stop pushing and pulling against reality — the reality of my senses and the reality of my subjectivity. Bliss waits for the cessation of storytelling; bliss awaits the deconstruction of my storied self into the experience of now. The sun feels warm, the breeze delightful. I live in an envelope of sound and music. Sweat beads on my forehead, and so on.<\/p>\n

It is the ordinary unfolding of now. Just as the glass is always full of something, our moments are full of experiences that can be met as they are. And when we can meet them in this way, resistance yields to acceptance and opens up a space that’s better than being an optimist. Just being.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Folk wisdom asks if the glass is half-empty or half-full. The optimist sees it as half-full, focusing on the positive; the pessimist sees it as half-empty, focusing on the negative. Yet, if you really think about it, the glass is always full — full of water and air. The perspective of air and water shifts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-laboratory"],"yoast_head":"\nMetaphor Monday: The Glass is Alway Full Even if You're a Pessimist - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/07\/metaphor-monday-the-glass-is-alway-full-even-if-your-a-pessimist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Metaphor Monday: The Glass is Alway Full Even if You're a Pessimist - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Folk wisdom asks if the glass is half-empty or half-full. The optimist sees it as half-full, focusing on the positive; the pessimist sees it as half-empty, focusing on the negative. Yet, if you really think about it, the glass is always full — full of water and air. The perspective of air and water shifts…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/07\/metaphor-monday-the-glass-is-alway-full-even-if-your-a-pessimist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-11T11:25:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-07-11T13:17:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/2011\/07\/AA000541-197x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Arnie Kozak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Metaphor Monday: The Glass is Alway Full Even if You're a Pessimist - Mindfulness Matters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/07\/metaphor-monday-the-glass-is-alway-full-even-if-your-a-pessimist.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Metaphor Monday: The Glass is Alway Full Even if You're a Pessimist - Mindfulness Matters","og_description":"Folk wisdom asks if the glass is half-empty or half-full. 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Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1451"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1458,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1451\/revisions\/1458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}