by Andrea Goeglein
What do puppy training and meditation have in common? It appears more than I would have ever thought. I, and everyone I have ever taught about the usefulness of creating a daily reflection/meditation/mindfulness practice inevitably complains about how difficult it is to sit for 15-20 minutes because their minds’ wander all over the place.
I did not think of this analogy to address the complaint, but I do think it is about as good as any I have ever learned. The following was authored by Patty Paris, founder of VISION: A Center for Spiritual Living in San Diego:
“This practice [the daily practice of meditation and mindfulness] is like paper-training a puppy! We don’t have a bad puppy, we have an untrained puppy. When he wanders off, we gently and lovingly return him to the paper. So, when our mind (the puppy) wanders off from the good, return the puppy to the paper.”
Dr. Success Challenge: Set aside 15-20 minutes a day to ‘train your puppy,’ I mean your mind, to be calm so that you can discern the difference between being driven and being driven by your purpose.
Thank you Stuffpoint.com for the use of the photo
