Cultivating Foundational Attitudes

Here are 11 foundational attitudes for cultivating awareness and wellbeing.*

  1. Curiosity
  2. Kindness
  3. Gratitude & Generosity
  4. Acceptance
  5. Nonjudging
  6. Nonstriving
  7. Letting Go / Letting Be
  8. Patience
  9. Humor
  10. Trust
  11. Beginner’s Mind

As an experiment, you might choose one to focus on for the next week. Write it on a post-it and stick it on your keyboard or the back of your phone. Note it at the top of your daily to-do list too. Check in with it throughout your day. Let it be there not as a critic but as a gentle, loving nudge.

As a longer term experiment, you might decide to cycle through all of them over the next eleven weeks.

And this is key: these are attitudes to cultivate within yourself towards yourself as well as towards others. Accepting yourself. Not judging yourself. Trusting yourself.

*This list was developed by Christiane Wolf, J. Greg Serpa, and Jon Kabat-Zinn.