Wherever You Go, There You Are

Three of the ideas you’ll keep

The Clif summary of Wherever You Go, There You Are pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first three.

1. Anchor scattered attention to your breath. The breath is always with you and always in the present, so whenever your mind spins into the past or future, returning to a single in-breath and out-breath instantly drops you back into now.
2. Practice 'stopping' throughout your day. Pause for one conscious breath before you answer a phone, open a door, or react to someone, turning automatic-pilot moments into deliberate ones.
3. Distinguish awareness from thinking. Mindfulness isn't thinking better thoughts or having fewer of them; it's stepping back to watch thoughts pass, like sitting behind a waterfall and observing the torrent without being swept into it.

The other 4 — and the full 10-minute summary — are in the app.

What’s inside: 10 chapters

The whole summary runs about 10 minutes, read or listened to.

1. Wherever You Go, There You Are
2. Simple, But Not Easy
3. The Breath as Your Anchor
4. The Practice of Stopping
5. Watching Thoughts Like a Waterfall
6. The Seven Attitudes That Make It Work
7. Learning to Surf: Working With Difficulty
8. Meditations That Steady You: Mountain and Lake
9. Heartfulness: Lovingkindness and Non-Harming
10. Bringing It Home: Everyday Life as Practice