#568 Freedom of Choice, Moment-by-Moment

          "Between stimulus and response there is a space. 
           In that space is our power to choose our response.
           In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

                                                            Viktor Frankl

Winter Bike, Halifax

#493 How We Prioritize - Why We Fail to "Pick our Battles"

     How do we know when we have to drop everything, & immediately redirect all our resources to a new specific issue? A classic example: we suddenly feel searing pain (anywhere in the body-mind) - all our alarm bells go off at once - a massive call for action & we're instantly in full fight-freeze-flight mode. We're running on emotions, everything else - including ability to make mature judgments - shuts down. This is the default mode for most people in life-or-death emergencies - instinctively prioritized reaction to the threat to our survival.
     Unfortunately, few of us appropriately distinguish acute life-or-death emergencies from minor threats: to our ego, comfort & convenience. Because of this common conflation, stress, anxiety & depression are epidemic & becoming increasingly incapacitating.
     So the problem is that our firefighters routinely break down the doors & windows, whisking us off to the ER, even though most of the time, there's no fire - just kitty stuck in the tree. This biological version of "the boy who cried wolf" is very hard on everyone concerned - internal friction: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/10/423-what-is-this.html and http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=fight

Dianne Silverman   The Boy Who Cried Wolf   www.mnartists.org

#430 How Mindfulness Meditation Practice Improves Executive Function

     "Rimma Teper has always found her meditation sessions relaxing and therapeutic. Now, as a doctoral candidate in psychology at UTSC (University of Toronto, Scarborough College), she’s helping to understand why meditation is also good for boosting self-control.
     Compared to non-meditators, those who meditate show more self-control, Teper has discovered in her research. This is linked to their awareness and acceptance of their emotions. '[Meditators are] attuned to their own emotions,' Teper says.
     'They’re aware of how they’re feeling and they’re also good at regulating their emotions. The results suggest these traits account for the better self-control we see in meditators.'
     Teper was interested in a manifestation of self-control that psychologists call 'executive function' — the ability to pay attention to appropriate stimuli and react appropriately. It’s what keeps us studying when we’d rather watch TV, or forces us to go outside for that morning jog instead of going back to sleep. Earlier studies had shown that meditators exhibited higher levels of executive function than non-meditators, but the reason for this still had to be pinned down.
     Most meditation traditions emphasize two major practices: awareness of the present moment, and acceptance of emotional states. Teper suspected that emotional acceptance was the key to the better self-control.
     To test her premise, Teper gave the meditators and non-meditators in her study a test that required high executive control. She then measured their error-related negativity (ERN), which generates an electrical signal in the brain within 100 milliseconds of an error being committed during a task, well before the conscious mind is aware of the error. 'It’s kind of like an ‘uh-oh’ response, or a cortical alarm bell,' Teper says.
     The meditators did better at the task than the non-meditators and also had stronger ERNs. What’s even more interesting is that the meditators who did best on the test were the ones who tested highest for emotional awareness. Since ERN triggers a negative feeling that motivates people to do better, meditators may be more aware of that feeling and therefore quicker to improve.
     'Meditators are attuned to their emotions. They’re also good at regulating their emotions,' says Teper. '[This] fits well with our results.'

       by Kurt Kleiner - UTSC Commons Fall 2013
http://utsccommons.utsc.utoronto.ca/fall-2012/mosaic/breakthrough-thinking-zen-self-control

       Teper R, Inzlicht M. Meditation, mindfulness and executive control: the importance of emotional acceptance and brain-based performance monitoring. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2013; 8(1): 85-92.

#416 What's Lost? What's Gained?

     People sometimes express concern that they might lose some vital, characteristic aspect of themselves through meditation. This is natural, but unnecessary.
     So what do we loose in the course of mindfulness meditation practice? As we progressively perceive more clearly, we also notice the ways in which we habitually get in our own way - how we tend to unwittingly handicap ourselves eg cynicism, doubting our (actual) abilities, etc. 
     By noticing, accepting, then letting these internal noises or frictions go, we struggle less & less against ourselves, and thus function with greater ease & efficiency. The sense of struggle, "divided self" progressively diminishes, as we approach stillness, inner silence, a sense of "non-doing." Our perceptions become cleaner, fresher. Because we now see it more clearly, ordinary life becomes interesting and satisfying. Our interest in chasing after distractions diminishes. Our focus shifts from "me, myself & I" (egocentric) to other people (allocentric) & the environment (ecocentric). We are maturing as a human being - homo sapiens sapiens - we're slowly becoming wise.

RUcrAZ   www.dpreview.com

#385 Understanding Willpower & Competing Goals

     Health psychologist Kelly McGonigal PhD, author of "The WillPower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It", defines a willpower challenge as "basically a competition between two parts of yourself. Even though we have one brain, we actually have two minds. And we are completely different people, depending on which systems of the brain are more active. So a willpower challenge is anything where those two versions of yourself have competing goals. 
     For example, a part of you may really want to eat a candybar for a snack, and there’s a part of you that has longer-term goals - thinking of health, weight-loss, bikini season, etc and the banana seems like the better snack. Both of these choices you may be drawn to by different parts of your mind – two different versions of yourself. You could be the very same person, but depending on your mindset, energy, stress levels – your brain is going to meet this willpower challenge in a different way, and you’re going to end up making one choice today and another choice tomorrow. 
     There’s a really interesting fundamental gap between what people know they should do and what they want to do. People are very identified with one version of their self – feel deep down that they’re the person who wants the candybar, and this other person who wants the banana – who is that? That’s not really me. 
     So I realized that people don’t just need to KNOW what’s the right or healthy thing to do, or tips for stress-management or productivity, they need to FEEL like this person and they need to BE this person as the default, rather than always walking around feeling like they had to resist this core self who only wants immediate gratification or never wants to do anything difficult.”

     THIS transformative shift - from surface concepts - to understanding in the marrow of one's bones - occurs by way of mindfulness meditation practice. See: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/08/381-each-moment-new-beginning.html

#316 Fear, Reactivity, Mindfulness, Mature Judgment, Wisdom to Navigate a Complex World

     It's easy to feel tight, claustrophobic, as we worry about our own security, welfare, and health in what seems to be an increasingly hostile, random, uncaring world. We're bombarded with gory superficial details of the tragedy of the day. Invariably we're left wondering why?, "searching for answers," "looking for closure".

     Our primitive brain-stem, retained from our reptilian ancestors, automatically triggers quick action in response to fear, greed & lust, to keep us alive individually, and as a species. The fear we feel on hearing of a tragedy, triggers an almost overpowering anger and impulse for swift revenge. This automatic brain-stem reflex is instant, simple & clear BUT - no longer works (did it ever?).

     We live in an incredibly complex, constantly & rapidly changing world. To survive, and hopefully thrive in this challenging climate, our pre-frontal cortex - the seat of judgment & executive function, the main distinguishing feature of humans - can & must override primitive instincts. This requires consistent training. We have constant reminders of the incredibly foolish behaviors that result when the pre-frontal cortex is bypassed: under the influence of alcohol, rage, "in the heat of passion" or other strong emotions. To live wisely, we need to intentionally nurture our own and others' evolution of consciousness. Mindfulness practice is an excellent, evidence-based way of doing just this.

anttitapani   www.dpreview.com

#196 To Flourish amid Complexity, Ambiguity, Liminality & Constant Change

     We have a natural aversion to complexity, ambiguity, liminality - to moving targets in general. It must be a hangover from our reptilian past - we just love quick, simple (even simple-minded), clear-cut decisive action. However, our world is infinitely complex and constantly changing.
     No wonder so many seek refuge and willingly become brainwashed in simplistic dogmatic black-or-white worldviews - "you're either with us, or against us". Ambiguity intolerance is characteristic of an adolescent level of development - high school cliques, bullying etc. Many of us never grow out of this. Adults elect leaders who give instant "witty" (sarcastic) responses to complex questions or criticisms - not exactly a sign of wisdom.
     Many of us go towards the other extreme - willingly remaining perpetually confused. Facing reality can be deferred for an entire lifetime. There are endless distractions to help keep one mindlessly entertained.
     Clear seeing, accepting ALL of reality, as it is, including the difficult, complex and ambiguous aspects, requires sober responsible maturity. Welcome to real adult life!
     In mindfulness we learn to become accurately aware of what's going on around us and within us. Only when we perceive clearly can we respond appropriately - to help instead of hinder, to decrease instead of increase suffering.