#760 From Black-and-White Thinking towards Intimacy

     We all experience "ups & downs," "good times & bad," etc. In fact, our contact with life's "opposites", and our "approach-avoidance" reaction to them, started in utero!

     “From the very beginning of our lives, even from before we are born, we organize ourselves in response to our environment. We pull away, with our body and our consciousness, from whatever is painful or overwhelming, and we constrict those parts of ourselves that are experiencing pain. Our pulling away from abrasive stimuli is not just a mental process. It is an actual constricting against the sensation of pain.
     … trauma (is) any event that is too intense, too painful – emotionally or physically – or too confusing to be fully received.

     (This) is simply the ordinary human condition. We all grow up to some extent limited in our human capacities, such as our ability to love, to speak freely, or to think clearly, by (trauma-induced) holding patterns … Although we may be aware of feelings of tension in our body, most people are not aware of the limitations in their ability to receive and respond to life, unless these limitations become severe. Most of us accept our limitations as being ‘just who we are.’ ” Judith Blackstone

     We approach pleasurable opportunities to promote well-being & survival. Conversely, we avoid or withdraw from painful experiences as protection from harm. This biological approach-avoid dichotomy underlies all motivational tendencies, forms the basis of emotion, & promotes adaptation.
     We're biologically & culturally programmed to seek pleasure & avoid discomfort. But life includes pleasure, pain, as well as uncomfortable periods of growth that take place beyond our comfort zone - in liminality - a state of in-between-ness, ambiguity confusion & even boredom.
        Lovas J, Gold E, Neish N, Whitehorn D, Holexa D. "Cultivating Engagement through Mindfulness Practice." Poster Presentation, American Dental Education Association annual meeting, March 19, 2012, Orlando, FL. 

     Our struggle to avoid pain & liminality, and cling to happiness is the basic obstacle to joyful, full engagement with life.
     Particularly in our youth, we might assume that "really living" is a wild roller coaster ride. During periods of calm & peace, we may actually become anxiously "bored." With age, however, we tend to prefer peace over emotional extremes.

     Mindfulness practice cultivates wise acceptance of, & the ability to work equanimously within the entire range of what life brings us - embracing all the apparent opposites, even all apparent paradoxes. 
     Our minds cannot comprehend this - a serious, often permanent road-block for many. HOWEVER, for the few who are sufficiently interested, patient meditation practice allows us to experience the fact that literally "everything is workable," moving us well past mere acceptance, towards intimacy with ALL of life.

#749 From Noisy Ego to Silent, Direct Experience via Mindfulness

     "But words get in the way" is one of the wisest phrases I've heard in a song. Though we habitually identify with word-based thinking or "self-talk", this constant monologue running in our heads is NOT an accurate reflection of who we are, AND only useful in certain restricted, specific situations. Fortunately, with the help of mindfulness practice, discursive thinking becomes very quiet, unobtrusive, background noise - allowing "unmediated," direct connection with life.

     Below is Steven Pashko's excellent paper: "Reality: The Origin of the Therapeutic Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Everything" from LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/reality-origin-therapeutic-efficacy-mindfulness-based-pashko-ph-d-/

     “Living categorically” might well be one of the most pervasive and under diagnosed psychological disorders in existence. Like all psychoses, this disorder is assigned to those who have “lost contact with reality”. It’s when people mistake a category for something unique and then act as if their view is true. For example, the categorical term “orange” replaces the luscious, mouth-watering aspects of smelling a citrus scent, tasting a tangy sweetness, the puckering of one’s cheeks, etc. Loss of lived experience—missing out on the fullness of living—is the most common, tragic result. On an intermediate level of harm, a unique individual will get lumped into categories of gender, age, intelligence, wealth, etc. It prevents a balanced evaluation of his or her unique abilities, personality, skills, motivations, etc. At its harmful extreme, it may even produce Josef Stalin’s view of murder in which he stated, “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.”
     To understand the degree to which someone (not you, of course) might suffer from this delusion, please answer “True” or “False” to each of the following questions.
1.    Races of humans exist.
2.    The picture (to the right) is a pipe.
3.    The word “cup” defines a specific object.
4.    You can say what pain feels like.

     Answer key: The more questions that are answered “True” the worse the affliction.
     For those who answered “True” to any of these questions, there is hope. The treatment is called mindfulness. At the beginning, you might not like it, believing it too difficult, too boring, or that it will make you stupid. But, it’s the tried and true cure for this affliction. The treatment regimen is simple. Mindfulness is just staying attentive to your direct experience, the seeing, smelling, tasting, etc. of what comes to you through your senses (sensory-perceptual experience) at all times. Alternatively, you can just stop entertaining any ruminative thoughts—those that reoccur time and again. Most allow it to keep going mistakenly believing it’s a helpful way to handle problems. Only after a bit of mindfulness practice do people see they were wrong.
     Mindfulness reintroduces us to immediate experience, which is nonconceptual—without concepts and thoughts. It’s how we know the world before we think about it. As for practicing mindfulness, most people initially hate the part about not entertaining any ruminative thought. However, repeating the same thought, causes anxiety, distracts from attentiveness, doesn’t add to your understanding, and likely blocks creative thoughts from breaking through into consciousness. Should a continuing business tax problem be solved using the same technique used last time? Might a fresh, creative approach be useful? Can you have a good, informative conversation with someone when your attention is diverted to the running commentary in your head?
     Mindfulness cures the psychosis of “living categorically” because, in Gunaratana’s view, “Words are devised by the symbolic levels of the mind, and they describe those realities with which symbolic thinking deals. Mindfulness is pre-symbolic. It is not shackled to symbols.” He goes on, “The fact that this process lies above and beyond words does not make it unreal—quite the reverse. Mindfulness is the reality that gives rise to words—the words that follow are simply pale shadows of reality.” (Gunaratana, B. (2002). Mindfulness in Plain English. p. 137.)
     The world in which we live first comes to us through our senses. We intelligently process this information, without needing to resort to thinking. We all process perceptual (experiential) information for most of what we do, like stopping our car at a light, pulling covers over ourselves when the sleeping gets too cold, deciding just where a picture looks best on the wall, and realizing an insight that pops fully formed into consciousness. Such information is not altered by transformation into concepts/ thoughts. It’s prior to thought—experiential, non-conceptual. This is the world of mindfulness that Gunaratana writes about.
     In contrast, when experience is transformed into concepts and those concepts are taken as truthful, chronically useful representations of reality, the psychosis of “living categorically” re-arises. In such a state, word categories, though they are transformations of directly informative experience, are mistakenly believed as true. Consider what’s truer. That spiders are harmful or deadly so one should be fearful of them all or that they are benign, 8-legged bugs that sometimes appear in the house. How have you stereotyped certain situations, like heights or flying, or foods? How have others stereotyped you? Don’t phobias arise when thoughts don’t match reality? Isn’t the same mechanism at play for many of the other anxieties, like flying and public speaking? How do thoughts relate to low self-esteem or the need to compensate by achieving wealth? Isn’t your identity more the felt experience that’s always been with you than your job or your race or your gender? Is creativity enhanced or impaired when the mind is clear of thought?
     To begin to reintroduce you to a more truthful reality, I’ll answer a question posed above. Let’s take the one about the cup. A cup is a category, not a specific object. This cup on my desk, for instance, is a specific entity within the general category of cups. It has a specific colorings, shapes, dimensions, etc. It’s not exactly like any other cup. No one can identify this unique cup through words, even by adding many descriptive modifiers. Further, like all specific things, it cannot be named. No one can say a word about the smell of coffee, the color blue or the feeling of painfulness to someone who never had the sense of smell, vision or pain. Forgetting or ignorance of this fact is likely the origin of the psychosis under discussion here.
     As for the questions above, the one about the pipe should have been easy to get correct since the painter, Magritte, wrote in French “This is not a pipe” below the picture. He reminds us that a picture of a pipe is not a pipe. It’s a representation or symbol of a pipe. Further, this picture does not represent the word “pipe” as it’s used in the sense of a category, either. The word, too, only represents a category of objects not a unique one. Any and every unique pipe, of course, cannot be verbally expressed.
     The question about race highlights the depth of the injuriousness of the diagnosis. Uniqueness and creativity become unappreciated and trivialized when the psychosis of “living categorically” becomes full blown. Boundaries to skin color and geographic origins of ethnicity really don’t exist. Those with this psychosis use the word “race” only to artificially categorize people who each are, in fact, completely unique—not a group.
     At their core, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), and mindfulness-based everything (MBE) all treat this psychosis because they return us to reality. It’s the one untransformed into words. The one in which everything and everyone is rightly, and inexpressibly unique. How does MBE reduce stress? Mindfulness provides a re-introduction back to a more truthful reality. Stress and anxiety may be caused by the difference between the categories in which you see the world and how it really and uniquely exists. If so, the mental process of all cognitive psychological psychotherapies, which challenge one’s thoughts about the world, may basically work through a similar mechanism.
     Happiness, success, and creativity may all increase when one lives closer to the truth of what we experience directly. This way of living, in closer contact with reality, may be helpful for minimizing all of the numerous, harmful biases caused by the psychosis of living categorically. Wouldn’t it be nice to be rid of them?

     About Steven Pashko, Ph.D.
     Steven Pashko is a research clinician who studies treatment effectiveness and the value of health and healthcare. With a background in psychology (license), CNS pharmacology (doctorate), and meditation (completed more than 52 intensive, week-long retreats) he conducts research and speaks about well-being.
     Disclaimer: This article neither describes a formally recognized psychological diagnosis nor is it a substitute for a psychological diagnosis or treatment. If you are in need of either, please contact a local licensed psychologist.

     Buddhist perspectives: http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/11054/discursive-thinking

#724 Three Crucial Points About Mindfulness

     1. Mindfulness is not intended to be a blissful experience. Like exercise, it can be uncomfortable. In fact, mindfulness is about learning to recognise, allow and be with all of our experiences, whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, so that we can begin to exercise choices and responsiveness in our lives.

     2. Mindfulness practice is not a panacea. It’s not the only way to reduce stress or increase wellbeing, nor is it right for everyone. People should select an approach that matches their interests and needs, whether it be mindfulness, physical exercise, cognitive-behavioural therapy or some other approach.

     3. Mindfulness practice is intended to be invitational and empirical. Participants are invited to experiment with the practices in an open-minded and curious way and to be guided by the evidence of their own experience, continuing with practices that seem helpful and letting go of those that don’t.

       Ruth Baer & Willem Kuyken. "Is Mindfulness Safe?" reprinted in: http://www.mindful.org/is-mindfulness-safe/

#585 Consciousness, Meditation & "Spirituality"

     "In scientific terms, consciousness remains notoriously difficult to understand, or even to define. In fact, many debates about its character have been waged without the participants' finding even a common topic as common ground. ... spirituality is not just important for living a good life; it is actually essential for understanding the human mind.
     Only consciousness can know itself - and directly, through first-person experience. If follows, therefore, that rigorous introspection - 'spirituality' in the widest sense of the term - is an indispensable part of understanding the nature of the mind."                              

       Sam Harris. "Waking Up. A Guide to Spirituality without Religion." Simon & Schuster, 2014.

#580 "All Manner of Things SHALL be Well" ??

Old echoes may ache,
Doubts inherited can pummel,
Reflexive unskilled tendencies can simmer,
AND YET - "all manner of things ARE well" - NOW

For deep within & all about ...
Profound wisdom,
The vigilance of the most loving grandparent,

Immediately, effortlessly ever-present ...
Spacious clear AWARENESS -
Silent, still, timeless, loving, peaceful, joyful,
Embracing EVERYTHING.

     See also: http://www.johnlovas.com/2014/11/waking-up.html

Valerios Theofanidis, National Geographic   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com

#570 What Remains When Self-talk is Released?

     In Mindfulness practice, as we gradually, gently learn to let go of identifying with incessant self-talk (“thought proliferation”), and become more engaged with the physical experience of the present moment ("just this"), we experience interesting shifts. 

     This (or any other) statement / concept, in itself as a thought, is merely equivalent to self-talk - "blah, blah, blah ...". 
     BUT how are you experiencing this? How does it impact your one, fleeting, precious life?

#425 Arising Urges to Be a Squirrel

     I'm quietly working on something, then suddenly an urge arises to do something else. One moment I'm peacefully engaged in an activity, the next moment I'm slightly anxious - an emotion, then the urge to act by going off mentally and or physically. The actual nature of the "something else" could be anything at all & doesn't really matter - it could be planning a vacation, work on another project, what's for dinner?, need to urinate, what time is it?, desire for coffee ... 
     This is precisely what keeps happening - and we see it so much more clearly - during sitting meditation! We're sitting still, engaged in the act of observing the breath, then suddenly the focus of our attention slips off target, onto another topic. Why does this happen? The longer we remain on the new topic(s), the more momentum (energy) the stories we tell ourselves gather. This weaving of stories is mental activity, which in turn may prompt physical activity eg getting up & doing something, or it may remain in an intermediate stage of planning to do something. In sitting meditation, we train to let go of this "anxious quiver of being", and gently return to being peacefully engaged with what we've decided was appropriate activity for this set period of time ie properly engage with the process of meditation for the predetermined time period.
     Why are we anxious being peacefully engaged in appropriate activity? Why do we trust primitive squirrel-like random thinking/doing activity (analogous to randomly trying different number sequences to open a found combination lock) more than deliberate peaceful action arising from the much more evolved aspects of ourselves? Could it simply be that we're so used to using the old primitive part of the brain that we don't yet fully trust this newfangled prefrontal cortex?

     See "Trust": http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2012/04/119-trust-quality-5.html

Samer AIR   www.dpreview.com

#424 Strive for the "Sure Thing" - OR - Trust Open-Hearted Engagement?

     It makes sense to put more care, time & effort into a project, so it will turn out closer to what we hope for. Of course it's easy to go overboard, only to (re)discover that no matter how hard we try, we can't perfectly control things. "The hurrier I goes, the behinder I gets!"
     Interestingly, mindfulness advises focusing on the process itself, rather than the goal. In fact, (excessively) focusing on the goal is considered a major impediment to reaching it. Excessive goal-orientation is "driven" by greed, fear, anxiety or some combination of these unhealthy emotions, which virtually block one's ability to pay attention to the journey - the actual path to the goal.
     We optimally attend to what we're doing when we're fully engaged - our mind-heart-body is open to the actual process eg taking care of a little child or pet. Our focus of attention is almost exclusively experiential, with minimal narrative focus. There seems to be a direct connection of some sort between the silent depths of ourselves and that of the person, animal or activity. There's a sense of love, kindness or perhaps a primal recognition. It feels very still, peaceful, timeless and right - radically different from greed, fear or anxiety. 
     One may even say that open-hearted engagement is the antidote for greed, fear & anxiety. We know both ends of this spectrum, but perhaps have more experience with the latter. Can we trust the former to guide our lives? Our moment-by-moment way of being holds the answer. Can we observe what guides (or drives) our behavior & the quality of life that naturally arises?

Bob Kaune   www.dpreview.com

#423 What is This?

     There are at least 3 levels of reality: 1) the stories we tell ourselves about reality, from our default narrative focus of attention; 2) reality as we actually experience it directly, from our experiential focus of attention (mindfulness); and occasionally, 3) profound peace, silence, stillness that feels like home.
     Much of mindfulness practice is about noticing, accepting, then letting go of a wide variety of noises (self-talk, mental proliferation etc - mainly #1) that's interposed - like friction - between our awareness and #2 & 3.  
     Much of mindfulness practice is identifying & letting go of noise / friction, a process of simplification, of getting down to basics, the core of what we are, then living this mystery as cleanly & simply as possible. What is this?

Charles Baxter   www.dpreview.com

#415 Can You Predict the Future?

     The logical answer of course is no. And yet, don't we all act as though we could?
     We briefly catch sight of someone, and immediately categorize them in all sorts of ways (education, socio-economic status, morals, IQ, etc etc) - is that not predicting the future based on minimal data? Prejudice, stereotyping, racial profiling ...
     Someone starts saying something, and we immediately know the rest of the story. Our listening shuts down, and our own self-talk takes over, as if we had a more concisely packaged version of what's being said (but are now failing to hear). Is this not also predicting the future based on minimal data? Premature closure, narrative (vs experiential) focus of attention, jumping to conclusions ...
     But perhaps the most limiting, most damagingly handicapping of all our pseudo-clairvoyant misadventures is our total and utter ineptitude at predicting our own potential as human beings.
     Three concepts should be considered: levels of consciousness, iterative learning, and experiential learning.  
     Einstein said “No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.” Looking at it another way, your 6-year old self joyfully beating your mother's cooking pot with a wooden spoon could not possibly understand, and thus could not possibly predict, the sublime pleasure you now (perhaps) derive from listening to classical music.
     There were many steps between your 2-year-old and current musical sensibilities. At each step, you changed as a person (levels of consciousness & changing brain anatomy & physiology), and with these changes, your perceptions kept changing stepwise - iterative learning. 
     Experiential learning is another way of looking at levels of consciousness and iterative learning. One can read forever about a lived (mind-body) experience eg climbing Everest, yet remain quite naive about it. A classic example is the qualitative difference between reading about meditation versus practicing it - there's really no comparison. See: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2013/06/intellectual-glass-ceiling-it-most.html
     Practicing mindfulness meditation, one learns that one's consciousness continuously evolves, and as it does, one is constantly surprised by how one's life improves. One cannot predict how it will improve, nor even adequately describe the improvements, particularly to non-meditators, for the reasons above.
     But it's important to understand that we all can evolve our own consciousness via meditation practice, cannot predict what it's going to be like, and others cannot give us a detailed description of what we'll experience. It's best to keep letting go of old ideas - they distort the absolutely unique present moment. Why not experience each moment's fresh surprises?

Exchanging Atoms Timelessly

#365 Essential Basic Principles EXPERIENCED

     It's quiet remarkable how long and earnestly people (- I -) can practice mindfulness, before "really getting it" - directly experiencing, a fairly basic principle. It's obviously "basic" ONLY on a conceptual, NOT experiential level! To really KNOW something, we must learn it with our whole heart-mind-being.
       Speaking mindfully with someone - as a specific mindfulness practice - not worrying about the length of silent intervals between speech, one sees one's own compulsion to avoid "dead air" by filling it with words - anything but silence! Yet, describing only what one feels physically & emotionally, as it arises, gives one the opportunity to listen more deeply - and certainly listen longer - than one has ever done before.

     This (Insight Dialogue) practice is just one more way of seeing how we struggle mightily to escape our imperfection, trying to hide in distraction, idle chatter, concepts, theories, being right etc, etc, etc. But with a good practice partner, one gradually finds that it's OK to be human like everyone else. Perfection is a theory, while we're very real, and very imperfect, ... AND that too is OK. 

ki11ua   www.dpreview.com

#363 Mind - Emotions - Body: Thoroughly Interconnected & Trainable

     Through mindfulness training, as well as other practices (see below), direct experience tells us that we are infinitely more trainable that we had imagined. This includes not only our bodies, but also our emotions, minds, and even our autonomic nervous system.

      “you cannot be anxious if you breathe slowly and regularly and do not tense your muscles. When you are anxious, the ‘natural’ response to the feeling of apprehension is to tense your muscles and breathe faster – this is a response of the sympathetic nervous system. But if this is the natural response of your body, how can you possibly change this pattern of response? Perhaps this is easier said than done, but in fact this approach is regularly taught in pre-birthing classes for expectant parents. It may not be the ‘natural’ response, but practice can change this. Breathe slowly and regularly, and when you feel tension in your muscles, you should unclench those muscles, and you will start to feel more relaxed. There are three interesting and important implications of this bit of advice. First, our ‘natural’ bodily responses are not fixed & immutable. The things we take for granted about the way our bodies work are not set in stone. Practice can change what seem like reflexive responses.
     Second, the same is true for our mental processes and responses. But in addition, you can change your emotional state by changing an aspect of your physical state.”

     Read the rest of this article by Howard C. Nusbaum: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1209.aspx#

 

RuthC   www.dpreview.com

A psychiatrist once told me that it is possible to reduce the symptoms of anxiety without medication or long therapy. In short, you cannot be anxious if you breathe slowly and regularly and do not tense your muscles. When you are anxious, the "natural" response to the feeling of apprehension is to tense your muscles and breathe faster--this is a response of the sympathetic nervous system. But if this is the natural response of your body, how can you possibly change this pattern of response. Perhaps this is easier said than done, but in fact this approach is regularly taught in pre-birthing classes for expectant parents. It may not be the "natural" response, but practice can change this. Breathe slowly and regularly, and when you feel tension in your muscles, you should unclench those muscles, and you will feel start to feel more relaxed. There are three interesting and important implications of this bit of advice. First, our "natural" bodily responses are not fixed and immutable. The things we take for granted about the way our bodies work are not set in stone. Practice can change what seem like reflexive responses. - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1209.aspx#sthash.bWOBmMxB.dpuf

A psychiatrist once told me that it is possible to reduce the symptoms of anxiety without medication or long therapy. In short, you cannot be anxious if you breathe slowly and regularly and do not tense your muscles. When you are anxious, the "natural" response to the feeling of apprehension is to tense your muscles and breathe faster--this is a response of the sympathetic nervous system. But if this is the natural response of your body, how can you possibly change this pattern of response. Perhaps this is easier said than done, but in fact this approach is regularly taught in pre-birthing classes for expectant parents. It may not be the "natural" response, but practice can change this. Breathe slowly and regularly, and when you feel tension in your muscles, you should unclench those muscles, and you will feel start to feel more relaxed. There are three interesting and important implications of this bit of advice. First, our "natural" bodily responses are not fixed and immutable. The things we take for granted about the way our bodies work are not set in stone. Practice can change what seem like reflexive responses. - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1209.aspx#sthash.bWOBmMxB.dpuf

A psychiatrist once told me that it is possible to reduce the symptoms of anxiety without medication or long therapy. In short, you cannot be anxious if you breathe slowly and regularly and do not tense your muscles. When you are anxious, the "natural" response to the feeling of apprehension is to tense your muscles and breathe faster--this is a response of the sympathetic nervous system. But if this is the natural response of your body, how can you possibly change this pattern of response. Perhaps this is easier said than done, but in fact this approach is regularly taught in pre-birthing classes for expectant parents. It may not be the "natural" response, but practice can change this. Breathe slowly and regularly, and when you feel tension in your muscles, you should unclench those muscles, and you will feel start to feel more relaxed. There are three interesting and important implications of this bit of advice. First, our "natural" bodily responses are not fixed and immutable. The things we take for granted about the way our bodies work are not set in stone. Practice can change what seem like reflexive responses. - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1209.aspx#sthash.bWOBmMxB.dpuf

A psychiatrist once told me that it is possible to reduce the symptoms of anxiety without medication or long therapy. In short, you cannot be anxious if you breathe slowly and regularly and do not tense your muscles. When you are anxious, the "natural" response to the feeling of apprehension is to tense your muscles and breathe faster--this is a response of the sympathetic nervous system. But if this is the natural response of your body, how can you possibly change this pattern of response. Perhaps this is easier said than done, but in fact this approach is regularly taught in pre-birthing classes for expectant parents. It may not be the "natural" response, but practice can change this. Breathe slowly and regularly, and when you feel tension in your muscles, you should unclench those muscles, and you will feel start to feel more relaxed. There are three interesting and important implications of this bit of advice. First, our "natural" bodily responses are not fixed and immutable. The things we take for granted about the way our bodies work are not set in stone. Practice can change what seem like reflexive responses. - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1209.aspx#sthash.bWOBmMxB.dpuf

A psychiatrist once told me that it is possible to reduce the symptoms of anxiety without medication or long therapy. In short, you cannot be anxious if you breathe slowly and regularly and do not tense your muscles. When you are anxious, the "natural" response to the feeling of apprehension is to tense your muscles and breathe faster--this is a response of the sympathetic nervous system. But if this is the natural response of your body, how can you possibly change this pattern of response. Perhaps this is easier said than done, but in fact this approach is regularly taught in pre-birthing classes for expectant parents. It may not be the "natural" response, but practice can change this. Breathe slowly and regularly, and when you feel tension in your muscles, you should unclench those muscles, and you will feel start to feel more relaxed. There are three interesting and important implications of this bit of advice. First, our "natural" bodily responses are not fixed and immutable. The things we take for granted about the way our bodies work are not set in stone. Practice can change what seem like reflexive responses. - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1209.aspx#sthash.bWOBmMxB.dpuf

#351 Resilience - Cultivating Inner Strength by Experiencing Sequential Successes

     "Resilience seems to be a skill that has to be experienced to be learned. ... The belief that one can bounce back from a setback, can overcome a failure or disappointment is most likely based upon numerous instances where that individual has previously done so. Those multiple experiences may give birth to a belief that one can turn things around."

       Barton GB. Career success and life skill development through sports. PhD Thesis, Boston University, School of Education, 2011.

lona Antonoviciute http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/

#333 Paradoxes & Head-scratchers during Mindfulness - Cognitive Dissonance

     "cognitive dissonance is the discomfort experienced when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions: ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions. In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel 'disequilibrium': frustration, hunger, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, etc. 
     ... people have a bias to seek consonance between their expectations and reality. ... people engage in ... 'dissonance reduction' ... achieved in one of 3 ways: lowering the importance of one of the discordant factors, adding consonant elements, or changing one of the dissonant factors. This bias sheds light on otherwise puzzling, irrational, and even destructive behavior."     http://en.wikipedia.org

     As we become increasingly mindful ie more & more aware of what's actually happening all around us and within, we realize that we've been doing an awful lot of 'dissonance reduction' in order to distort reality to fit our naive ideas of safety, comfort, convenience, happiness etc.
     The puzzling statements about mindfulness that we initially discounted - "no, they can't mean that" - we increasingly realize accurately depict reality, but at the time, we literally could not - were not ready - to see it. Learning is iterative & experiential.
     As our practice matures, we become increasingly "more real". Reality is far less harsh than we feared, and the quality of our lives becomes better than we had hoped for.

     See also: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2013/06/intellectual-glass-ceiling-it-most.html

Dale Chihuly   http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/

#330 Mindfulness Practices - Simple but Not Easy

     "taking time out to sit in silence and bring attention to something like the breath, there is an opportunity for a degree of relaxation, or ‘slowing down’. Secondly there is a perhaps more counter-intuitive opportunity to simply notice - as non-judgementally and non-analytically as possible - the experiential flow of thoughts, feelings and sensations. In other words, there is an attempt to cultivate awareness of one’s moment-by-moment experience ... a ‘post-modern’ meta skill.
     Straight away in this two-fold description, one may appreciate why it could be said that mindfulness is ‘simple, but not easy’. The process of sitting and bringing some light attention to the process of breathing (or in other mindfulness practices it may be for example the process of walking, or eating), is not technically complicated and may feel a welcome relaxation. Alternatively, being invited simply to notice one’s experience, can feel tremendously challenging. One can come up closer to previously less noticed streams of negative, painful, or fearful thought, or at the very least one can feel unsettled by noticing for perhaps the first time, how ‘all over the place’ our experience can be, veering in the space of a few moments, from wild fantasy, to profound sleepiness, for example. It is not something we may ever have done before, in such a direct way, and it can feel anything but relaxing at times. Thus, mindfulness could be said to be a more radical practice, of learning to be with both positive and painful experiential states, in the present, without loading this with strong expectations, of an outcome."

       Moss D, Waugh M, Barnes R. A tool for life? Mindfulness as self-help or safe uncertainty. Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being 2008; 3(3): 132-142.

 

Studio 21 Art Gallery, Halifax, NS   http://www.studio21.ca/

#322 Immediacy of Experience vs Avoidance & Procrastination

     There's a very strong tendency to erect barriers between ourselves and living a better, more meaningful life. It's sooooo much easier to admire, even idolize teachers, than to actually follow their instructions.
     The fact is, if the teachers are able to do it, so can we - as long as we persevere, and work away at it patiently, continuously, for life. If they didn't think we could do it, they wouldn't intentionally frustrate us.
     Good teachers neither need nor want praise & adulation. What makes teachers happy is seeing their students flourish by learning to live more wisely.
     Mindfulness instructions are NOT a list of "shoulds" or "commandments." You're not "bad" if you don't follow the instructions, or if you follow them half-heartedly. You won't be punished in the future.
      Mindfulness instructions are practical suggestions on how to live well, most meaningfully, moment-to-moment. Feedback occurs immediately, in real time - as you do, or don't, follow the instructions. It's direct experiential learning - do more of what works to improve your deepest quality of life, and do less of what doesn't work.

Gerry Frederick   www.dpreview.com

#222 Physically processing emotions - Mindfulness meditation's systematic desensitization

     Staying with (acceptance of) the unpleasant physical sensations of emotions such as fear, AND witnessing it objectively (a process Western psychology calls cognitive defusion) is how we "physically process" or work our way through difficult emotions in mindfulness practice.
     Amazingly, we learn this powerful, far-ranging skill during mindfulness meditation by simply sitting still - when our nose tickles, when our feet want to move, and even when we want to get up and end the sitting prematurely. We're fully aware of the physical feeling, without words or stories, we examine it with curiosity, accept it fully, and stay with it, observing how it arises, remains for a while, changes, and disappears from whence it arose, without us ever having to react. (Psychiatrists & psychologists use similar concepts - systematic desensitization / graduated exposure therapy - to treat phobias & other anxiety disorders.)
     We learn in a very direct experiential manner how we can intentionally “outgrow” the clutches of fear, anxiety, chronic pain, etc. All that we fear, worry about, or are otherwise imprisoned by, can thus "lose their solidity." We are no longer fused with these transient energies (phantoms) passing through the mind.
     We remember "the story", but it's no longer "my drama," for the emotional charge progressively dissipates. We free ourselves. Our mind-heart becomes relaxed, free, open. We come home to the stillness and silence of our center.

     See: http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/12/physical-processing-neuroscience.html

Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) - "Fight Between a Tiger and a Buffalo"

#200 Narrative vs Experiential Attention

     We normally observe things by means of "narrative attention". We see something briefly, or hear the first few words of a sentence or maybe the first sentence, or read the first line or two of a paragraph, and then we're off into an elaborate story triggered by the tiny bit of real information. Reality mostly passes us by, because we're addicted to our own spin on things. "Please don't confuse me with facts!" Even physicians commonly stop patients well before they can recount their complete history, jump to conclusions based on inadequate data ("premature closure"), resulting in diagnostic errors. We're so used to being in this perpetual trance, that we're not consciously aware of an alternative to profound mindlessness.
     Mindfulness training helps us to gradually shift over to "experiential attention". When we're sitting in a tub full of nice warm water, and our attention is continuously with the physical reality of the warm water; when we hold a beloved little baby, toddler or puppy; when we do vigorous / dangerous activities like karate or rock climbing, THEN we tend to be completely present mind-heart-body, fully engaged with our immediate environment, no story being spun, time seems to stop, - we're real, fully here. It's a clear, needed break from narrative trance. 
      Clearly our ancestors could only have survived if they had the capacity for long periods of continuous experiential attention. How else could they sit motionless for hours, then pounce on an unsuspecting bird or animal? How else could they have avoided being themselves ambushed? Reality changes moment-by-moment - we can't freeze it with a story. Our stories keep hijacking us out of reality and freezing us in innumerable coma-like trances.
     So we all have a natural capacity for mindfulness, which though currently atrophied, we can cultivate to remarkable levels with mindfulness practices. 

     "Mindfulness lets experience be the teacher."           Jack Kornfield

Photo: Phiguy   www.dpreview.com

#22 Avoidance

     How much of my doing is driven by trying to avoid activities, people, things etc that I presume to be incompatible with happiness?

     Avoidance can present in the form of denial, suppression, sleepiness, boredom, restlessness, compulsive behavior, a sense of being hunted - always having to run away etc.
      “... experiential avoidance does not appear to work well in the long run. Research has shown that ... a heightened level of experiential avoidance is correlated with increased anxiety, depression, substance abuse, worry, long-term disability, high-risk sexual behavior, inability to learn, poorer work performance, lower quality of life, and higher degrees of overall psychopathology.”
        Ciarrochi J, Mayer JD. "Applying emotional intelligence: A practitioner's guide." Psychology Press, NY, 2007.

     Mindfulness is about fully experiencing reality - ie the opposite of avoidance. Why? Because engaging directly with our life works. But don't take anybody's word for it - you need to experience this for yourself.

Artist: R C Gorman   http://rcgormangallery.com/