Moments in Between: The Art of the Quiet Mind (Daily Meditations; Inspiration Book for Women)

By David Kundtz

A Daily Dose of Mindfulness and Meditations to Remind You to Breathe

A companion that steps in when life moves too fast. Moments in Between reminds you to stop and practice reflection on both yourself and the world around you.

Moments In Between is a book of meditations, reflections, and wise guidance that reminds you that the "spaces in between" the big events of our lives aren't meant to be forgotten, or worse, fill us with anxiety. They’re to be taken in a stride, appreciated, and reflected on. Filled with the purpose of helping you achieve your highest state of mind, this meditative guide includes:

• Inspirational quotes to shift your perspective
• Daily reflections that help you appreciate the little things
• Motivational guidance on living your best life

Learn to Take Five or Ten. Take the moments in between tasks in a busy morning, at the end of the day, as evening falls. Learn to become fully awake and remember who you are. Allow the important things in life to come back into focus and foster the potential you possess.

If you enjoyed meditative books like The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, The Untethered Soul, or A New Earth, then you’ll love Moments in Between.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Conari Press
• Release date: Feb 1, 2006
• ISBN: 9781609253653

David Kundtz

David Kundtz, author, speaker, and licensed psychotherapist, is also director of Inside Track Seminars, which offers courses on spiritually based stress management and emotional health for the helping profession. He has graduate degrees in both psychology and theology and a doctorate in pastoral psychology. David is also the author of Quiet Mind, Stopping, and Moments in Between, among others.

Book preview

The spaces in between the big events of our lives aren't meant to be forgotten or stuffed with useless tasks. They are meant to bring the important things in life back into focus.

The quiet moments—rests—in your day make your whole day sound well.

Take the moments in between tasks on a busy day, at the end of the day, as evening falls. Do nothing, but do it with purpose and meaning. Do nothing to become fully awake and remember who you are. Take those moments and make them your own.

These meditations, reflections, and wise stories remind us to pause while also providing a restful retreat for weary eyes, a sumptuous feast for hungry spirits, and a celebration of images and words to help us travel to the places where our hearts can be restored.

From feeling the texture of your clothing to writing a note to a friend by hand, David Kundtz's inspired stories and well-chosen quotes provide moments to reflect on what is what.

David Kundtz, S.Th.D., author and speaker, is a psychotherapist in private practice and director of Inside Track Seminars, which offers workshops in the areas of stress management and emotional health. He is the author of Nothing's Wrong: A Man's Guide to Managing His Feelings and the international bestseller Stopping: How to Be Still When You Have to Keep Going. He lives in Kensington, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Conari Press

An Imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

www.conari.com

CONARI PRESS

Moments In Between

The Art of the Quiet Mind

David Kundtz

First published in 2006 by Conari Press,

an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

500 Third Street, Suite 230

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.redwheelweiser.com

Design copyright © 2006 Conari Press Text copyright © 2000 by David Kundtz All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages. Portions of this book were originally published in 2000 by Conari Press as Everyday Serenity under ISBN: 1-57324-162-8.

1SBN-10:1-57324-276-4

ISBN-13:978-1-57324-276-9

Photography credits: Animal Vegetable Mineral Bill Bachman © Digital Vision: 8, 24, 35, 44, 56, 77, 85, 88, 100, 107, 114, 123. Study of Form and Color Anthony Ise © Photodisc: 1, 6, 20, 28, 30, 42, 49, 53, 60, 64, 68, 72, 80, 82, 92, 96, 104, 108, 118. Flowers © Corbis: 12, 17, 39, 111, 128.

Book design by Kathleen Wilson Fivel Typeset in Linotype Avenir and Monotype Bembo

Printed in China

MD

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I dedicate this book of reflections

to all the clients, past and present,

of my counseling practice

in gratitude for your trust.

Your stories are for me,

without exception, pure grace.

It is because artists do not practice, patrons do not patronize, crowds do not assemble to reverently worship the great work of Doing Nothing, that the world has lost its philosophy….

—G. K. Chesterton

A New Way of Dealing with Life

Still Moments in Busy Days

Making Room for Life

Remembering to Take the Time

Finding Your Balance

The Moments In Between

Creating Opportunities for Serenity

Defining Your Values

Paying Attention

Knowing Thyself

Awakening to Wonder

A New Way of Dealing with Life

Welcome

Welcome to a new way to cope with the demands of a too-busy life.

Welcome to a way that requires no difficult skills, adds no new burdens, and accommodates all spiritual systems and lifestyles.

Welcome to all who want to do nothing—more often, more creatively, with joy, and without guilt.

Welcome to one-minute retreats that can be yours at any time of the day or night.

Welcome to a quiet mind—tranquility, calmness, and clarity—in the midst of a too-busy world.

Welcome to moments of both rest and insight.

Welcome to a quiet mind and the moments in between.

David Kundtz

Kensington, California

One

Still Moments in Busy Days

Sounding Well

Rests, as I understand them, are those moments in a piece of music when there is a passage of time but no sound. There is nothing. So Schoenberg, the composer, says that nothing always sounds well.

Hmm. Sounds like a trick, or a riddle. What's wrong with this statement? Buddhists might call Schoenberg's words a koan, a paradoxical riddle with no answer, used for discussion and teaching.

What can we make of it?

What gives life to the music is the feeling that jumps in during those pauses, during those sometimes incredibly quick split seconds when one note is just finishing its last echoing vibrations, but before the next one takes up the progression. The feeling slips, quick as a wink, into the gap and brings soul and life to the music. It is first felt, then expressed, by the composer. Then it is reborn with a familiarity, but also with the somehow new and unique contribution of each performer.

The feeling lives in the rests. And not just with the rests in music, but with the rests in bus driving and kindergarten teaching and homemaking and managing and selling advertising and cooking supper and picking up the kids and phoning customers and writing reports and on and on. The feeling lives in what you put into the rests. And the rests always sound well!

The quiet moments—rests—in your day make your whole day sound well.

Rests always sound well.

—Arnold Schoenberg

As you go about your day today, notice the rests in the rhythm of the day.

Rat Race

The metaphor of the rat race as a way to talk about the nature of contemporary life is instructive. I wonder about its origin. And just what is a rat race? I picture a maze in some scientific laboratory with a dozen rodents scrambling in all directions, trying with great frustration to find their way to freedom. Is that a rat race? Did anyone tell the rats they were in a race? Is there really a winner in a rat race?

And that we should choose this metaphor as a way to talk about the way we live our lives is…what? Alarming? Well, we've got to get going and join the rat race. We do?

The metaphors we use not only reflect the way we live, but create the way we live. If we call life a rat race, it will tend to become one.

So let's change metaphors. Here are a few suggestions:

Life is a